Program Leadership
Dr. Ronald Brimberry graduated from the UAMS College of Medicine in 1981 and was awarded the Dr. Winston K. Shorey Award by his classmates, recognizing his compassionate and humanitarian values. He completed his Family Medicine residency at the UAMS Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (DFPM) in 1984, and an Academic Family Medicine fellowship in 1985. From 1992-1996, he served as the UAMS Family Medicine residency Program Director, then served as the Associate Director from 1996-1997. Dr. Brimberry received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award from the UAMS Little Rock Family Medicine residency graduating Class of 1997.
From October 1997 through May 2000, Dr. Brimberry was in full-time private practice including obstetrics at the St. Vincent MetroCentre Health Clinic in Little Rock. He returned to academics in June 2000 to join the faculty of the UAMS-NW Family Medicine residency program as an Associate Professor at the UAMS-NW Regional Program in Fayetteville. In 2019-2020 he served as the UAMS-NW Interim Family Medicine Residency Program Director.
Dr. Brimberry currently serves as an Associate Program Director for the Northwest residency. He has served as the Medical Director for the UAMS-NW Family Medical Centers in Fayetteville and Springdale. An Assistant Professor from 1985-1991, he was involved in the DFPM’s Predoctoral Education Division. In 2023, he was promoted to Professor. He enjoys all aspects of the practice of Family Medicine, including chronic disease management, preventive services for children and adults, and women’s health care.
Dr. Jonathan Fausett is the Site Director for the Mercy Family Medicine Clinic Berryville. He graduated from Utah State University in 2011 and medical school at Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2016. He completed his residency at University of Wyoming Family Medicine in 2019.
Dr. Fausett enjoys the continuity and long-term relationship building in Family Medicine. In rural medicine, and in Berryville, he has the freedom to mold his practice to the areas of medicine he enjoys the most. Early childhood, wound care, and serving a large Hispanic population are some of his favorite areas of medical practice.
In his off time, he completes home improvement projects, plays with his children, wanders in the Ozark Mountains, and tends to his honeybees.
Rural Core Faculty
Dr. Jon Loudermilk is the Site Director for the Washington Regional Eureka Springs Family Clinic and is also an attending physician at Brighton Ridge Therapy and Living Center and Elite Home Health of Eureka Springs. He graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2012 and completed his residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences South Central Family Medicine Residency program in Pine Bluff in 2015.
Dr. Dean Turbeville, Jr., is the Site Director for Mercy Hospital Berryville. He graduated from the University of Arkansas Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in 2010. After graduating from UAMS in 2014, he completed his residency at Ball Memorial Hospital Family Medicine Residency in 2017.
Dr. Turbeville chose family medicine for the breadth of experience that it provides. He is able to see a wide variety of patients and pathology. Rural medicine, and in particular at Mercy Berryville, allows him to develop and maintain long term relationships with his patients to provide them the best care possible. He enjoys both inpatient and outpatient medicine.
In his spare time, he enjoys hobby chemistry, astrophotography, and traveling with his wife.
Rural Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Stacey Burnett practices in the Washington Regional Eureka Springs Family Clinic. She graduated from medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in 1999, completed a Family Medicine Internship at Conemaugh Valley Memorial Center in 2000, and a Family Medicine Residency at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences AHEC Northeast Program in Jonesboro in 2002. Dr. Burnett chose to practice medicine in a rural community because it allows her to develop deep bonds with the community and where she is more likely to see patients during daily life, outside of the clinic. She enjoys health education and teaching patients how to live healthier lives with fewer medical interventions. Additionally, Dr. Burnett is an artist in several mediums including sewing, painting, upcycling and dance/flow arts.
Dr. Gibbons practices at the Washington Regional Eureka Springs Family Clinic. She graduated from medical school at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2016. She then completed her residency at the University of New Mexico - Santa Fe Family Residency Program. After graduating in 2019, she joined the Global Health Fellowship through Contra Costa/UCSF. During her fellowship, she supervised newly graduated medical students in rural Chiapas, Mexico, and taught medical students in Malawi during their family medicine rotations. Upon returning to the United States, she joined the core faculty of her former residency program. She has since returned to her home state of Arkansas to practice rural family medicine in Eureka Springs. Within medicine, her passions include clinical education, women's health, point-of-care ultrasound, and caring for the underserved.
Dr. Julia Horton-Bertrand practices in the Mercy clinic in Berryville, Arkansas. She began her medical career working at Mercy Hospital Berryville as a nursing assistant and ER tech before completing her undergraduate degree at Hendrix College. She attended the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she received both her medical degree and a Master of Public Health degree in 2017. Dr. Horton-Bertrand completed a family medicine residency with UAMS Northwest before returning to her native Berryville, where she works alongside her father. Dr. Charles Horton.
Dr. Charles Horton practices in the Mercy Clinic in Berryville, Arkansas. He graduated from Hendrix College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry in 1979. After completing medical school at UAMS in 1984, he completed his residency in family medicine at the UAMS Regional Campus in Pine Bluff in 1987.
Dr. Horton chose family medicine for the variety it offers, as it enables him to see patients of all ages and with a wide array of health needs. He enjoys practicing medicine in a rural community as it has given him the opportunity to care for patients in many different settings during over 30 years of rural practice. He has provided outpatient longitudinal care, but inpatient critical care, emergency medical care, convenient walk-in outpatient care, nursing home care, at-home visits and virtual visits via computer. He has included obstetrical care in his past practice and has delivered many babies during his career.
Dr. Horton particularly enjoys the management of infectious disease, diabetes care, and sleep medicine. When not working, he enjoys old maps, history, and short-wave radio.
Dr. Stewart Rowell practices in the Mercy clinic in Berryville. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Arkansas Tech University before attending medical school at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He completed his residency in family medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences South Central Family Medicine Residency program in Pine Bluff in 2018.
Dr. Richard Taylor graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1982. He completed his residency in family medicine in 1985 and taught at the UAMS AHEC in Pine Bluff until 1986 when he moved to Berryville, Arkansas. He has practiced family medicine in the clinic at Berryville as well as Shell Knob, Missouri. Since 2013, he has been a hospitalist at Mercy Hospital, Berryville. He has been Medical Director of the local hospice since its inception, approximately 25 years ago. He enjoys playing resonator guitar, guitar and mandolin, as well as fishing and entertaining grandchildren.
Urban Core Faculty
Dr. Heidi Agesilas is a member of the UAMS Family Medicine Residency’s Class of 2014. Originally from Puerto Rico, Agesilas joined the UAMS Northwest faculty upon graduation from the Northwest Family Medicine residency program and has worked with residents ever since.
Agesilas plays the violin and the viola. She enjoys traveling, spending time with friends, arts and crafts, investing time reading good books, listening to thriller audiobooks, autobiographies and podcasts. She is a native Spanish speaker and has basic knowledge of French.
Dr. Derrick Gray graduated from St. Matthews University in the Cayman Islands in 2006. He received his undergraduate degree from the Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was saved from a collegiate football career by a knee injury.
Dr. Gray completed his Family Medicine Residency at UAMS Northwest in Fayetteville in 2010. His special interests include endoscopy, chronic disease management, and healthcare for the homeless. Dr. Gray leads a test taking study group for PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents monthly. Furthermore, Dr. Gray oversees the Health Systems Management rotation for our PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents. In 2015, Dr. Gray was appointed co-medical director of the Arkansas State Veterans Home in Fayetteville. He is also the winner of the 2015 Regional Programs Excellence in Teaching Award.
His hobbies include reading, running, and football. He is an LSU fan, and he enjoys coaching his son’s basketball team.
Dr. Judkins is the Medical Director for the UAMS Family Medical Center in Fayetteville. He was a family medicine physician in Fairbanks, Alaska, from 1985 to 2013, where he practiced full-spectrum family medicine with an emphasis on adult medicine and procedural skills. He returned to Fayetteville in 2013 to join the family medicine residency as a faculty member.
He has a special interest in gastrointestinal problems, including extensive experience with diagnostic and screening colonoscopy, polyp removal, and diagnostic EGDs. Dr. Judkins also has extensive experience performing vasectomies and currently teaches residents this procedure in the Family Medical Center in Fayetteville.
Dr. Michael Macechko serves as the Program Director for the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Residency Program that partners with our rural residency program. He also serves as the Site Director for Washington Regional Medical Center and the UAMS Family Medical Center, where RTP residents train in the PGY-1 year. Dr. Macechko graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2009 and completed his Family Medicine Residency at the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Program in 2012.
Dr. Macechko moved to Fayetteville at a young age, then graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 2005. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Merin, and their children, Henry & Anna Kate, and watching Razorback Sports, along with any outdoor activity.
Dr. Macechko completed a two-year UAMS Regional Programs Academic Fellowship. His special interests are resident health and well-being, geriatrics, pediatrics, preventative care, and chronic disease management.
On July 1, 2020, Dr. Macechko became Program Director for the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Residency program in Fayetteville.
Dr. Linda McGhee graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1971. She is double-boarded in Pediatrics and Family Medicine. She began working at UAMS Northwest in 1978.
Dr. McGhee has developed a keen interest in the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients and serves on several community, county and statewide boards related to this concern. Since 1992 she has been the Medical Director of the Washington County HIV Clinic, the first county HIV Clinic in the state of Arkansas. She was a past president of the Arkansas Academy of Family Physicians and has served on the Arkansas State Board of Health and the Arkansas State Medical Board. She previously served as vice chair of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.
Dr. McGhee was born in Malvern, Arkansas. She lives in the country outside of Fayetteville and has two children and two grandchildren. Some of Dr. McGhee’s other interests include independent studies, traveling, community service, reading and gardening.
Dr. Alan Padilla Ramos is an assistant professor with the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Residency program, where he mentors current residents.
He aims to improve his clinical and doctor-to-patient skills through continuing medical education and professional experience to serve and help the community around him. He graduated in June 2022 from the UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Residency Program. Prior to that, he worked as a general practitioner in Mexicali, Mexico, where he studied medicine at UABC.
Dr. Padilla Ramos is bilingual and bicultural and has a passion to serve Hispanic and other minority populations, promoting inclusion, equity, and diversity.
Dr. Sheldon Riklon joined the UAMS Northwest faculty in August 2016. He splits his time between the Family Medicine Residency Program, the UAMS Office of Research and Community Health, and the Community Clinic in Springdale. Dr. Riklon is one of only two Marshallese doctors practicing in the U.S.
He came to UAMS from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, where he served as family medicine clerkship director and as a faculty member in the UH Family Medicine Residency Program. He is a 2001 graduate of that residency program and a 1998 graduate of the Burns A. School of Medicine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
He is the inaugural holder of the Peter O. Kohler M.D. Endowed Chair in Health Disparities at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Fayetteville and the 2021 recipient of the Dr. Edith Irby Jones Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dr. Brittany Vaughn holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and received her medical degree, along with a master’s degree in public health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock in 2008. She completed her residency at St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, Colorado.
A native of Fayetteville, she worked as a physician at New West Physicians in Golden, Colorado, before returning to Arkansas in 2014. Her medical interests include women’s health, pediatrics, mental health and international health.