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.
Personalized, Confidential, Affordable
We're focused on you, whether you're an established residency or one that's just getting started. We know every residency is unique, so we offer customized services that draw on best practices from over 40 years in the field and our accomplished team of family medicine consultants.
RPS provides a wide range of services—with longitudinal plans designed by experts who have been in your position—to ensure your success.
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. See a few of the ways we can help.
- 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
- Finance and financial issues
- Institutional and program application review
- Recruitment and retention
- Family medicine practice management
- Site transitions
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, based on what works.
Team-Based
Behind every great consultant is our full team of RPS expert peers, ready to flex skills and share knowledge to get you where you need to be.
Continuity Support
Meeting program needs is our top priority. Count on us being a longitudinal partner who knows how to adapt and put into place interventions that last.
Greg Blake, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Dr. Blake is a professor emeritus in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville. He served as department chairman and chief of family medicine at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Dr. Blake has served as an RPS consultant since 1994. Dr. Blake completed his medical education at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and completed his family medicine residency at Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia. He received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
Steven Crane, MD, MA, FAAFP
Dr. Crane is a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as an advisor for HRSA grantees in rural residency program development. He joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2012. 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 University in Cleveland and completed his family medicine residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he served as chief resident.
Alan B. Douglass, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Douglass is a Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado. Prior to moving west he spent 31 years at Middlesex Health in Middletown, Connecticut where he was the long-time Family Medicine Residency Director and ACGME Designated Institutional Official. He joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2021. He received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut. He completed his residency in family medicine at Middlesex Hospital and Faculty Development Fellowship at Duke University. He holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In addition to his role as an RPS Consultant, he trains new Residency Directors through service on the Academic Council of the National Institute for Program Director Development (NIPDD).
Roger Garvin, MD, FAAFP
For 12 years, Dr. Garvin served as the Family Medicine Residency Director at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. He joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2015. Dr. Garvin received his medical degree from Oregon Health & Science University. He completed his residency at Family Medicine Spokane and practiced eight years of full spectrum care in a small town in Eastern Washington. He then spent 11 years on the faculty of the Spokane Family Medicine residency and completed a faculty development fellowship at the University of Washington.
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 finished residency training at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He practiced full-scope Family Medicine in Madisonville, TN for 5 years before returning to the University of Missouri where he completed a faculty development and geriatrics fellowship.
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. He has served on the RPS Panel of Consultants for more than 20 years. 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.
Diana Heiman, MD, CAQSM
Dr. Heiman is the Vice Chair for Academic and Faculty Affairs in the University of Kentucky Department of Family and Community Medicine. Prior to that she was the Assistant Dean for GME for the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University and the Department of Family Medicine GME Liaison. Dr. Heiman 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 2003-2011. She then became the program director at the Johnson City Family Medicine Residency Program in January 2012 until June 2019. Dr. Heiman received her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, and then completed residency in Family Medicine at the University of Virginia. She then completed her Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she stayed as junior faculty. She joined RPS 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 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 the AT Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri.
Hobart Lee, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Lee attended medical school at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He completed his family medicine residency, chief resident year, and academic faculty development fellowship at the University of Michigan. He is an associate professor at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2021.
Walt Mills, MD, MMM, FACPE, FAAFP
Dr. Mills is clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and has been on the clinical faculty since 1986. He is the designated institution official and director of medical education and medical student program and associate director for the UCSF Natividad Family Medicine Residency Program in Monterey County, California. Dr. Mills is president-elect for the California Academy of Family Physicians. He joined the RPS Panel of Consultants in 2012.
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. 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 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). 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 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 at the Sparrow/Michigan State University Family Medicine Residency and professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the MSU College of Human Medicine. He is also the current Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and DIO for MSU-CHM. Previously, he served as program director for the MSU/St. Lawrence Family Practice Residency, during which time, the hospital and residency underwent a merger. He also served for many years as the fellowship director for the MSU Sports Medicine Fellowship. After residency, Dr. Pearson worked in private practice before joining the faculty at MSU-CHM. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and completed 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 while he was chief resident. Dr. Pearson has served as an RPS 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. Dr. Sanner has served on the Panel of Consultants since 2001. 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.
Stephen Schultz, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Schultz is the program director at the University of Rochester Family Medicine Residency Program. Prior to this role, he served for five years with National Health Service Corps at an inner-city community health center. Dr. Schultz has served as a family medicine residency consultant in Iran, Japan, and Russia. He served 4 years on the Board of Directors of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. Dr. Schultz received his medical degree from Brown in 1992. He completed his family medicine residency at the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital family medicine residency program, and served a fourth year as chief resident.
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, using his private practice, where their first residents began in 1994. 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 (which include sports medicine, palliative medicine and also addiction medicine which he helped to develop) He also helped to oversee and restructured medical student education and served on the departments executive committee since 2006. He helped to develop the department’s rural training track in Ft. Morgan, Colorado, and helped to write 2 bills for the Colorado Legislature that help to fund this. Dr Voorhees is also a consultant for the HRSA Rural Residency Program Development and the Technical Assistance Center grants. He has expertise in GME financing, advocacy, and rural program development. Dr. Voorhees has served on the RPS Panel of Consultants since 2010.
Send Us an Email
Have questions about our services, or want to start working together? We can't wait to hear from you and learn about your goals.
Reach out today by emailing rps@aafp.org.
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 edition 12.5, 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.
Section updates in edition 12.5 include:
- Newly released program requirements
- 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.
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