Online Residency Program Assessment Tool Now Available!
Personalized, confidential, affordable
We know every residency is unique, so we offer customized services to fit your needs. Our range of services are designed by experts who have been in your position.
While the benefits gained from a residency program can be vast, starting and maintaining a program can be costly. We keep our fees affordable to support the workforce growth and sustainability needed for the specialty.
Our services include:
- Personalized Consultation with family medicine residency leaders (up to 60 hours)
In-depth, personalized assistance from a family medicine residency leader to help you enhance your program. Email rps@aafp.org for a free scoping call to learn more.
- Mini Group Consult (1 hour)
Live, one-hour, interactive online discussion with one RPS consultant and up to ten other family medicine residency program attendees about designated topic. These are quick and easy and require no contracting.
Fee: $150 | Learn more.
- RPS Express 90 and RPS Express 180 Consults
Choose from a total of 90 minutes or 180 minutes of consultant time, including live interactive online discussion with an RPS consultant and up to five program staff and faculty to address topics of your choice (identified at registration), and pre/post discussion work by consultant.
Express 90 Fee: $750 | Express 180 Fee: $1,500 | Learn more.
Below are examples of topics we can cover:
- Strategy development
- Accreditation
- Mock site visits
- Culture and morale
- Curriculum innovation
- Faculty development and management
- New program development
- Osteopathic recognition and added qualifications
- Overall program health and sustainability
- Rural training
- Program management
- Teaching Health Centers (THC)
- Finance and financial issues
- Institutional and program application review
- Recruitment and retention
- Family medicine practice management
- Site transitions
- ACGME requirements
We're Dedicated to GME Excellence
Since 1975, RPS has been a partner to family medicine residency programs as they grow and transform. RPS is committed to advancing residency programs and helping them achieve excellence in education. Our consultants are family physicians who have been carefully selected to ensure we can meet the array of needs program leaders have as they train doctors who do it all.
The AAFP is proud to offer RPS as part of its commitment to advancing family medicine. You're passionate about family medicine because you know it improves patients' lives and entire communities in a unique way. We share that passion.
AAFP's new Online Residency Assessment Tool helps family medicine residency programs enhance quality and effectiveness with expert-backed recommendations. Built on The RPS Criteria for Excellence, this tool aligns with industry best practices to identify areas for improvement and ensure top-tier training. Programs can also use these criteria to demonstrate to their institutions what it takes to deliver a high-quality residency experience.
How it Works:
Programs input their own data to measure against the ideal and gain insights into their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.
A detailed evaluation report with the program’s score and suggestions for improvement is provided via email following the assessment.
Strengthen your program today and showcase your commitment to excellence in family medicine education.
Order the Criteria for Excellence
The Residency Program Solutions Criteria for Excellence is an industry-leading publication outlining best practices and policies in residency education. In the March 2025 edition, the Criteria is a set of aspirational guidelines used in RPS consultations. It represents the collective wisdom of consultants, each with decades of experience. Ideas and practices, peer-level experiences as residency educators, and ongoing assessments of the GME learning environment form the basis for the Criteria for Excellence.
Updates include:
- Newly released program requirements - including how to exceed ACGME requirement changes
- Workforce Diversity, Health Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
- A self-assessment tool to help initiate conversations with key stakeholders, stimulate questions, and become part of a process of continuous improvement for program leaders
Purchase Your Digital Copy
Meet Our Family Medicine Consulting Team
The Residency Program Solutions' team of experts are current and former program directors, chief medical officers, designated institutional officials, and department chairs—all of them family physicians who know what it takes to train the world's most in-demand, essential doctors.
Focused on You
There's nothing quite as complex as family medicine. Trust the experts who understand the impact of a personalized plan.
Team-Based
Behind every great consultant is a full team of RPS experts, ready to flex skills and share knowledge to get you where you need to be.
Continuity Support
Count on us being a longitudinal partner who knows how to adapt and put into place interventions that last.
Victor H. Agbeibor, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Dr. Agbeibor is the Program Director for the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)-Bon Secours Family Medicine and Rural Track Residency Program in Richmond, VA and serves as a Clinical Professor at the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and Population Health. He is also the Vice President of Graduate Medical Education and the Designated Institutional Official for the Bon Secours Mercy Health System. He is passionate about Global Health and Medical Education. Prior to his current roles, Dr. Agbeibor received his medical degree from the Tver State Medical School in Russia, completed his residency training at In His Image in Tulsa, OK, and earned an MPH at the University of Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. He joined the consultant panel in 2023.
Deborah S. Clements, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Clements is the Chair of Family and Community Medicine, the Nancy and Warren Furey Professor of Community Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine. She also served as the inaugural Program Director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. Her national experience includes serving as the Chair of the National Resident Matching Program and as a member of the Association of Departments of Family Medicine Board of Directors and is a past president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. Dr. Clements has completed fellowships in Medical Bioethics, Health Policy, and Integrative Medicine and is a certified professional coach. She joined the consultant panel in 2023.
Steven Crane, MD, MA, FAAFP
Dr. Crane is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and serves as an advisor for HRSA grantees in rural residency program development. Dr. Crane has served in a number of health leadership positions including CMO in two regional FQHCs and as the inaugural program director of one of the earliest rural track programs in the U.S. Dr. Crane trained as a health economist at Stanford University and worked at the Institute of Medicine and the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, DC, as a health policy analyst. He completed his medical education at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH and family medicine residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he served as chief resident. He joined the panel of consultants in 2012.
Alan B. Douglass, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Douglass is a Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Prior to his current role, he spent 31 years at Middlesex Health in Middletown, CT where he was the long-time Family Medicine Residency Director and ACGME Designated Institutional Official. Dr. Douglass trains new Residency Directors through the National Institute for Program Director Development (NIPDD) and advises HRSA Teaching Health Center and Rural Residency Program Development grant recipients. He received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut and completed his residency in Family Medicine at Middlesex Hospital and a Faculty Development Fellowship at Duke University. Dr. Douglass is board certified in Family Medicine and holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He joined the consultant panel in 2019.
Roger Garvin, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Garvin served as the Family Medicine Residency Director at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for 12 years. Prior to his current role, Dr. Garvin practiced eight years of full spectrum family medicine in a small town in Eastern Washington and spent 11 years on the faculty of the Spokane Family Medicine Residency. He received his medical degree from Oregon Health & Science University, completed his residency at Spokane Family Medicine Residency. He also completed a Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of Washington. He joined the Panel of Consultants in 2015.
John Gazewood, MD
Dr. Gazewood has been the Residency Program Director for the University of Virginia Family Medicine Residency Program since 2006. Previously, he served as the School of Medicine’s Course Director, Predoctoral Program Director for the Family Medicine Department, and Medical Director for the Family Medicine Center. Dr. Gazewood received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and completed his residency training at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He practiced full-scope Family Medicine for five years before returning to the University of Missouri, where he completed a Faculty Development and Geriatrics Fellowship. He has served on the consultant panel since 2019.
Alfred Chege Gitu, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Gitu is the Residency Program Director and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine Program at Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL. He also serves as HRSA Advisor for grantees in the Teaching Health Center Program Development (THCPD) initiative. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Gitu received his medical education at the University of Nairobi, Kenya and completed his residency training in Greenwood, SC. He joined the panel of consultants in 2023.
Diana Heiman, MD, CAQSM
Dr. Heiman is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs – Clinical Sciences and Vice Chair for Academic and Faculty Affairs at the University of Kentucky Department of Family and Community Medicine. Prior to this, she served as the Program Director at the Johnson City Family Medicine Residency Program between January 2012 and June 2019. She initially joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut/St. Francis Hospital Family Medicine Residency as the Associate Residency Director and Associate Sports Medicine Fellowship Director from 2003 to 2011. She received her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and completed her residency in Family Medicine at the University of Virginia and Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she stayed as junior faculty. She joined the consultant panel in 2019.
Bryan Hodge, DO
Dr. Hodge is the Director of the Rural Health Initiatives for MAHEC in western North Carolina. He is the former Program Director of the Hendersonville Rural Family Medicine Residency Program and the founding Program Director of the Boone Family Medicine Residency Program. As an Assistant Clinical Professor with the University of North Carolina Department of Family Medicine, he has dedicated his career to using innovative models to improve, expand, and build residency training opportunities, leading to better health outcomes in areas of high need. Dr. Hodge received his degree from A.T. Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri. He joined the panel of consultants in 2019.
Hobart Lee, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Hobart Lee is the Residency Program Director for the Loma Linda University Health Education Consortium (LLUHEC) and Vice Chair for the Department of Family Medicine and Associate Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Dr. Lee has experience with various residency funding sources, including HRSA THC GME, state grants, and the VA. He has experience with rural tracks, team-based care, and integrated behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, and has run a combined Family and Preventive Medicine residency track. He completed his medical degree at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and did his Family Medicine Residency and Academic Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of Michigan. He joined the Panel of Consultants in 2021.
Debbie Lupeika, MD, DABFM
Dr. Debbie Lupeika is Associate Dean of Rural and Community-based Education and a Clinical Professor at UC Davis School of Medicine. She is faculty at SCHC Family Medicine Residency and SRMC Internal Medicine Residency in Redding. Current Vice Chair of the California Medical Association and Alternate Delegate to the California American Medical Association. Current Integrative Medicine Fellowship participant, University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center. Fellowship alumnus of the National Institute of Program Directors, 2013 and UC Irvine Primary Care Psychiatry Fellowship, 2020. Founding Program Director of SCHC Family Medicine Residency a THCGME, 2012-2024. Redding Rancheria physician provider, 2001-2011. Chicago Medical School MD graduate 1998; Mercy Redding Family Medicine Residency, 1998-2001. Dr. Lupeika Joined the RPS panel of consultants in 2024.
Walt Mills, MD, MMM, FACPE, FAAFP
Dr. Mills is Director of Medical Education and Program Director at the Morehouse School of Medicine Dominican Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Santa Cruz, CA. He has been Program Director and DIO at several other institutions, past President California Academy of Family Physicians as well as a CMO and Medical Director as a certified physician executive. Dr. Mills attended University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. He completed his Family Medicine residency at the UCLA- Santa Monica Residency. He joined the Panel of Consultants in 2012 with a focus on supporting programs questing excellence in health equity for all.
Mary K. Nordling, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Nordling is a family physician and associate professor at the Oregon Health & Science University. She is founding program director for OHSU’s newest family medicine residency in Hillsboro, which opened in 2021. Dr. Nordling previously served as Program Director and DIO for the new Hawaii Island Family Medicine Residency, helping to graduate their first two classes. Prior to that, she was an Associate Program Director at the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency, where she also fulfilled her four-year National Health Service Corps Scholarship obligation. Dr. Nordling received her medical degree at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and completed her family medicine residency at UPMC-St Margaret in Pittsburgh, where she also served as chief resident. She joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2021.
Elissa Palmer, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Palmer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education (interim) at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Palmer worked in private practice at Central Maine Clinical Associates and Stowe (Vermont) Family Practice. She served as program director of the Altoona Family Physicians Residency in Pennsylvania (now UPMC). She received her doctoral degree at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed by residency training at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Palmer joined the Panel of Consultants in 2015.
Judith Pauwels, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Pauwels is a family physician and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. She served as program director for 16 years at Tacoma Family Medicine and then the UW Family Medicine residency programs. Since then, her primary role is Associate Director for Program Development and Accreditation for the WWAMI Family Medicine Residency Network. She has worked with HRSA as a consultant on the Teaching Health Center grant program, and currently serves on the Technical Assistance Center for the HRSA Rural Residency Program Development grant. Dr. Pauwels has been an RPS Consultant since 2002.
Randy Pearson, MD, FAAFP, FACSM
Dr. Pearson is an Associate Director and Core Faculty Member at the Sparrow/MSU Family Medicine Residency and a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine. He is also the current Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and DIO. Previously, he served as program director for the MSU/St. Lawrence Family Practice Residency and served as the director for the MSU Sports Medicine Fellowship for many years. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and his residency training at the MSU/St. Lawrence Family Practice Residency, where he served as chief resident in his third year. He completed a Faculty Development Fellowship through the MSU Office of Medical Education, Research, and Development in 1984. Dr. Pearson has served as a consultant since 2019.
Louis Sanner, MD, MSPH, FAAFP
Dr. Sanner is an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health in Madison, where he served as program director from 1996-2002 and was cofounder of the Baraboo Rural Training Track. Dr. Sanner has expertise in GME financing, overall new residency program development and residency clinic design. He has provided advanced obstetrical training to local health care providers in various parts of the developing world. He also serves as a lead advisor for many of the grantees of the HRSA funded Rural Residency Program Development and THC Program Development. Dr. Sanner attended Stanford Medical School. He completed his Family Medicine residency, chief residency, and two-year research fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Sanner has served on the Panel of Consultants since 2001.
Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH
Dr. Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH, is a practicing family physician and serves as Vice Chair for Education and Faculty Development for Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University School of Medicine. Prior to this, he was a family medicine residency director in Massachusetts for 10 years. His long work in safety net health systems, along with his MPH focused on Healthcare Policy Law & Ethics fuels his drive for health system transformation and leaning in to address systemic racism. He has experience with expanding primary care to include medication for opioid use disorder and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Dr. Sawin believes Just Culture and psychological safety are fundamental pillars to building a better health system and is a leader in using Restorative Justice in academic medical centers to support of those efforts. He joined the panel of consultants in 2023.
John B. Waits, MD, CPE, FAAFP
Dr. Waits is the co-founder and CEO of Cahaba Medical Care, a Community Health Center (FQHC) that started in 2004 in rural Bibb County, Alabama, and serves nearly 43,000 patients with 28 offices throughout Bibb, Perry, Chilton, Jefferson, Wilcox, and Shelby counties. Together in 2013, he and Dr. Lacy Smith co-founded Cahaba+UAB Family Medicine Residency, where he still serves as program director and DIO. Prior to this, Dr. Waits was Program Director of the Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency. He is a board-certified Family Medicine and Obstetrics physician, having earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed an Obstetrics Fellowship at the University of Alabama, as well as residency training at In His Image Family Medicine Residency in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He joined the consultant panel in 2024.
Emeritus Status
Bill Gillanders, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Gillanders directed the Providence Oregon Family Medicine Residency Program in Milwaukie, Oregon, until 2013. He directed successful residency programs in Ohio, California, and Oregon. Dr. Gillanders received his medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco. He completed his residency at the University of Washington and practiced for 10 years in White Salmon, Washington, before pursuing an academic career. He has served on the Panel of Consultants for more than 20 years – currently Consultant Emeritus.
Kent Voorhees, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Voorhees is an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Practice at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He has been working in GME since 1992, where he helped to develop the University of Colorado Swedish Family Medicine Residency. After serving as its medical director and then program director, he moved to the Department of Family Medicine at the CUSOM full time in 2006 as Vice Chair for Education, where he oversaw all the department’s educational programs including family medicine residencies, fellowships. He helped to develop the department’s rural training track in Ft. Morgan, Colorado, and helped to write 2 bills for the Colorado Legislature. He has expertise in GME financing, advocacy, and rural program development. He has served on the Panel of Consultants for more than 10 years – currently Consultant Emeritus.
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