Nine graduates of Greater Lawrence Family Health Center’s Lawrence Family Medicine Residency program are off to work as family physicians in Haverhill, Methuen, Lynn and locations throughout the country.
They spent half their residency working through an unprecedented pandemic that at times saw them losing multiple patients a day to COVID-19. All nine members of the Class of 2022 are remaining in family medicine and primary care, mostly at health centers up and down the East Coast with two are remaining with at area Health Center locations.
“One of the things that I was struck by when I was looking at who’s graduating and where you are going is how many of you are remaining in primary care,” Dr. Guy L. Fish, president and CEO of Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, told graduates. “You all chose to be in primary care and that’s really remarkable and special and you should be recognized for that.”
Rebecca Joseph is joining Haverhill Family Health Center, while Zoe Becker begins practicing at Methuen Family Health Center. Other graduates and their new jobs are Zoe Gordon and Ryan Walker, both at Lynn Community Health Center, Lynn; Lance Braye, Lovelace Family Medicine, Prosperity, S.C.; Kathryn De La Rosa, Institute for Family Health-Mt. Hope Practice, Bronx, N.Y.; Helen Jin, Apicha Community Health Center, New York City; Alice Kaufman, Brattleboro Family Medicine, Brattleboro, Vt.; and Cara Smith, Primary Healthcare and Health Equity Policy Fellowship, Duke Family Health Center, Durham, N.C.
The Lawrence Family Medicine Residency program is the first in the country to be hosted by a federally-qualified community health center. Started in 1994, the residency is accredited through GLFHC and affiliated with Lawrence General Hospital. While most family medicine residency programs are three years in length, this residency is a four-year training program that is part of a national pilot looking at training innovation. In 2021 the program was awarded a grant to expand its program to 48 doctors, up from its previous capacity of 40.