Asheville Family Medicine Residency

About Our Program

We are a full-spectrum Family Medicine training program based in scenic Asheville, NC. Our community-focused, not-for-profit residency program at Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains and primarily serves urban and rural populations of the Western NC region. Our primary practice site has consistently maintained the highest-level status as a Patient-Centered Medical Home, helping to provide the best possible care for our patients and the best education for our residents. In June of 2022, MAHEC became a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) look-alike practice; this expanded our ability to offer high-quality care to our patients and further meet the needs of our communities. We embrace the care of all populations and remain committed to the care of our patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

Our goal at the MAHEC Asheville Family Medicine Residency Program is to develop residents into highly skilled and compassionate physicians through collaborative, team-based care; quality education; innovative practice; and evidence-informed decision making. Our graduates’ skills extend beyond the care of the individual patient and engage in the whole fabric of the healthcare system. We train our residents in interprofessional teams, healthcare advocacy, scholarship, and practice management in our ever-evolving healthcare system. We train family physicians who can practice full-spectrum and community-informed Family Medicine anywhere—in rural, urban, regional, or even global settings.

For more than 50 years, our curriculum has offered outstanding training in our Family Health Centers and our regional hospital system, Mission Health. Residents have always been key contributors to our program’s environment of innovation. This comprehensive training is highlighted by strong commitments to continuity in the outpatient setting, with patient panels that mirror our community and the training goals of our residency. We lean into curricular areas such as global and community-based care, pediatrics and newborn care, maternity care, behavioral medicine, addiction medicine, sports medicine, and rural medicine as some of the major intersections of our community needs and our residency education.

We encourage you to apply for a position with us!

Susan Alexander, MD, FAAFP

Program Director
Asheville Family Medicine Residency

Special Interests: Maternal Child Health and Inpatient Medicine

Our Team

Marina MacNamara, MD, MPH

Assistant Program Director
Asheville Family Medicine Residency

Special Interests: Maternal Child Health and Rural Medicine

Jan Westphal, MD

Assistant Program Director
Asheville Family Medicine Residency

Special Interests: Treatment of substance use disorders, innovations in primary care and auricular acupuncture

Natalie Smith, C-TAGME
Program Administrator
Asheville Family Medicine Residency
FMRP.AVL@mahec.net

Heather Davidson
Program Coordinator
Asheville Family Medicine Residency
FMRP.AVL@mahec.net

Acting Internships

We are pleased to offer Acting Internships (AI) to students interested in doing residency at the MAHEC Asheville Family Medicine Residency Program. Several options are available. If you are interested in doing an AI with us, please contact studentservices@mahec.net.

4-week Inpatient Family Medicine AI

4-week Inpatient Family Medicine AI

Come work with us on our full-spectrum Family Practice Service for four weeks. On this service, you will participate in caring for our family practice patients when they are admitted to the hospital. You will take care of adult medicine, pediatric, obstetrical, and laboring patients with our talented team of residents and family medicine faculty.

4-week Outpatient Family Medicine AI

4-week Outpatient Family Medicine AI

Join our family medicine faculty and residents as they care for their continuity patients in our beautiful family medicine clinic. Beginning July 2023, you will experience outpatient clinic work done in a team-based clinic-first model. We practice outpatient medicine with a cohort of residents on a team comprised of clinical pharmacists, behavioral medicine faculty, peer support specialists, and nutritionists. In addition to our broad scope of pediatric adult medicine, geriatric, sports medicine, and obstetrical patients, you will have the opportunity to care for a diverse group of people needing care for Hepatitis C, HIV, intellectual and developmental disabilities, psychiatric diseases, and substance use disorders.

4-week Shared Outpatient Family Medicine AI

4-week Shared Outpatient Family Medicine AI
with the MAHEC Hendersonville Rural Family Medicine Residency Program

You will spend two weeks in Asheville and two weeks in Hendersonville and have an opportunity to see two great family medicine residencies in one rotation!

4th Year Medical Student Rotations

MAHEC offers a variety of student rotations in Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, General Surgery, Rural Medicine, and Psychiatry for both in-state and out-of-state students interested in our residency programs. Learn more about our 4th year medical student rotations

Our Commitment

MAHEC is committed to inspiring and equipping the next generation of healthcare professionals and expanding access to care for all. Our vision is to create a healthier community in Western North Carolina and beyond.