Boone Family Medicine Residency
Molly Benedum, MD, is a board-certified family physician and directs the MAHEC Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in Boone. She provides comprehensive primary care from cradle to grave including newborn and pediatric care and inpatient hospital care. Her clinical interests include women's health, adolescent medicine, integrative medicine, and care for vulnerable and underserved people. Her research and teaching interests include evidence-based medicine and wellness and burnout in the clinical learning environment.
Molly is passionate about teaching the next generation of excellent primary care physicians to serve the Carolinas and has won several teaching awards during her career including an Outstanding Service Award from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville.
She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology magna cum laude from Furman University and went on to earn her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Benedum completed her family medicine residency at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. She is a graduate of the UNC Faculty Development Fellowship and the National Institute for Program Director Development Fellowship.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she moved to Winston-Salem in grade school. In her spare time, Molly and her husband Joe enjoy playing with their rescue pup Agnes, cooking, and traveling.
David Brendle, DO, earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from the UNC Charlotte where he also ran cross country and track. It was in college that he became more interested in health and wellness. This led David to Appalachian State University where he earned a masters in exercise science. Eventually, he made his way to Baltimore, where he worked for the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at the University of Maryland. Much of the research he was involved in pertained to managing comorbidities with diet, exercise, and other lifestyle modifications. David's work there solidified his interest in pursuing a career in medicine. He decided to attend the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine because he identified with the tenets of osteopathic medicine that include treating the person, not the disease, and the understanding the body is a unit of mind, body, and spirit.
After medical school, Dr. Brendle returned to Charlotte to be closer to friends and family and to attend Carolinas Medical Center for his family medicine residency, which is where he met his wife Torre Hinnant, MD. After completing their residency, David and Torre moved to Lenoir and practiced both inpatient and outpatient medicine before moving to Boone in 2016.
Dr. Brendle's medical interests include sports medicine, osteopathic manipulation, and in-office procedures as well as managing chronic conditions. He loves working with premed and medical students and looks forward to working with MAHEC family medicine residents. Outside of the office, David enjoys outdoor activities including road biking, mountain biking, cyclocross, climbing, running, hiking, and skiing. He's also trying to improve his yoga practice—stay tuned!
Charles Baker, MD, has been a full-scope family physician for more than 40 years, delivering more than 2,000 babies in the High Country of Avery County.
He earned his undergraduate degree at Davidson College and then attended medical school at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Baker interrupted his residency training for three years, spending two on the Sioux Indian reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota and another year in an inner-city clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Those three years earned him the distinction of being the last of the “grandfathers” - fully certified family physicians who had not finished their residency. Dr. Baker completed his residency in pediatrics at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital in 1979 and then opened a solo practice in the High Hountry where he was double-boarded in pediatrics and family practice. He and his wife Ann raised their three children here and helped them launch careers all over the world in veterinary medicine, international development, and counseling.
Dr. Baker loves mentoring medical students, and teaching has been a meaningful part of his career. His Linville practice has been a full-time teaching site for UNC medical students for more than 30 years and is one of only five sites in North Carolina designated as a gold teaching practice. He has trained students during all four years of their medical school experience and has precepted MAHEC residents for many years. Dr. Baker is thrilled to support the new MAHEC Rural Family Medicine Residency in Boone as he moves into retirement from private practice. He looks forward to teaching residents the importance of delivering “hands on” care and remembering to stop and smell the roses.
Hello! My name is Connor Brunson. I have spent my life in a slow loop starting in Bluff City, Tennessee, stretching down to Columbia, South Carolina, back up through Greenville, and now, thankfully, landing in Boone.
I started my career studying Public Health and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina. Upon graduation, I worked as a bagel baker, a nude art model, a middle school teacher, an EMT, and as an advocate for the creative sphere and an organizer of inclusive community spaces. Living and learning in South Carolina helped me reach a more complete understanding of racial and economic inequality, particularly in medicine, and I eventually realized that small communities, like my hometown, have a large part to play in righting the wrongs of our society.
My creative work (songwriting, short fiction, poetry) as well as my philosophic wanderings (Taoism, Stoicism, Narrative Medicine) led me to understand the tangible power of emotional healing and mindfulness. I believe that modern rural America is in great need of gentle, compassionate, full-person care, and I think that family physicians are in a unique position to provide that care. I am proud to be part of the process.
Dr. Chris Bullers grew up in Hickory, North Carolina. He attended Catawba College as an undergraduate, and after working for several years in the pharmaceutical industry, completed medical school at The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. After finishing his family medicine residency at Wake Forest University, he capped his medical training with a sports medicine fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
He then returned to Wake Forest University to become part of the family medicine clinical faculty and Winston Salem State team physician. During this time, he was also the principal investigator of the Winston Salem State arm of the NCAA-Department of Defense Concussion, Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium nationwide project to further define the clinical and neurobiological natural history of concussive injury and recovery. He has been included in several publications stemming from this ongoing research.
In 2017, Dr. Bullers climbed the mountain to join the AppOrtho team of the Appalachian Regional Medical System (ARHS) in Boone, NC. At that time, he was part of the vision to build a new academic center to educate future primary care and sports medicine physicians. After helping to start the family medicine residency at ARHS, he continues regular didactics with the residents as well as directing their orthopedic clinical experience. He currently serves as medical director and team physician for Appalachian State University athletics and helps to provide for the sports medicine needs of Watauga and Avery counties. This includes varied youth activities ranging from all sanctioned school sports to skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, dance and the many other unique opportunities that the mountains provide. Several mass events are overseen yearly including 2 large (80+ team) weekend soccer tournaments hosted by High Country Soccer, and Heart of a Pioneer, a mass preparticipation physical event including EKG and concussion screening for the county middle and high school athletes.
Professionally, Dr. Bullers’ interests include nonsurgical musculoskeletal care, injury prevention, concussion management, nonsurgical procedures including biologics and tenotomy, diagnostic and interventional ultrasound, and overuse injuries.
Dr. Bullers enjoys all outdoor activities especially when they involve his wife and two boys. They are constantly exploring all the high country has to offer and finding new fun every weekend they can. He tries to “practice what he preaches” when it comes to exercise and leading a healthy lifestyle.
Daniel Goble, MD, grew up in the Western North Carolina mountains and attended medical school at The Brody School of Medicine at Eastern Carolina University. After moving to Wichita, Kansas for a residency at Via Christi Family Medicine, Daniel found himself longing to return to the mountains. Growing up in WNC, Dr. Goble knew first-hand all that Boone had to offer. After researching Appalachian Regional Healthcare System and finding it made up of dynamic, healthy, and effective teams, his decision to join ARHS was a no-brainer.
Dr. Goble is an ARHS hospitalist, associate professor for the Wake Forest School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program, obstetrics instructor for Equip Ministries’ Missionary Medicine Intensive course, and medical director of Boone’s Community Care Clinic, which is the only free clinic serving uninsured patients in the High Country. Daniel is looking forward to teaching inpatient medicine as faculty for the Boone family medicine residency program.
Daniel's hobbies include writing, triathlons, kayaking, and playing the bongos—a list that is always evolving. He and his wife, an ob/gyn nurse, also enjoy gardening, backpacking, traveling, and taking care of their animals. They are currently exploring fostering with the local Department of Social Services. Dr. Goble enjoys discussing philosophy with anyone who will listen and is known to enjoy a good sour ale (preferably at the same time).
Dr. Magner earned his MD in 2015 from Augusta University - University of Georgia Medical Partnership in Athens, GA. He completed his residency at Oregon Health and Sciences University - Cascades East Family Medicine, focusing on rural Family Medicine.
Dr. Magner has experience practicing in rural/resource-limited settings internationally in Guatemala, Peru, Ghana, and in the Pacific Northwest and Southeastern United States. His clinical work has been focused in the emergency department, inpatient service, and outpatient clinic. In addition to clinical practice, he has a passion for teaching and has been faculty at both undergraduate and graduate levels of medical education. As core faculty at App Family Medicine/Elk River Medical Associates, he is excited to help educate the next generation of full-spectrum rural Family Medicine doctors.
In his free time, Dr. Magner loves spending time with his wife and two children, exploring roads/trails on bikes, snowboarding, playing old time tunes, film, and photography.
My name is Caleb Smith and I am excited to be practicing in the high country! I grew up at the foot of the mountains in rural Stokes County. I moved to Asheville for undergraduate studies in chemistry and to participate in cross country and track. I met my wonderful wife there and we then moved to Chapel Hill for medical school and residency. I am excited to be back in the mountains with my wife and son.
My clinical interests include maternal-child health, procedural care, addiction medicine, and point-of-care ultrasound. I look forward to providing prenatal care, pediatric care, and preventative care to a rural community similar to the one I grew up in. When I am not working, I enjoy long-distance running and hiking with my family as well as cooking and traveling whenever I get the chance.
