The McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program welcomed 17 new Residents to its program on June 17th. The new Residents for the Class of 2027 include Dr. Richard Gannon, Dr. Alondra Gutierrez Ara, Dr. Alexander Manno, Dr. Charles Payne, Dr. Colton Putnam, Dr. Zeyn Sparks White, Dr. Josephine Tai, Dr. Jacob Vining, and Dr. Andrew Westfall. Joining the McLeod Rural Residency program in Cheraw are Dr. Martin Cherenfant, Dr. Zachary Monks, Dr. Shahbaz Mushtaq, and Dr. Monika Sokolowska. New Residents joining the Rural Residency program in Clarendon are Dr. Beshoy Benyamen, Dr. Deepthy Narayana, Dr. Colin Henderson, and Dr. Flora Jane Brown. 

The McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program is designed to train physicians in an effort to increase the availability of family medicine physicians for patients in the 18-county region McLeod Health serves. After graduating from medical school, physicians who join McLeod for their residency receive a rigorous three years of training to prepare for their own future practice. Since its inception in 1980, there have been 293 graduates of the McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program and 13 graduates from the McLeod Family Medicine Rural Residency Programs. From the two programs, 60 percent of the physicians have stayed in South Carolina and the McLeod Health service area of Northeastern South Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina.