Residency News

Alexa Namba, DO, HS'19, is currently a physician at Duke Primary Care Oxford and a medical instructor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. She graduated from the Duke Family Medicine Residency in 2019 and held a continuity clinic at Duke Primary Care Oxford as a second- and third-year resident.

Family Medicine Co-Chief Resident Karen Scherr, M.D., Ph.D., has been named a Duke National Clinician Scholar for the 2021-2023 cohort. She will focus her research on the examination of the use of clinic-community partnerships to empower individuals, families and communities to improve their health and well-being, with a focus on reducing disparities in obesity and obesity-related illness.

The Department of Family Medicine & Community Health was awarded a $750,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Residency Planning and Development Program to support the creation of a new Rural Track in the Family Medicine Residency. Greg Sawin, M.D., MPH, vice chair for education and faculty development, will serve as the PI for this award over the next three years.

Congratulations to co-chief resident Clay Cooper, M.D., MBA, for receiving the 2020 AAFP Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education. He is one of only 16 family medicine residents across the country to receive this honor this year.

Cooper will receive a $1,000 scholarship and complimentary registration to the 2020 AAFP's virtual Family Medicine Experience.

For the first time in about 20 years, Duke family medicine residents have an inpatient presence at a Duke Health hospital.

Joshua Ward, M.D., joined the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health in 2019 as adjunct faculty and a hospitalist at Duke Regional Hospital. Ward graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2013 and completed residency at Cabarrus Family Medicine Residency.

Jeffrey C. Eschbach, M.D., joined the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health in 2019 as an adjunct faculty member, hospitalist and director of the Family Medicine Inpatient Service at Duke Regional Hospital.

Welcome Kenny Herring, M.D., as clinical faculty in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health. Herring graduated from medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2017, and completed his family medicine residency at University of Colorado in 2020.

Welcome Andrada Delia Neacsiu, Ph.D., M.S., as a behaviorist working with the Duke Family Medicine Residency Program. Neacsiu earned a doctorate from University of Washington in 2012, and a Master of Science from University of Washington in 2008.

Duke Family Medicine residents Gabriela Plasencia, M.D., and Karen Scherr, M.D., Ph.D., received scholarships to attend the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation's Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute