Dr. Stuart A. Hamilton

Dr. Stuart A. Hamilton has dedicated his life to helping medically underserved people live healthier lives.

He is the CEO and founder of Eau Claire Cooperative Health Centers (ECCHC), clinics where all medical services are offered on a sliding scale and no one is denied care due to an inability to pay.

A graduate of Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut, Hamilton earned his medical degree as a pediatrician at Columbia University in New York. He joined the Commissioned Corps of the U. S. Public Health Service and was assigned to Chester, South Carolina. After seeing first-hand the need for compassionate healthcare, he founded the ECCHC in 1993.

Today, the ECCHC serves more than 50,000 patients annually at 20 sites in Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry and Richland counties. It is ranked in the top 50 of the nation’s 1,200 community health center systems and is the largest in the state. In 2012, the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association named the cooperative its Community Health Center of the Year.

He served as the medical director for the South Carolina Department of Youth Services before founding Eau Claire Pediatrics in a medically underserved neighborhood. Since 1996, Hamilton has also served as the associate medical director of Select Health of South Carolina, Inc.

Hamilton has worked as an international consultant to assist in the development of the KwaZulu-Natal community primary care clinic in the town of Esikhawini, South Africa. He has also worked as a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and as attending physician at several hospitals.

Hamilton is the founder of the City Fencing Club for inner-city youth and serves on the Columbia Museum of Art board. In 2007, the City of Columbia named him Humanitarian of the Year, and also in 2007, Gov. Mark Sanford awarded Hamilton the Order of the Palmetto.