Change in the air for Reid Health Family Medicine Residency Program
Summer is always a time of transition for the Reid Health Family Medicine Residency Program.
Each year, staff members gather in June to celebrate the latest class of graduates as they move on to begin their practices as well as welcome the new first-year residents.
This year, the evolution extends beyond the outgoing and incoming providers to include the program’s director and its sponsoring institution.
On June 20, the residency program’s Class of 2026 was celebrated at Forest Hills Country Club in Richmond, including:
- Rajesh Dhakal, MD, who will practice outpatient medicine in Crawfordsville, Indiana
- Megan Hammersla, MD, who will practice outpatient medicine in Florida
- Christine Miller, DO, who will join Reid Health Primary & Specialty Care – Winchester in August
- Jesse Smallwood, DO, who has been accepted to the first-ever Pediatric Fellowship in the country, at the University of Alabama
- Salecah Ullah, MD, who will remain with Reid as a hospitalist
Six new physicians are joining the program, bringing the total number of residents to 19. The newcomers are going through a two-week orientation before starting their residency training on July 1.
The residents in Reid’s program include:
- Advancing second-year residents Samuel Griffin, MD; Sadia Khan, MD; Victor Odoma, MD; Natalia Rosca, MD; Vivek Roy, MD; Rohit Shrestha, MD; and Amal Sobeih, MD
- Advancing first-year residents Tehreem Akthar, MD; Vikram Gill, DO; Sasha Johnson, MD; Lorraine Lorenz, DO; Chibuzor Madu, MD; and Ali Siddiqui, MD
- Incoming residents Paula Abdelmalak, MD; Ayesha Arooj, MD; Parvaneh Bashardoust, MD; Chukwuemeka Haffner, MD; Fatimah Khattak, MD; and Ruby Pai, MD
Also on July 1, both the program director and sponsoring institution will be new.
Donald Smith, MD, who has led the residency program for the past two years is retiring, and Jonathan Gallimore, MD, will be moving into the role.
Dr. Gallimore joined the Reid Hospitalist group in 2023 directly out of residency and began working with medical students shortly after. He became a preceptor in 2024 and a core faculty member last year.
“We’re deeply saddened but happy for Dr. Smith as he sets out on retirement. He has been instrumental in providing resident education over the past seven years,” said Tiffany Ridge, Director of Graduate & Continuing Medical Education, Clinical Research & Residency Clinic for Reid Health.
“We’re also excited to welcome Dr. Gallimore as the new Program Director. His short distance from residency will provide insight into current educational approaches and keep the program moving forward.”
Meanwhile, the sponsoring institution will become Marian University in Indianapolis, replacing the Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience in Kansas City, Missouri.
“This is such a great move for us with Marian being so close and our shared missions of training primary care physicians,” Ridge said. “We’ll have access to more state-of-the-art equipment, simulation labs, and other resources for educating the residents.”
Physicians who are part of Reid’s residency program complete three years of training in family medicine, gaining wide-ranging experience in the Reid Health system.
Eight core faculty members – Dr. Gallimore; Chase Carpenter, DO; Megan Carpenter, DO; Novera Inam, MD; Louise Chaperon Jimenez, MD; Tim Kaehr, PsyD; Nuzhat Nisa, MD; and Andy Tran, MD – supervise the residents’ overall training, along with 75 community physicians who act as preceptors across a variety of medical specialties.
To learn more about the program, go to reidhealth.org/Career-Opportunities/Education-and-Career-Pathways/Family-Medicine-Residency-Program.