Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH, is a practicing family physician and serves as Vice Chair for Education and Faculty Development for the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Sawin’s work reflects his core value in social justice and a passion to increase health equity — to meet vulnerable patients’ needs, he also has experience with expanding the scope of primary care to include addiction treatment with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and gender affirming hormone therapy for gender diverse individuals. His long work in safety net health systems, along with his MPH that had a focus in Healthcare Policy Law & Ethics, fuels his drive for health system transformation and leaning in to address systemic racism, which is the primary driver of inequities that manifest as social determinants of health. Dr. Sawin believes Just Culture and psychological safety are fundamental pillars to building a better health system.
Jonathan E. Fischer, MD, CAQHM is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Clinical Faculty in the Division of Palliative Care and a Medical Director for the Population Health Management Office at Duke University. Before entering medicine, he served as a Social Worker with homeless families in New York City and volunteered with Tibetan and Ayurvedic practitioners in Asia, which fueled his career-long passion for helping the underserved. After medical school and residency at UNC, he spent 10 years as a primary care provider in federally qualified community health centers and an instructor in the UNC School of Medicine where he continued his commitment to underserved and marginalized populations, he created access programs for refugees and migrant farm workers and developed statewide palliative care initiatives to improve serious illness care for Medicaid recipients. Currently with the Duke Center for Research to Advance Healthcare Equity, he is developing an implicit bias training intervention for medical providers.
John W. Ragsdale III, MD (Course Director) has served as Chief of the Division of Family Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health since 2017. Prior to that he served as Medical Director from 2012 -2017 and has maintained a clinical practice in the Department of Family Medicine since 2009. His clinical and research interests have focused on cancer survivorship specifically with urological cancers and maintains a clinical practice in survivorship at the Duke Cancer Institute. He also has a long-standing interest in women's health, leadership and medical education as he has been an active member for the Family Medicine Residency program as core faculty since 2009.
Annie Dotson, MD, MSPH, IBCLC, FAAFP, NABBLM-C is a family physician, breastfeeding medicine specialist, and educator. Dr. Dotson completed her undergraduate studies at Florida State University, earning dual degrees in Biological Sciences and Religion. Following graduation, she taught high school science for two years with Teach for America in Houston, Texas. She then attended Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health earning a Master of Science in Public Health in International Health with focused studies in global disease and epidemiology control and vaccine sciences. Dr. Dotson completed her medical studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill followed by residency training at University of New Mexico. Following residency, she completed a T32 primary care research fellowship at UNC, focusing on maternity care workforce. In 2021, Dr. Dotson joined Duke Family Medicine as a faculty member and later a core faculty member with clinical outpatient practice as well as an inpatient practice in obstetrics and newborn care. Dr. Dotson specializes in breastfeeding medicine and infant feeding and is among the first group of physicians to achieve board certification in Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.
John Vaughn, MD is Associate Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health, and Director of Student Wellbeing Research at Duke University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (English) and Doctor of Medicine degrees from The Ohio State University and completed his Family Medicine Residency at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital. His primary academic interest lies in the field of Narrative Medicine, specifically how the development of narrative competence informs and enhances clinician satisfaction and patient outcomes. He has developed and taught Narrative Medicine curricula for learners at the undergraduate and medical school levels and is a principal investigator on research projects evaluating the use of Narrative Medicine to address burnout and moral injury in clinicians and healthcare administrators. He is a previous Executive Editor and current Consulting Editor for the Journal of American College Health and is the co-editor of the textbook Principles and Practice of College Health.
