Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
We’d see real patients, see how medical practice integrates with dentistry, social work and other disciplines. It was such a cool way to get to know my community.
What began 20 years ago as one-month rotations in Phoenix for Creighton medical students has blossomed into a health sciences campus, a centralized medical quarter and a robust four-year medical program, which celebrated its first graduates in May 2025. In recognition of this milestone, we profile the experiences of four of these graduates.
By Glenn Antonucci
Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Erik Steinberger, BS’13, MD’25, landed at Creighton’s Omaha campus for his undergraduate studies because of its moderate size and relative proximity to home.
He found an environment that was consistently supportive of students, with values and an open-mindedness that appealed to him.
After a sidestep into social work and business studies, he decided it was time to pursue medical school. With Creighton’s new campus in Phoenix — where he’d lived previously and enjoyed what the area had to offer — the Southwest city felt like the right next move, particularly given the opportunity of being part of the first four-year class.
There’s something special about the faculty who work at Creighton — supportive, genuine people who are nonjudgmental. They give you the tools you need.”
—Erik Steinberger, BS’13, MD’25
That support proved crucial amid the significant academic challenges of medical school, including the three-part United States Medical Licensing Examination, more commonly known as step exams.
“Standardized testing has always been a challenge for me. It triggers anxiety, trying to stay focused and test well,” he says. “Especially those step exams. There’s so much weighing on them. They can define the rest of your life.”
Between those nerve-rattling tests, it was serving the community that stood out for Steinberger. He already had a long history of service, participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2011. (To this day, he maintains contact and mentorship with the teenager — now in his 20s — he was first paired with.)
At the free Virginia G. Piper Medical Clinic at St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix, he regularly treated patients in the underserved community.
“It’s where we learned our early clinical practice,” he says. “We’d see real patients, see how medical practice integrates with dentistry, social work and other disciplines. It was such a cool way to get to know my community.”
Today, Steinberger is focusing on psychiatry through a four-year residency program through Creighton’s partnership with Valleywise Health. He’s “getting a taste of everything,” figuring out what exactly he wants to do. He’s leaning toward child and adolescent psychiatry.
One thing he knows for sure: He’s sticking around Phoenix. In addition to professional opportunities there, his partner is a Veterans Affairs therapist treating vets with PTSD in the Phoenix area.
