Walk into this room at Cape Fear Valley Health Hoke Hospital, and you’ll see the intensity in Dr. Stephanie Mann’s eyes.
She’s all business.
There’s work to be done, with no time to spare.
“What most excites me about this opportunity is that we will not just be talking about the importance of mitigating health care disparities and improving the health of our community, but we are building an equity focused educational program with the potential to create sustainable and long-lasting changes that will improve the health of folks who live in this region, with hopefully its first class of 80 students, whom we anticipate will matriculate in 2026,” Dr. Mann says about being a part of the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine heading our community’s way.
Dr. Mann is part of the senior leadership team under the direction of Dr. Hershey Bell, who was named founding dean in May of 2023. She will serve as Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.
Others include Kimberly Vess, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean of Student Experience; John Worth, Senior Associate Dean of Administration and Finance; Mostafa Hosseinzadeh, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Assessment; Yen-Ping Kuo, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Curriculum & Student Success; Rebecca Wise, Pharm.D., Associate Dean of Admissions & Recruitment; Carol Nichols, Ph.D., Associate Dean and Chairwoman for Foundational Sciences; Scott Bullard, chief of staff; and Carol Gage, executive administrative assistant.
“I would put this team against any team in the nation,” Dr. Bell, 66, says. “We are tremendously fortunate to have recruited senior, experienced leaders from around the country to participate at the highest levels in the medical school. Coming from schools in Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, our team brings decades of experience in health professions education, administration and research.”
He is not alone in his enthusiasm.
“We are thrilled to have attracted such accomplished leaders to our team as we move forward in building a medical school designed to be responsive to the communities in the region,” says Suzanne Blum Malley, provost at Methodist University. “This announcement is the most recent in what we foresee will be many to come, including the release of our new building renderings, and, subsequently, a date for breaking ground on our new $60-million medical education facility.”
Methodist University President Stanley T. Wearden and Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Rakesh Gupta joined with Cape Fear Valley Health Chief Executive Officer Michael Nagowski on Feb. 27, 2023, to announce the partnership between the university and the health system intent to create a state-of-the-art medical school that will be housed along Village Drive behind Cape Fear Valley Medical Center.
“This is a historic day,” Wearden, 70, said. “… It will change the identity of Methodist University in many ways.”
The School of Medicine, Nagowski said, will “go a long way in resolving our doctor deserts” in the Cape Fear Region to include Cumberland, Bladen, Columbus, Harnett, Hoke, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland counties.
“We’re already clearing the land,” Dr. Bell was saying Wednesday as he met with team members on the second floor of Sheriff Hubert Peterkin Community Room that overlooks the Hoke Hospital campus. “We will be putting shovels in the ground this fall.”
Crossing t’s, dotting i’s
The five-story School of Medicine, he says, will be 124,000 square feet, configuring as twin towers to train physicians and healthcare providers in a myriad of specialties. CFVH will cover the $60 million construction cost, Dr. Bell says, and lease the building to the college over 20 years.
A $12 million capital campaign led by local residents is underway, with $7 million pledged. Pledges of $1 million each have come from Norwood and Mary Lynn Bryan; Dr. Franklin Clark; Ralph and Linda Huff; Murray and Nancy Duggins; Dr. Wes and Lucy Jones; and Will Gillis. Sammy and Carol Short and the Keith Allison Allison family of Systel Business Equipment, according to Ralph Huff, each have pledged $500,000.
“We anticipate our first class to matriculate in July 2026,” Dr. Bell says.
Dr. Bell couches his words carefully. There’s still that anticipated visit from the site team representing the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is why you found Dr. Bell, Dr. Mann, Vess, Hosseinzadeh, Kuo, Wise, Nichols and Bullard gathered this week preparing and compiling documentation in anticipation of the visiting team that will report back to the Liaison Committee Board representing the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington D.C. and the American Medical Association in Chicago.
Crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, Dr. Mann says, for preliminary accreditation.
“We anticipate them visiting us in the spring of 2025,” says Dr. Bell, who served as director of the Hunterdon Family Medicine Residency in Flemington, N.J.; vice chairman for the Department of Community and Family Medicine and chief of the Division of Family Medicine at Duke University; senior vice president for Medical Education, Primary Care and Quality, and chief medical officer at Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pennsylvania; associate dean for Assessment and Faculty Development and vice president of Academic Affairs and dean of the School of the Pharmacy at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
He received his M.D. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and completed residency education at the University of Toronto and Duke University. He received his master’s in Medical Education from LECOM. Dr. Bell was a National Faculty Development Fellow at Duke and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. Bell currently serves as vice president and chief academic officer at Cape Fear Valley Health.
You don’t just say you’ll have a School of Medicine, and voila, here it as a part of the university.
“The journey to becoming an accredited medical school is a three-step process,” Dr. Mann says. “Our team is focused on the first step — acquiring preliminary accreditation. We have to describe all the different elements that are going to comprise our educational program. It’s three steps to the process — preliminary accreditation, provisional accreditation and full accreditation.”
‘Curriculum is outstanding’
Dr. Bell says his team is up to the task.
It’s about “improving health care outcomes by providing our students with the tools necessary to efficiently acquire and apply their knowledge to patients in a high-quality manner,” says Dr. Mann, who will oversee the design and implementation of the School of Medicine curriculum. “All elements of our medical education program are being designed and implemented through a population focused lens and a desire to graduate students, who embrace core values of honesty, integrity and compassion. We are designing a curriculum that will ensure our students will be prepared to practice medicine in a complex and rapidly changing healthcare landscape.”
Dr. Mann earned her medical degree from George Washington University and her master’s degree in Health Professions Education from the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions. She has 30 years of experience as a faculty educator in the classroom and at the bedside. Dr. Mann more recently was Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Education at the University of Toledo College of Medicine.
Hosseinzadeh will play a lead role in the curriculum.
“I will make sure our school is delivering our curriculum to students affectively,” says Hosseinzadeh, 38, who previously has been at Mercer University in Atlanta and the College of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma. “Making sure our school is achieving its strategic goals toward its mission is central to my role. It’s not just about training future doctors, but how we’re impacting the community. I’m excited to be a part of the founding team.”
Kuo will play an integral part as Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Success. Her priority is to “push the boundaries of medical education” and “to inspire people’s passion for strengthening society from healthcare to well-being and opportunities.”
She comes to MUCFVHSOM from the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at nearby Campbell University.
“Our goal is retaining as many students as possible,” Kuo says, to provide healthcare for the region.
You can see Dr. Bell’s pride as Dr. Mann and Hosseinzadeh and Kuo talk about developing the School of Medicine curriculum.
“Our curriculum is outstanding,” he says. “We’ll focus on the needs of the region. Not just health, but social issues.”
Vess offers further explanation.
“Food insecurity, maternal mortality, substance abuse and mental health,” she says. “Our students will have service hours” beyond the classrooms. “I’m very excited. We have high quality people with perspectives from all over the country who will make a difference in the community.”
Vess earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ball State University and her master’s in counseling and her doctorate in Counseling and Psychology from the University of Cincinnati. Vess has spent the past 13 years working at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia.
‘I can’t wait’
The conference room was filled with an eagerness this week of what our healthcare tomorrows can be.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to help build a brand-new medical school,” Nichols says, “and a culture of success.”
Nichols was on the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia for 22 years and spent two years at the School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina before joining the Methodist University leadership team.
Rebecca Wise says she is a part of the leadership team for professional and personal reasons.
“I can’t wait to transform their lives and the lives of their families,” she says about the healthcare providers in wait. “My goal is to transform the lives of those in our schools. This will transform this region.”
Wise worked with Dr. Bell at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Allegheny College, a master’s from Penn-West Edinboro and doctorate from the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy.
“He is one of the reasons I came here,” Wise says about Dr. Bell. “Hershey is the most authentic person I have ever met. And to have that in a boss is a blessing.”
Scott Bullard, the chief of staff, is no newcomer to Fayetteville, having worked with Emergency Management for the City of Fayetteville the past 11 years.
“I’m very excited,” Bullard, 54, says. “Hopefully, my end game is to make the needle move in reducing human suffering. The angle I bring is we have had three federal disasters. We have human suffering on a daily basis — an unsheltered population and people without access to care. Sooner or later, we’ll have a Cat 5 (hurricane), and people will need care. These physicians can understand the process.”
Bullard earned his undergraduate degree in biology and geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and master’s degree in business administration with a healthcare focus from East Carolina University.
A certified public accountant, Worth is vice president of Administration and Finance for Education and Research in the Cape Fear Valley Health System. He is responsible for the hospital system’s residency programs and research activities. Worth holds a master’s in Business Administration/Health Administration from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a B.S. degree in Business Administration in Accounting from St. Bonaventure University.
Carol A. Gage rounds out the leadership team. She is executive administrative assistant to the dean of College of Medicine and will serve in that role for the School of Medicine. Gage is a graduate of Columbia College with a B.A. in Business Administration and from Walden University with a master’s in Higher Education with an emphasis in Student Learning and Success.
Answering the call
Dr. Rakesh Gupta is the retired gastroenterologist, chief of medicine from 1996 to 1998 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and a past member of the health system’s board of trustees.
Quietly, healthcare leaders will tell you Dr. Gupta is the vision for the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine.
He is a blueprint for what every physician should be, and for what every physician and health provider to come should be.
“The concept of the MU Cape Fear Valley Medical school is well on its way,” says Dr. Gupta, 68, chairman of the university board of trustees. “It is moving along at a reasonable and quick pace. The initial administrative team is in place led by Dr. Hershey Bell with frequent consultation and discussions with our provost Dr. Suzanne Blum Malley. Dr. Bell is experienced, talented and highly motivated. He is brimming with confidence and energy. Dr Blum Malley is full of energy and excitement as we move along as well.”
He has no doubt the School of Medicine will change the face of healthcare in this community and beyond, and the vision will soon enough become a reality.
“He plans to be well in time for the submission to LCME in August of this year, so that we can have our initial approval in place by fall of 2025 and begin recruitment of the first class of students that will enter the school in summer of 2026,” Dr. Gupta says of Dr. Bell. “This is a journey, and we need to be sure that every step is taken with proper caution and full understanding of our effort to avoid any pitfalls.”
He sees the towering school.
“A marvelous façade, courtyard, teaching classrooms and pavilions, and the entire campus,” Dr. Gupta says. “I am more than excited to see it break ground soon and come to fruition. It will be an incredible campus bustling with young physicians in training and the faculty, and all the support infrastructure that would be required to deliver a first-class medical education. It is our intent to be second to none.”
He knows the call.
“Healthcare is very complex and nuanced,” Dr. Gupta says. “Our population at large is aging. Physician shortage is a reality. We are projected to have a large shortfall of physicians in the region and in the nation. Many cities such as Durham, Charlotte and Chapel Hill in this state have teaching institutions and have a surplus of physicians that graduate and settle in large urban centers. The quality of healthcare rendered in these regions is incredibly good and state of the art.”
Then, he says, there is us.
“Our region on the other hand has a shortfall or deficiency of providers in most major categories,” Dr. Gupta says. “Health outcomes data shows that Southeastern North Carolina is lagging in many health indicators. It is no secret that Cape Fear Valley Health System is very heavily utilized when it comes to emergency care with over 130,000 annual visits. This leads to incredible wait times in the emergency room and due to the deficiency of many subspecialists, it is not uncommon for people to require or request a transfer to regional tertiary care medical centers.”
Within our grasp
Our health system has improved in the past 10 years, Dr. Gupta says, particularly in cancer, cardiovascular and orthopedic care.
“We have made incredible strides,” he says.
But …
“The only way we can transform overall care, especially primary care locally, is by building a medical school facility that provides an academic setting, brings talented and energetic students to this community from all over the country, eager to learn and practice medicine. And employing and engaging a faculty that has a passion for research and education, providing education with emphasis on compassion, empathy and teaching evidence-based medicine, which will change the landscape of the community forever.”
It's a journey.
It’s a dream in process, but within our grasp.
“This will one day be a busy and bustling college town and city that will be very visible on the state map and perhaps nationally,” Dr. Gupta says. “I may not be around that long, but the fruits of this endeavor will be borne by many future generations to come, and it is my belief that we would have left it better than we found it. This is a dream, but one that is now beginning to take shape and will come to fruition.”
Epilogue
Dr. Hershey Bell sits at the table in the Sheriff Hubert Peterkin Community Room that overlooks the Hoke Hospital campus. He is surrounded by Dr. Stephanie Mann, Kimberly Vess, Yen-Ping Kuo, Rebecca Wise and Carol Nichols, with Mostafa Hosseinzadeh and Scott Bullard joining in by zoom.
“We are beyond getting there,” Dr. Bell says. “We are well on our way.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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