Rural Medicine Fellowship
We are committed to helping you integrate into your rural community through innovative fellowship projects, ongoing rural-relevant and specialty training, and financial support while you build your practice and learn to navigate the needs of your rural area. We're looking forward to meeting you and helping you integrate into a community as well as your practice!
Applications for the 2025-2026 cohort will be open January–March of 2025. If you are interested in applying, please contact RHI Program Director, Kylie Agee. The application cycle is open January through March every year, with decisions made for fellowship slot selection by May 31. The fellowship year begins annually on October 1.
Benjamin Gilmer, MDPronouns: he/him/his
Family Medicine Faculty Physician
Benjamin.Gilmer@mahec.net
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.
We know that rural providers have unique challenges and opportunities in supporting their patients and communities. We are committed to training providers with the clinical and rural leadership skills needed to provide outstanding primary care in rural areas.
Our Rural Fellowship was developed to provide continuing education and support to help rural providers better adjust to—and meet the needs of—their community. This fellowship also provides targeted training in preceptor development to enhance both clinical knowledge and teaching skills with the goal of developing rural preceptors for MAHEC's family medicine residents, medical students from UNC School of Medicine Asheville, and other MAHEC health sciences learners.
Continuing education experiences are focused on developing core competencies and special areas of interest identified by each Fellow. Preceptor training focuses on the development of leadership and public health skills. Monthly virtual ECHO sessions, NRHA conference attendance, and access to a growing network of specialists serve to create a dynamic and evolving system of professional support.
The rural fellowship focuses on the 6 P's: placement in a rural community, protected time, preceptor development, projects to support comunity engagement, practice clinical development, and partnerships with people and practices. This post-residency year prepares fellows for success early in their career and supports workforce development by creating opportunities for ongoing engaged learning.
Our rural fellowship is a 12-month commitment with placements in the primarily underserved 16-county region surrounding our main campus in Asheville, NC. This fellowship provides ongoing personal and professional support for providers who would like to establish a long-term rural practice. The allotted fellowship time (0.1 FTE - 0.2 FTE) includes required fellowship training and a community-based project in an area of academic interest.
Since the inception of MAHEC’s Rural Medicine Fellowship in 2017, we have partnered with nearly all of the FQHCs and hospital systems in the region to support the placement of Fellows in rural counties. We have also supported Fellows at county health departments and independent practices. We encourage diversity in clinical placement and are thrilled to support Fellows in a variety of rural practice environments.
If you are a hospital, FQHC, health department, or independent clinic in one of Western North Carolina’s rural counties and are interested in engaging with our Rural Fellowship program, please contact RHI Program Director, Kylie Agee, so that we can discuss your hiring needs.
Asheville-based Mission Hospital is the regional referral center for tertiary and quaternary care in Western North Carolina and the surrounding region. Mission Hospital houses the region's only dedicated Level II trauma center and children's hospital. The medical staff comprises approximately 650 physicians, with nearly all subspecialties available. Mission is an 800-bed hospital, featuring state-of-the-art facilities and an Emergency Department that averages over 95,000 patient visits per year. Mission Hospital is frequently named one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics.
MAHEC has also partnered with other rural hospitals within a 1-2 hour radius that are all located in federally designated health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). Fellows will have the opportunity to gain rural clinical experience at the following inpatient sites.
Kylie Agee, MPA
Benjamin Gilmer, MD