The McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program welcomed 16 new Residents to its program on June 7.

The new Residents for the Class of 2024 include: Dr. Daniel Altman, Dr. Yoseph Berhane, Dr. Rourke Decker, Dr. Sue Cruz Gerena, Dr. Kirsten Hernandez, Dr. Victoria Ivantchev, Dr. Elissa Jebaily, Dr. Meena Noori, and Dr. Danielle Schmidt. Joining the Rural Residency program in Cheraw are Dr. Cathryn Aliceaacosta, Dr. Bhavik Patel, and Dr. Kwame Brown. Joining the Rural Residency program in Clarendon are Dr. Jessica Gordon, Dr. Jarrod Mullen, Dr. Max Pickering, and Dr. Cecilia Ralyea.

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 267 graduates of the McLeod Family Medicine Residency Program with 60% of them staying in South Carolina and the McLeod Health service area of Northeastern South Carolina and Southeastern North Carolina.