Our palliative medicine fellows develop the skills, training & support to deliver evidence-based, compassionate care
Thank you for your interest in our fellowship program!
Our program provides a unique training opportunity as it is a perfect blend of community and academic medicine — the best of both worlds. We have a large, committed faculty within a supportive training environment. Wellstar is committed to the care of patients living with serious illness, and we have our own clinic that provides hospice and hospital-based services. Our fellows, therefore, have unrivaled continuity — something that can be challenging when some of these services are provided by outside agencies. Our inpatient pediatric program is expanding with a new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and a growing perinatal palliative care program on site. Our scholarly work is developed as a year-on-year body of work to ensure there is a focus on quality improvement and clinical research.
Our program is committed to constant improvement and innovation. Since starting in 2019, we have listened to feedback, and we strive to enhance the quality of the learning experience for our fellows. For example, we partner with the Ethics Fellowship so learners can discuss and debate multiple perspectives of ethical issues. We also have a diverse group of faith leaders teach our fellows about palliative care in their specific spiritual context. We listened to our fellows when it comes to balancing the need for continuity vs the emotional impact of long consult rotations, and now, consults are three-week blocks rather than whole months.
Geographically, we have the best of all worlds. We have had fellows live in downtown Atlanta, close to the hospital in historic Marietta or in small town North Georgia. We believe in a satisfying work-life balance and want you to make the most of your year at Wellstar.
As I reflect on our program, I am so grateful to all the people who make it special — the patients, the families, the faculty, and the fellows who inspire us every day. We hope you will consider joining us.
We’re committed to cultivating knowledgeable, compassionate physicians in hospice and palliative medicine. We strive to empower our fellows with the knowledge, skills and sensitivity required to provide exemplary patient care. Our program distinguishes itself with a large, dedicated faculty, constant interdisciplinary collaboration and a diverse patient population in multiple clinical settings. We are dedicated to advancing the highest standards of care for individuals facing serious illness while ensuring that each one receives comprehensive, person-centered support.
The main objective of our fellowship is to build the foundation for specialist physicians to provide patient-centered care in a population with increased healthcare utilization that will benefit from hospice and palliative medicine expertise.
Our fellows will:
Rotations
Elective options include (3 wks)
Fellows participate in one half day per week of educational time. Our curriculum includes:
In addition, fellows work with the program director to develop an individual learning plan of specific, self-directed learning that reflects their own educational needs.
We have moved to a weekly block schedule where fellows get three weeks minimum blocks of consults and hospice broken up by elective and less intense rotations.
As one of the largest palliative care programs in the state, there are multiple longitudinal projects fellows can be a part of as well as the opportunity to design and complete a quality improvement project. All fellows are required to submit a case to the AAHPM annual assembly.
2023
2022
2021
2020
Perfectly positioned between the north Georgia mountains and the city of Atlanta, Marietta is the ideal place for young professionals and growing families. Equal parts hip and hometown, it’s a bustling city with a small-town feel.
Marietta’s historic downtown square is alive with activity, hosting regular farmers markets, concerts, and festivals. The Battery and Truist Park (home of the Atlanta Braves) provide entertainment for everyone in the Vinings neighborhood. Marietta is also a short drive to Downtown Atlanta and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport.
Fellowship has allowed me to practice the kind of medicine we all dream of! I now spend most of my time at the bedside fostering relationships and actively helping people feel better. Our learner-centric program has truly shaped me into a more well-rounded physician.
I chose this fellowship because of all the amazing mentors who make this program so great. They have not only prepared me for a career in palliative medicine but have also helped me grow as a person.
Wellstar has a large palliative medicine presence and a large palliative medicine team, which allow for fellows to receive many different perspectives on end-of-life communication and treatment, which I found invaluable. There is also a great sense of teamwork. As a fellow I was treated incredibly well and recognized as a colleague with valuable input rather than just as a learner. There is also a great deal of hospital administration support of the palliative medicine program, which results in a very busy and educational inpatient consult service that provides a diverse educational experience for fellows.
Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center (677 Church St., Marietta), Wellstar Hospice Care at Kennesaw Mountain inpatient hospice unit (475 Dickson Ave. NW, Marietta), and Palliative Medicine clinic. Fellows will also have rotations where they go to patients’ homes and nursing homes for home hospice visits and home palliative care visits.
Each fellow must complete a quality improvement project during the fellowship year. Fellows will normally participate in a project already run by the department the first six months and in the second six months develop their own project, which they will then hand on to the next class. Each fellow will submit an abstract for the AAHPM national conference for poster or oral presentation. If accepted, the fellow must attend the AAHPM national conference.
While it’s not mandatory for fellows to attend, it’s strongly encouraged. Conference fees, registration, hotel, and flight costs will be covered by the fellowship program.
Fellows will take one day of home call per five days while on inpatient palliative consults and hospice, along with a supervising attending.
Three weeks of vacation time. In addition, fellows are allowed up to five days off for interviews and do not work major holidays (Fourth of July, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day).
All cafeteria food at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center is free for fellows. All Specialist Series lectures are catered.
Dr. Gordon started her training in the UK, where she graduated from the University of Manchester. She pursued training in medicine obtaining MRCP (Edi). She pursued further training in acute care before moving to the United States for more training. She completed internal medicine training at St. John Medical Center in Detroit, and was appointed chief resident before pursuing a hospice and palliative fellowship at Cleveland Clinic. Following her fellowship, she came to Wellstar and has worked in palliative care consults for over 10 years. Her research interests include increasing scholarly activity in a community palliative setting, resident well-being, and quality improvement. She is VitalTalk faculty, EPEC trainer, a member of the item writing task force for the ABIM Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship board exam, and a fellow of the AAHPM.
Dr. Nikhita Ananthula has been with Wellstar as an inpatient palliative medicine physician since September 2019. She started a new role as the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship assistant program director in July 2023. She is board-certified in both internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine.
She was drawn to hospice and palliative medicine because it’s one of the few specialties that puts medical care in the perspective of the patient’s quality of life. It’s a field that looks at the whole person across the disease trajectory, rather than one organ system or at one moment in time. She started her journey at St. Louis University in St Louis, Missouri, with a bachelor’s degree in political science. She attended St. Louis University School of Medicine, went to Stony Brook University Hospital for internal medicine residency and to Virginia Commonwealth University for hospice and palliative medicine fellowship.
Dr. DeRusso is board certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. He graduated from the Siena/Albany Medical College Science and Humanities Program in 2015, then went on to complete internal medicine residency at Stony Brook University Hospital and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He joined Wellstar in 2019 and is on the faculty where he enjoys teaching the palliative medicine fellows. His non-clinical interests include running, biking, and attending concerts and baseball games.
Dr. Park is board-certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. She is the outpatient medical director and sees patients in the Comprehensive Care Clinic in Marietta. Dr. Park received her bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University. She completed her internal medicine residency training at the University of California Irvine and her fellowship at New York University.
Dr. Schepp began to specialize in palliative medicine and was a founding member of the palliative care team at Emory Healthcare in 2005. She then served as medical director of palliative care at St. Joseph’s Hospital from 2008 to 2013. In 2013, Dr. Schepp joined Wellstar as the medical director of palliative medicine, initially overseeing a hospital-based consultation program and hospice. In the last decade, Dr. Schepp has been a part of a leadership team that has grown the scope and delivery of quality palliative care for Wellstar patients in every setting, including Wellstar hospitals, area nursing homes, outpatient clinic, home-based palliative care, and hospice. Dr. Schepp has recently and gratefully assumed the role of hospice medical director for Wellstar Hospice Care and is already thrilled to be working with that amazing team.
Dr. Schepp earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Florida. She completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She has lived in Atlanta since 2001 and turns to her husband, two children and two standard poodles for love, support, and comic relief daily.
Dr. Patricia (“Patti”) Shearer is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She holds board certification in general pediatrics, hematology/oncology, and hospice and palliative medicine. She graduated from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She completed an internship and residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Her first fellowship, pediatric hematology/oncology, was at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where she received the American Cancer Society Training Grant. Her second fellowship, hospice and palliative medicine, was at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. There she became motivated to relieve the challenges posed by chronic illness in children on siblings and other family members.
Dr. Patti has held academic appointments at the University of Maryland (professor and chief of pediatric hematology/oncology), University of Tennessee, University of Florida, Tulane University, and the Alix School of Medicine at Mayo Clinic. She earned several awards for excellence in teaching as part of her career, largely as a result of her clinical contributions to the care of children.
Dr. Kevin Smith is board-certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative care. He achieved the distinction of valedictorian in high school, and he went on to pursue his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, earning a bachelor’s degree in pre-professional studies and a minor in anthropology. He continued his education at St. Louis University School of Medicine, culminating in an internal medicine residency at Duke, where he was selected to be assistant chief resident. He then went on to complete a fellowship in hospice and palliative care at the Harvard teaching hospitals in Boston. He is a decorated educator, having received several awards since joining the faculty, including Teacher of the Year for the palliative care fellowship program on three separate occasions. His research interests include health disparities in underrepresented communities.
Dr. Catherine Trippe is board certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative care. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at Wellstar Kennestone. Her interests include evidence-based palliative medicine. She currently is involved with teaching fellows and developing a longitudinal board-review curriculum. Her non-clinical interests include dancing, walking outdoors, and fostering dogs.
Residency: Family Medicine, LewisGale Hospital Montgomery
Hometown: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Medical school: Medical College of Wisconsin
Residency: Emergency medicine, Western Michigan University
Personal interests & hobbies: Spending time with my wife, daughter and dog, distance running, Spanish language, hockey, and travel
Residency: Family Medicine, Anmed Health
Residency: Family Medicine, University of South Florida
Hometown: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Medical school: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (Intec)
Residency: Internal medicine at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois
Clinical interests: Becoming a hospice medical director after completing my fellowship
Personal interests & hobbies: Playing video games, watching anime, planning my upcoming wedding, and spending time with family and friends
Why palliative medicine? I shifted from a hospitalist role to palliative care and hospice after discovering fulfillment in assisting patients and their families in difficult situations, offering emotional support and navigating the challenges associated with serious illnesses.
Why did you choose Wellstar for your fellowship? I chose the Wellstar fellowship because the program curriculum seemed like it would provide me with a well-rounded education. Additionally, due to my interest in hospice, the presence of an inpatient hospice unit in our program made it particularly appealing to me. Moreover, being situated at Wellstar Kennestone provides exposure to a wide array of medical conditions, contributing to a rich learning environment.
Hometown: Marietta
Medical school: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine – Georgia Campus
Residency: Internal medicine, Wellstar Kennestone (chief resident)
Clinical interests: Inpatient palliative medicine consults and outpatient palliative medicine
Personal interests and hobbies: Reading for pleasure, cooking and trying new recipes, Orangetheory workouts, traveling, trying new restaurants with my husband, and spending time with my toddler
Why did you choose Wellstar for your fellowship? I chose Wellstar because it’s close to home, but more importantly, the faculty and leadership team were extremely kind and warm. During my interview process I could sense that I would be in a good and healthy work environment. I really admired the leadership team and thought that they were very transparent and really cared about their fellows. I did not feel like our call schedule or schedule overall would be impossible to do over the next year. I was really looking for a program that had a good work environment and a reasonable work life balance!
Medical school: The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University
Residency: Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University; thoracic surgery, University of Utah; cardiothoracic surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City
Personal interests & hobbies: Guitar, reading, fishing, travel, and cooking
Marietta Square | Truist Park | The Battery | Gone With the Wind Museum | Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre | New Theatre in the Square | Ghosts of Marietta Tour | Marietta Square Farmers Market | Hilton Atlanta-Marietta Hotel & Conference Center | Cobb Galleria Centre
Cycling is a popular form of transportation in Marietta. The area is also served by the CobbLinc bus service that connects to MARTA — Atlanta’s light rail and bus network. Drivers also have quick access to I-75 and I-285 to get anywhere they need.
