Introducing the Alumni Network Committee
Michelle Bragg, Ed.D, MBA, MS
Michelle joined the Residency in 2014 as the administrative director. She has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s in health care policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctorate in education from University of New England. Michelle manages budgeting and operations for the residency and the clinics and coordinates the practice management curriculum. Michelle was raised in central Maine and is thrilled to be back working in the community. She lives in Manchester with her husband, Scott, and two children, Joshua and Sophia.
Donna Conkling, MD (family medicine residency class of 1982)
Donna Conkling graduated from Mt Holyoke College in 1969 with a degree in English. She received a MAT degree at the University of Chicago in 1971. After 1 1/2 years of teaching high school English, she taught English as a second language in Ujung Pandang, Celebes, Indonesia. She returned to the U.S. determined to become a doctor (teaching English was much too difficult), and attended Medical College of Penna. 1975-1979. She finished her medical training at MDFMP in 1982. Afterwards she joined four other family docs to form a group practice in Skowhegan. After 5 years of private practice, she went to work in the Togus VAH outpatient department until 1992. She returned to Skowhegan to join the hospital-owned internal medicine group. She retired from this adult primary care practice in 2013, happy to have had so many good years practicing primary care in central Maine. During most of this time she had the joy and privilege of precepting at MDFMP. She continues to live on the Kennebec in Skowhegan. Her last medical duty was caring for her husband of 56 years who died of Parkinson’s almost 3 years ago. She has two sons who live in California and work at Google. She enjoys swimming, hiking, skiing, camping, reading, and travel.
Greg Feero MD, PhD (family medicine residency class of 2001, Alumni Network Committee Co-Chair)
Dr. Feero attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and graduated with an M.D., Ph.D. (Human Genetics) in 1998. He then completed his medical training at the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency in Augusta, Maine. After five years on the faculty of the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency, he accepted a position at the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, where he was a senior advisor to the director, and branch chief of the Genomic Healthcare Branch in the Office of Policy, Communication and Education, Office of the Director. In 2009 he returned to Maine. Dr. Feero served for over a decade as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Medical Association and has served as co-chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health. He has authored several book chapters and over 50 peer-reviewed publications and is board certified in family medicine. He is a professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and clinical associate professor at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. He currently sees patients at Four Seasons Family Practice in Fairfield, ME.
Kathryn Galbraith, MD (family medicine residency class of 1998)
Kathryn Galbraith, MD practices outpatient family medicine at the independent practice she and her husband, David Galbraith, MD (MDFMR class of 1998) have owned since 2010, Galbraith Family Medicine, LLC located in Limerick, Maine. She has been a community preceptor at the FMI nearly monthly since she graduated from the program and has seen many wonderful changes at MDFMR. Passionate about independent practice, Kathryn serves as one of the co-chairs of the Maine Medical Association Independent Practice Section and is a local medical director for the New England market for Aledade, a company whose solutions in value based care help independent primary care practices succeed in physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs). She is a mom to two wonderful young adult children, Aiden and Keara, and relishes being part of their lives whenever the opportunity arises. In her free time, Kathryn enjoys gardening, cycling, and tennis in warm weather, and indoor volleyball, crafting, and cross-country skiing in the winter.
Laura Gurenlian, DO (family medicine residency class of 2021)
Photo & bio pending
Deirdre Heersink, DO (family medicine residency class of 2010)
Dr. Deirdre Heersink is a board-certified family medicine physician and certified medical director specializing in post-acute and long-term care. She currently works at two long-term care facilities, MaineGeneral Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care at GrayBirch and Maine Veterans Home in Augusta, serves as a per-diem hospitalist, and offers traditional osteopathic care at Brunswick Osteopathy. For a decade growing up, Deirdre trained as a gymnast with inspirational coaches, learning through experience the value of flexibility, strength, balance, and goal setting. Before starting medical school, she worked as a high school history teacher and brought students to establish a library at a UNHCR refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya—a formative experience, meeting people where they were at and trying to make a tangible contribution. She treasures her time with family, enjoying travel, skiing, swimming, and learning from others. Deirdre believes that it is essential to invest in relationships within medicine, as there is no more personal profession. She feels blessed to have trained with exceptional mentors and colleagues and is looking forward to growing the connections and care within the Maine-Dartmouth community for years to come.
Cathy Morrow, MD (faculty alum, Alumni Network Committee Co-Chair)
Bio pending
Gregory Okenabirhie, MD (family medicine residency class of 2026)
The youngest child in a large family, Dr. Gregory Okenabirhie aspires to be a compassionate physician who actively listens and has lifelong relationships with patients and families. He is attracted by the diversity that family medicine affords as a specialty and looks forward to developing collaborative relationships with patients to foster good health outcomes. During medical training, Gregory devoted countless hours to community initiatives, including coordinating volunteers for the Red Cross and coordinating chronic disease screenings for community residents. He served as lead research collaborator on a study of surgical site infections. His work experience includes audiology technician and administrative assistant for an assisted living facility. Gregory enjoys community outreach, volunteer work, high-intensity interval training, cooking, and playing soccer and basketball.
Anna Veach, DO (ONMM class of 2017)
Anna is a 2017 graduate of MDFMR’s NMM “Plus One” program and assumed the program directorship of the ONMM Residency and medical directorship of MDCCC in January 2021. Anna earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from University of California – Santa Cruz and completed osteopathic medical training at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo CA, where she was awarded a pre-doctoral osteopathic teaching fellowship. She trained in family medicine at University of Wisconsin’s Madison Family Medicine Residency Program and returned to work for the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health from 2017-2020. During her employment with the UW, she was the assistant director for statewide osteopathic education in Wisconsin, the osteopathic site director for the Madison family medicine residency, and an assistant clinical professor in University of Wisconsin’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. Anna is ABFM, AOBFP, and AOBNMM certified, is trained in prolotherapy, and has special interest in integrative and functional medicine. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, camping, backpacking, mountain biking, and hiking with her husband and dog named Curry.
Margaret Webb, MD (family medicine residency class of 1991)
Meg Webb wrote in her high school yearbook that she aspired to be a rural family doctor in northern New England, making house calls in her pickup truck, with her golden retriever in the back. The pickup truck is a Subaru, and the golden is a mutt, but the rest came to pass. Dr. Webb attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where no one had ever heard of family medicine and thought it was a terrible career choice. During her first year at Penn, John McPhee’s article “Heirs of General Practice” was published in the New Yorker and was instrumental in empowering Dr. Webb to choose family medicine and the Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice Residency. After completing residency in 1991, Dr. Webb spent three years on the Zuni Indian Reservation, and then returned to Brooks, Maine, where she practiced full spectrum family medicine, including obstetrics, for seven years. She and her life partner, Walter Love, MD (MDFMR ’91), have practiced outpatient family medicine at their tiny independent practice in Waldoboro for 19 years. When not working, Meg enjoys gardening, rowing, playing fiddle, knitting, and hanging out with her young adult children, Caleb and Sophie.