They’re taking pride along Owen Drive, home of the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center, celebrating 50 years in Fayetteville.
But Dr. Sushma Kapoor, president and chief executive officer for SR-AHEC, will tell you there’s no time for resting on laurels of yesterday.
“Our past 50 years shows significant improvement in the number and diversity of the regional health care workforce, but there is still much to do,” says Kapoor, 48, a family physician and former medical director of Carolina Medical Associates in Fairfax, South Carolina. “While we will look back on our accomplishments during our 50th year celebration, our focus will be on meeting the challenges we face in the years ahead.”
The “50 Years of Health and Healing” celebration includes the opening this summer of SR-AHEC’s newest $1 million clinical building across from Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. The addition, the SR-AHEC says, will enhance patient care and health education. A 50-year anniversary celebration with current and retired employees and alumni is scheduled for Sept. 26 at the center.
Through the years
SR-AHEC dates back to the mid-1970s when the late Dr. Harold Godwin realized there were not enough physicians to effectively serve health care needs in Fayetteville, and there was little effort in attempting to find and train them.
“We were an academic wasteland,” Godwin said before he and other health care leaders appealed to the North Carolina Area Health Education Center for approval to establish what in 1974 became the Fayetteville Area Health Center.
Others who shared Godwin’s vision were Dr. William B. Hall, Dr. Phillip Anderson, Dr. Terry Kane and Dr. Lynn Johnson, who then was chief of staff at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and in the winter of 1973 appealed to North Carolina AHEC to sponsor FAHEC.
In affiliation with Duke University Medical Center, according to the SR-AHEC, the partnership developed a family medicine residency program to provide health care access throughout south central North Carolina to include Cumberland County.
FAHEC opened July 7, 1974, at 1601 Owen Drive.
“Dr. Godwin understood the need for more family physicians in our region and the continuing medical education required to stay abreast of new treatments and technologies,” Kapoor says about Godwin, the retired Fayetteville cardiologist, who died at age 99 on May 10.
By the 1980s, Fayetteville AHEC was providing continuing education programs for practicing health care professionals to earn advanced health care degrees and certification, and was the first to offer advanced degree nursing programs in affiliation with other universities in the state. The initiative brought education and health care services to rural and underserved areas of the Cape Fear Region.
“Since 1980, our family medicine residency program has graduated 266 family medicine physicians,” Kapoor says. “Through the years, we have received tremendous support from Cape Valley Medical Center and current CEO Mike Nagowski.”
Among family physicians who have established their careers through SR-AHEC are Lenny Salzberg, class of 1991, who served his residency under Dr. Godwin; Catherine Kelly, class of 1993, who works with Medical Arts Family Practice; Sandra Carr Johnson, class of 1999; Maria Villena, class of 2005, and Jos Santz, class of 2005, and both with All American Associates in Family Practice off of Village Drive; Dr. Johnnie Moultrie, class of 2006, now with Hope Mills Family Care; Dr. Vicki Hardy, class of 2008; Dr. Wesley Greenwood, class of 2016; Dr. Sterling Riddley, class of 2018; Dr. Kelsey Daum, class of 2019, and Dr. Kristina Hines, class of 2021, and both working with UNC Health Family Medicine in Gray’s Creek.
With Godwin’s retirement came the need for health care professionals to turn to technology and ways that would improve on how to adapt to a new opportunity for delivering care to patients as well as health care information to physicians, nurses and other health care providers.
Dr. Gerald Strand, according to the SR-AHEC, succeeded Godwin as president and chief executive officer. Strand devised a comprehensive strategy for technology infrastructure that would lead Fayetteville AHEC into the 21st century.
FAHEC would become Southern Regional AHEC, and its medical library would merge with the center’s computer classroom to be known as the Information Access Center.
Deborah Teasley succeeded Strand as SR-AHEC president and chief executive officer in 2001 and faced the challenge of a growing health care center. She secured funding for a new building that became a reality in June of 2017, where health services were available under one roof. The addition of “Practice Support” provides hands-on services to primary care, specialty and behavioral health practices, according to Kapoor. Practice coaches assisted medical practices navigate through a time of transitions in health care by providing support, education and resources in a variety of areas.
Then, Covid-19 reared its ugly face in 2019.
SR-AHEC met the challenge with telehealth physician visits and providing health care education via virtual online programming.
Challenges ahead
While SR-AHEC points to from whence it began and where it is in the health care community, there are challenges ahead, says Dr. Kapoor, who has served as president and chief executive officer since 2018.
“The health care industry is experiencing a significant shortage of skilled and qualified professionals,” says Kapoor. “For SR-AHEC, understanding the labor market dynamics is crucial. We are committed to continuously improving our strategies to attract and retain highly qualified talent. We are looking at ways to integrate various platforms within our EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system to allow us to meet the need of changing delivery models like Telehealth.”
She points to COVID-19 as the culprit.
“The shortage crisis has gotten more acute after the pandemic,” Kapoor says. “One of the strategies to address this that we will partner with is the Health Talent Alliance to deploy Talent Pipeline Management.”
Health Talent Alliance is a partnership, Kapoor says, of the North Carolina Center on the Workforce for Health and the North Carolina Chamber Foundation.
“TPM is a proven methodology developed by the U.S. Chamber Foundation to apply supply chain management principles to the development and support of the workforce,” Kapoor says. “TPM engages employers to define their workforce needs better so they, educators and others in their community can more intentionally and persistently respond to those needs. Each Regional AHEC will employ a TPM manager, who will lead the local work to establish employer-led coalitions.”
Regional coalitions, she says, will use data collected to prioritize workforce investments and partnerships with local educators to include K-12, community colleges, universities and other workforce development partners.
“Regional TPM managers will also form a learning collaborative to share lessons learned, coordinate to break down barriers and drive local progress,” Kapoor says. “Their lessons and needs will be shared with the N.C. Center on the Workforce for Health to inform public policy and other statewide interventions.”
There’s the challenge, too, of “Continuing Professional Development.”
“We face the challenge of catering to diverse learner levels and learning styles,” Kapoor says. “Particularly in the evolving post-COVID-19 environment where virtual learning continues to advance.”
For SR-AHEC, she says, it means investing “in better IT technology,” and partnering “with our other AHECs to organize statewide workshops to have a broader community outreach.”
Committed to the mission
No matter the health care challenges ahead, Kapoor says, SR-AHEC remains committed to its mission of training and certifying tomorrow’s physicians, nurses and health care providers in south central North Carolina to include Bladen, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland counties.
The mission includes working with the Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Cape Fear Valley Health and the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine scheduled to open in 2026. Kapoor is part of the Transitional Curriculum Committee that will develop curriculum for the medical school under Dr. Hershey Bell, Dr. Stephanie Mann and medical school leadership members Mostafa Hosseinzadeh, Ph.D., assistant dean for assessment, and Yen-Ping Kuo, Ph.D., associate dean for curriculum & student success.
“I am honored to be able to serve on this committee,” Kapoor says. “A well-structured curriculum is the foundation of academic excellence, and this committee ensures that the new medical school meets the highest standards of medical education. I am also very excited as the focus is to develop a curriculum that is inclusive and supportive of learners from different backgrounds and learning styles.”
Along Owen Drive across from Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, SR-AHEC is resolute in its mission.
“The N.C. AHEC program’s mission is to recruit, train and retain health professionals through its nine regional campuses throughout the state,” says Dr. Mavin Swartz, director of the Duke AHEC program and a member of the SR-AHEC board of trustees. “SR-AHEC has led this initiative through its leadership in its nine-county region surrounding Cumberland County.
“First led by the late Dr. Harold Godwin, SR-AHEC has had the good fortunes to have the extraordinary leadership of Godwin, Jerry Strand, Deborah Teasley and Sushma Kapoor. They built strong partnerships with its main academic partner in Duke University, expanding those partnerships with Campbell University, Cape Fear Valley Health System, Methodist and all the health professional schools in the region.
“Through these partnerships, it’s excelled at its mission of developing a pipeline of future health professionals, trained new ones and maintained the excellence of its workforce through professional educational courses,” Swartz says. “The most tangible symbol of SR-AHEC’s growth and strength of partnership is its beautiful campus and new clinical building serving its expanding patient base and urgent care needs.”
Epilogue
Dr. Harold Godwin was a physician in this community who 50 years ago saw a health care call for what could be.
He saw a health care need.
He had a vision.
The Southern Regional Area Health Care Center along Owen Drive is testament to Dr. Harold Godwin, Dr. William B. Hall, Dr. Phillip Anderson, Dr. Terry Kane and Dr. Lynn Johnson.
Together, they dared to dream.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961
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Thank you for this wonderful article. Dad did have a vision. I’m so proud of him.