Watch as Dr. Seth Gregory accepts the award at our 2026 Spring Benefit Breakfast in May.
Dr. Seth Gregory, a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing, Wins Gilchrist Award for Outstanding Early Literacy Efforts
RED WING, MN (5/13/26)- Reach Out and Read Minnesota is thrilled to announce Dr. Seth Gregory, a pediatrician practicing at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing, as the winner of the 2026 Gerald Gilchrist Medical Champion Award.
The Reach Out and Read program is an early learning intervention in which pediatric healthcare providers give books and early developmental guidance to young children and their families during their regularly scheduled well-child visits from infancy through age five. The program is implemented at 300 clinics across Minnesota, with more than 2,500 primary healthcare providers, including Dr. Gregory, using the program in their daily practice.
The Gerald Gilchrist Medical Champion Award is given annually to a Reach Out and Read Minnesota healthcare provider who has been exceptional in promoting literacy, learning, and early relational health to their young patients and their caretakers. Dr. Gregory was first introduced to the program thirteen years ago during his pediatric residency with Mayo Clinic. He says the program helped him to connect more deeply with his patients from the outset.
“Having a book in my hands to read to the child was really natural,” he shared. “[Sharing a book] lowers the tension, lowers the anxiety from the parent, anxiety from the child, anxiety from the doctor… having a book to sit down with and being able to read to the child immediately helps start that visit off on the right foot. It really helps build trust, and that just compounds in the future visits,” Dr. Gregory shared upon receiving the award during Reach Out and Read Minnesota’s May 5th Spring Benefit in St. Paul.
When he took his current job with Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing, which didn’t have the program at the time, he noticed the difference, sharing “it was harder to earn that trust, harder to get that two year old to talk.” He said that over the years it became increasingly clear that there was a need to support early childhood literacy and kindergarten readiness in his community. “Reach Out and Read came to my mind as the perfect program for that,” he added.
Dr. Gregory then worked closely with Danette Kubit, the Reach Out and Read Minnesota Program Specialist for southern Minnesota, to get the program started at the Red Wing clinic. When the clinic began using the program, Dr. Gregory notes that his colleagues immediately saw the benefits, sharing that his fellow practitioners saw how sharing books helped improve trust and how the books can serve as an effective tool to assess young children’s development during the visit.
After Reach Out and Read Minnesota supplied the first year of books, Dr. Gregory and his colleagues worked to find funding to sustain the program into the future, eventually landing a multi-year grant from Jones Family Foundation in Red Wing.
Thanks in large part to Dr. Gregory’s leadership, the program is now thriving at Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing, which distributed nearly 1,800 books in the last calendar year. Dr. Gregory’s advocacy does not stop in the exam room, however. He has also joined Reach Out and Read Minnesota the last two years for the Minnesota Children’s Book Festival in Red Wing.
Program Specialist Danetter Kubit, who has accompanied Dr. Gregory during the festival, shared that it “immediately becomes clear” how meaningfully Dr. Gregory has connected with his young patients, many of whom excitedly shared their brand new books with him upon seeing him outside of the exam room. “Dr. Gregory’s commitment to patient-centered care fosters an environment in which children feel valued and supported, and they respond with attentiveness and confidence in his guidance,” Kubit added.
In honor of Dr. Gregory's award, Mayo Clinic Health System Red Wing will be receiving 250 books to be used in the Reach Out and Read program.
