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Susan Alexander, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Susan Alexander, MD, is a family physician at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) in Asheville. She is board-certified in Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. She is a clinical assistant professor with the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Dr. Alexander practices full-scope family medicine at the MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler. She provides primary care for newborns, children, and adults, and she provides pregnancy care. Dr. Alexander also provides inpatient care at Mission Hospital, including some obstetrics and deliveries. She also offers a wide array of in-office procedures. Additionally, Dr. Alexander provides office-based opioid medication-assisted treatment services. She speaks Spanish, and interpreter services are available as needed.
Dr. Alexander completed her undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, medical school at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and her family medicine residency at MAHEC in Asheville.
Sandra Clark, MD, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Mike Coladonato, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Cane Creek
1542 Cane Creek Road
Fletcher, NC 28732
(828) 628-8250
I provide full-spectrum family medicine to the local community, strive to teach our resident physicians small practice practicalities and survival skills, and inspire the community to be healthful. My interests inside of medicine include international work, integrative medicine, chronic disease management, low risk obstetrics, office procedures including vasectomy, resident and medical student education, nutrition and exercise as medicine, inpatient medicine, work/life balance, Latino outreach, and advanced care planning for end-of-life discussions.
Graham Custar, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Medical School: University of Colorado School of Medicine
Residency Program: Mountain Area Health Education Center (Chief Resident)
Board Certification: American Board of Family Medicine
Dr. Graham Custar is a primary care physician who sees patients of all ages. His interests include comprehensive primary care, substance use disorders, weight management, integrative medicine, value-based care, and health technology. He promotes team-based, patient-centered care to build fulfilling, long-term relationships to optimize patient experience and health outcomes. He is passionate about advocating for his patients, and he sees his role as promoting and supporting their health needs in ways that best fit their values and preferences.
Julia Draper, MD, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler
25 Westridge Market Place
Candler, NC 28715
(828) 418-0040
Hey all, my name is Julia Draper. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work at MAHEC after spending my clinical years of medical school as a UNC student at the Asheville campus. I was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida but I spent many holidays falling in love with the Carolina mountains. I moved to North Carolina as soon as I could and went to school at a small liberal arts college nestled in the woods of Greensboro, Guilford College. I designed my own major in Integrative Healthcare so I could examine the bio-psycho-socio-political-cultural drivers of health. I entered medicine with this perspective and continued to study how sociocultural forces shape personal and community health and disparities. My interests in medicine include (but are certainly not limited to) building social justice healthcare curricula with an antiracism lens, Adverse Childhood Experiences, reproductive justice, and best practices in rural primary care.
I enjoy living close to the land and learning about the ecological and social histories of the communities I live in. When I'm not at work you can find me in my garden, studying Spanish, off for a walk in the woods, or dreaming up affordable off-grid housing solutions.
I truly look forward to working with each and every one of you.
Nicole Evans, DO
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
E. Blake Fagan, MDClinical Director of Substance Use Disorders at MAHEC
Professor of Family Medicine, UNC Chapel Hill
Diplomate of the American Board of Preventative Medicine, Board-Certified in Addiction Medicine
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Medical School: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Residency Program: MAHEC Family Medicine
Board Certification: Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine
Dr. Fagan is the Clinical Director of Substance Use Disorder Initiatives, a family physician at MAHEC in Asheville, NC, and a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has 26 years of experience as a physician, 23 years of experience teaching medical residents and residents, and 11 years of experience treating opioid use disorder and chronic and acute pain in the primary care setting. He enjoys seeing children, adolescents, adults, and pregnant and parenting patients. He performs a variety of procedures including circumcisions, IUD placement and removal, contraceptive implant, endometrial biopsy, cryotherapy, incision and drainage of abscesses, and steroid injections of joints.
Josh Gettinger, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Benjamin Gilmer, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Cane Creek
1542 Cane Creek Road
Fletcher, NC 28732
(828) 628-8250
My name is Benjamin Gilmer. Originally a native of rural TN, I moved to North Carolina to attend Davidson College and have now been a Tarheel for 3 decades! I first studied medicine at the Sorbonne in Paris, France and later at East Carolina. Inspired by a fellowship experience in West Africa at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, I have committed my career to Global Health and have the great fortune to lead MAHEC’s global health program in Honduras. I was a student, resident and Global Health fellow at MAHEC and plan to be a “lifer” here. MAHEC enables me the perfect opportunity to pursue many of my academic passions, including serving a rural community, teaching and practicing full spectrum family medicine. Some of my other passions in medicine include point of care ultrasound, and team-based care. As the clinical director of our Rural Health Initiative and MAHEC’s Rural Fellowship, I am passionate about advocating for rural medicine and finding jobs for all of our residents! More recently, I have embarked on a mission to learn and promote social justice in medicine, focusing on the humane treatment of mental illness in the prison system. I recently published my first book, “The Other Dr. Gilmer” speaking to this injustice. My lovely wife’s name is Deirdre and our two proudest accomplishments are Kai and Luya. Together, we love to travel and explore the wonders of Western North Carolina and the world.
Melissa Hicks, MDFaculty Physician
Transitional Year Residency Program Director
35 years experience in Primary Care and OB
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Areas of special interest include the full scope of family medical care, including caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth, along with the family.
Steve Hulkower, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Medical School: Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA
Residency Program: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, Philadelphia, PA
Board Certification: Family Medicine
Dr. Stephen Hulkower is a board-certified Family Physician with decades of experience providing full-spectrum primary care to the WNC community, including acute and chronic care in hospital and office settings, office procedures, and Sports Medicine. His work in rural and underserved settings—such as Native American reservations in Arizona and North Carolina, and in Honduras and Haiti—highlights his commitment to improving access to healthcare for all. The majority of his career has featured his role as a teacher and mentor in the MAHEC Family Medicine Residency Program, training the next generations of physicians for WNC.
Sylvia Kauffman, MD, MSPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler
25 Westridge Market Place
Candler, NC 28715
(828) 418-0040
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Medical School: University of Virginia
Residency Program: MAHEC Family Medicine
Board Certification: Family Medicine
Dr. Sylvia Kauffman enjoys caring for patients of all ages and providing them with the information they need to make decisions about their own health. She particularly enjoys prenatal and obstetrical care, women’s health, chronic disease management, and caring for Spanish-speaking patients. She believes strongly in physical activity, nutrition, and other lifestyle strategies to prevent and manage illness.
Lisa LaVallee, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Areas of special interest include women and children’s health, OB, dermatology and osteoporosis.
Allison Lukacic, DO, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Marina MacNamara, MD, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler
25 Westridge Market Place
Candler, NC 28715
(828) 418-0040
Boone Marois, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Susan McDowell, MDFamily Medicine Faculty Physician
Substance Use Educator
MAHEC Family Health Center at Newbridge
218 Elkwood Avenue
Asheville, NC 28804
(828) 257-4747
Susan has been in the WNC region since 2010 and enjoys taking care of patients from age 0 to 100. She currently practices mainly at the MAHEC Newbridge site. Special interests include women's health, chronic disease management, substance use disorder treatment, and care of children.
William McLean, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
MAHEC Family Health Center at Deerfield
1617 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 274-1531, ext. 3286
Jessica McSurdy, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Rathika Nimalendran, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Ginger Poulton, MD, MSEd, DipABLM
MAHEC Family Health Center at Newbridge
218 Elkwood Avenue
Asheville, NC 28804
(828) 257-4747
Ginger Poulton, MD, MSEd, DipABLM, is board certified in Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. She is a former educator for Teach for America and a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School. Ginger completed her family medicine residency at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville and joined MAHEC’s faculty in 2013, and has enjoyed working in a variety of roles at MAHEC since then.
Currently she is the Assistant Program Director for the Transitional Year Residency Program, the lead physician for the Community Health Worker Project at MAHEC and the Family Medicine Clerkship Director for the UNC School of Medicine for the Asheville campus. Additionally, she is the Program Director for the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum which is offered to all MAHEC residents.
Outside of work Ginger is an active runner, cyclist and sports enthusiast. She loves adventuring outdoors with her husband and sons in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.
Rebecca Putnam, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Hey y'all! I'm from Austin, Texas and went to the University of Colorado where I fell in love with full-spectrum family medicine. I was considering doing a fellowship after I graduated residency, but couldn't decide whether to do hospice/palliative, addiction medicine, or obstetrics. I came to MAHEC because I felt like the scope of care I would experience here would not close any doors for me.
When I was a third year resident here at MAHEC I worked with our local Medicaid payor to develop a pilot clinic focused on primary care consults for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I was so lucky to get hired on as faculty and have the opportunity to expand these needed services. Since the start of COVID I have also been serving as the medical director of our Acute Care Clinic, which was the first clinic in WNC to have resources to regularly test and treat COVID-19.
I really feel like I get to live my professional dream here at MAHEC, where my colleagues are just as focused as I am on meeting our community's changing needs. When I was an intern we were not regularly prescribing medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder, gender-affirming hormone therapy, or curing hepatitis C, but these are now regular parts of my day-to-day patient care. I also appreciate the opportunity to teach, both residents, UNC medical students, and pre-professional students. I am also on faculty for our Transitional Year residency that started in 2021.
My favorite part of being a family doctor is getting to stick with my patients through all of life's transitions. In addition to IDD care, my special interests include pediatric care, women's health including prenatal care, procedures, addiction medicine, genetic disorders, and working with patients to develop goals of care.
In my free time I enjoy hiking, maintaining my garden, cooking, and most of all spending time with my Asheville-local husband and adorable son.
Lisa Reed, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Newbridge
218 Elkwood Avenue
Asheville, NC 28804
(828) 257-4747
Welcome to MAHEC Family Medicine! We want to be your medical home. I am very happy to be practicing at MAHEC Family Health Center at Newbridge in Woodfin. I consider myself very lucky because I love my job. I get so much joy out of taking care of patients, from babies to older patients and everyone in between. I am particularly interested in women’s health, pediatrics, behavioral health and caring for Latino patients. I also provide transgender care services. It is wonderful to work in and out of the hospital to take comprehensive care of patients.
I grew up in Iowa, where I studied at Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. I completed residency here in Asheville with MAHEC Family Practice. I have been lucky to travel some and see healthcare practices around the world. I am happy to call Western North Carolina home. My husband and I love the fabulous local food and I love going on hilly runs with our sweet dog, Maggie.
Stephanie Rosener, MD, IBCLC, FAAFP
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Stephanie Rosener, MD, IBCLC, FAAFP, joined MAHEC in April 2024 as Chair of Family Medicine. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Rosener served as Program Director for The United Family Medicine Residency Program, a community-based residency program of Allina Health in St. Paul, MN, which emphasized reducing barriers to care and eliminating disparities for under-resourced populations.
Dr. Rosener began her career as a registered nurse, after receiving a dual degree of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Penn State University. She shared her nursing skills at the University of Pittsburgh’s HIV Treatment Clinical Trials Unit, Presbyterian University, and Magee-Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
The Pennsylvania native continued her education, obtaining her medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, followed by residency at United Family Medicine Residency in St. Paul. She completed the National Institute for Program Director Development fellowship while serving as Associate Program Director for the Middlesex Health Family Medicine Residency Program in Middletown, CT.
In addition to her current role, Dr. Rosener has held academic appointments at the University of Minnesota Medical School, the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, Yale School of Medicine, and Boston University School of Medicine.
She is a published author and researcher with a focus on maternal child health, reduction in birth disparities, quality improvement, and innovation in graduate medical education. Dr. Rosener is also a classically trained vocalist and musician (piano, flute, sax, guitar), watercolor artist, outdoors enthusiast, and global traveler.
Amy Russell, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Matt Simpson, MD, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Eric Smith, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler
25 Westridge Market Place
Candler, NC 28715
(828) 418-0040
Genevieve Verrastro, MD, FAAP
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Genevieve Verrastro, MD, is a Family Medicine Physician and an Addiction Medicine Specialist. She completed her residency at MAHEC and worked at several Community Health Centers in Western North Carolina as a primary care physician. In 2020 she returned to MAHEC for the inaugural Addiction Medicine Fellowship and continues there as a faculty physician in the Addiction Medicine program. Her areas of interest include perinatal substance use disorders, care of people with HIV, and the LGBTQ community.
Outside of work, her interests include biking, whitewater kayaking, gardening, and restoring her Craftsman bungalow.
Jan Westphal, MD
MAHEC Family Health Center at Biltmore
123 Hendersonville Road
Asheville, NC 28803
(828) 257-4730
Miryam Wilson, MD, MPH
MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler
25 Westridge Market Place
Candler, NC 28715
(828) 418-0040
Dr. Wilson is a board-certified Family Medicine physician at the MAHEC Family Health Center at Enka/Candler. She attended the University of Connecticut for her undergraduate education, public health degree, and medical school. She finished her family medicine residency here at MAHEC and is currently working to complete a fellowship in maternal and child health through MAHEC.
Dr. Wilson practices full-scope family medicine including primary care throughout the lifespan and for all genders, as well as prenatal care and deliveries at Mission Hospital. She has special interest in reproductive healthcare as well as LGBTQ+ and gender-affirming healthcare. She performs a variety of in-office procedures such as IUDs and contraceptive implants, and offers office-based treatment for substance use disorders including medication-assisted treatment for opioid use. Outside of the clinic, she enjoys gardening and spending time outdoors with her partner Mike, her plott hound Balsam, and her chihuahua Mo.
