MUA/P Interest Group Session: Partnerships in Underserved GME: I/T/U Organizations

Start Date:7/15/2025

Start Time:1:00 PM CDT

DURATION:60 minutes

DESCRIPTION:During the July 2025 MUA/P Interest Group Session, Heather Kovich, MD, founding Program Director of the UNM-Shiprock Family Medicine Residency in Shiprock, New Mexico and Marilyn Hines, DO, Program Director of the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health Family Medicine Residency in Oklahoma will present “Partnerships in Underserved GME: I/T/U Organizations.” I/T/U Organizations refer to Indian Health Service (IHS), tribal health services, and Urban Indian Organizations (UIOs). Following the presentation, participants will have Q/A with the speakers and engage in large group discussion. This call is part of a series of one-hour Zoom calls that are held monthly and are open to the entire GME community. The aim of these interest group sessions is for the community to learn about efforts in GME and MUA/P, to solve for common challenges, and to share helpful knowledge and resources. During these calls, institutional and program GME leaders will connect with their peers through discussion and will have an interface with the ACGME to build information and knowledge on various topics of relevance to the GME community.

Speakers

Heather Kovich, MD

Program Director, Family Medicine Residency

University of New Mexico (UNM)-Shiprock

Heather Kovich, MD, is the founding program director of the University of New Mexico (UNM)–Shiprock Family Medicine Residency in Shiprock, New Mexico. She received her medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Since 2009, she has practiced full-spectrum family medicine at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock. Dr. Kovich writes about rural health and has contributed several Perspective pieces to the New England Journal of Medicine.

Marilyn Hines, DO

Residency Program Director and Family Medicine Residency Department Chief

Chickasaw Nation Department of Health

Marilyn Hines, DO, is program director for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health Family Medicine Residency and chief of the Family Medicine Residency Department. She earned her medical degree from the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1992 and for the first 15 years of her career, practiced in a rural Oklahoma town of fewer than 3,000 residents. During that time, she held leadership roles at the local hospital, including chief of staff and committee chair. She managed a busy clinic, provided emergency care, served as medical director for EMS and a nursing home, and cared for hospitalized patients, including those from the Department of Corrections. Hines later helped establish an urgent care center in western Oklahoma before relocating to Artesia, New Mexico, where she worked in a rural health clinic and served as medical director. She then joined the New Mexico Rehabilitation Hospital in Roswell, providing inpatient rehabilitation care and helping to develop the acute detox unit. Then, in 2021 she began in her current role for the Chickasaw Nation Department of Health.

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