St. Paul, April 29, 2025 – The Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) has named Marijo Botten, DO, as the 2025 Family Medicine Resident of the Year. This award is presented annually to a family medicine resident for outstanding contributions to the specialty through community involvement, leadership and educational activities.
Botten is currently completing her residency at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, Minnesota, where she is recognized for her deep commitment to health equity, patient advocacy and community innovation. With special interests in women’s health, sports medicine, osteopathic manual treatment (OMT) and care for underserved populations, she has led several impactful initiatives, including the development of women’s health curricula and the establishment of Little Free Libraries to increase access to mental health resources. She has also held key leadership roles, including Osteopathic Lead and Scholarly Activity/Quality Improvement Lead, and is a highly engaged MAFP member and advocate.
Numerous colleagues nominated Botten, describing her as compassionate, determined, fearless and driven by a deep commitment to doing what’s right for her patients and community.
Her program director, Erin Westfall, DO, praised Botten as a model of both “big A” and “little a” advocacy:
“Dr. Botten role models big ‘A’ and little ‘a’ advocacy in our residency program. She is a fierce advocate for the patients she sees in clinic and can sort through both the disease and social complexity of the patients she sees, working to connect patients with their basic needs (food, housing, transportation, etc.) to improve success with their chronic disease management. In addition, she has innovated and implemented several sustainable projects in our clinic.
First, she became frustrated with the lack of behavioral health access for her patients in our rural community. Even though she would recommend books or workbooks for mental health to fill the gap between her visit with them and their future behavioral health visits, she was frustrated that the books would be too expensive for her patients. Knowing that Little Free Libraries are a way to get books out broadly to community members, she wrote a grant to support implementation of a Free Library at our residency clinic. She engaged community and behavioral health professionals to get their input on books that are helpful and then stocked the library with the books. This idea was so popular that, when another grant opportunity came about for employee wellness, Dr. Botten applied (and was awarded) a grant to extend the Wellness Libraries to all staff sites across SWMN.
Dr. Botten has also been instrumental in the implementation of mifepristone use at our clinic. She found a grant opportunity that supported exploring implementation and then assisted in the development of templates, support materials and education that led to full implementation of mifepristone, forging the way for other departments and sites to implement, as well! These two examples are in addition to her attendance at all Minnesota Physicians’ Day at the Capitol events, and she even went to the National Day on the Hill last year. She is adept at writing resolutions and advocating to legislators. She is truly inspiring. I feel that she’s not only a role model for her resident colleagues, but for her faculty and practicing physicians, too! She is truly driven by ‘doing the right thing’ and is willing to think creatively to make it happen.”
The MAFP congratulates Marijo Botten, DO, on this well-deserved recognition and looks forward to her continued contributions to family medicine and community health.
About the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians
The Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) is the largest medical specialty organization in Minnesota, representing more than 3,100 family physicians, family medicine residents and medical students. The MAFP promotes the specialty of family medicine in Minnesota and supports family physicians as they provide high quality, comprehensive and continuous medical care for patients of all ages.
About the MAFP Academy Awards
The MAFP recognizes its members for their hard work and dedication to family medicine via its own Academy Awards. Minnesota family physicians, resident physicians, medical students and researchers are nominated—by educators, learners and colleagues—for a variety of awards. For the Family Medicine Resident of the Year Award, the MAFP Board of Directors selects recipients after reviewing nomination letters and credentials. More background on the awards can be found at mafp.org/awards.
Media contact: Kendra Myers, 952-224-3876, kendra@mafp.org