Mixed with excitement and a little bit of anxiousness, the first 42 students to enter the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine just over a decade ago sat in new student orientation in August 2010.
“The mayor welcomed us and talked about how the medical school was the biggest thing to happen to Roanoke since the railroad decided to build the depot there in the 1800s,” Andrew Moore recalled. “We were all looking at each other, like what? This guy is crazy. Then you look at what Roanoke has become a decade later and he wasn’t wrong.”
After graduating in 2014, Moore, like the majority of his fellow classmates, left Roanoke and scattered across the country for residency training in their chosen specialty. Moore went to Chicago for residency in emergency medicine at Northwestern University and then to Portland for a research fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University. This summer, he and his wife and son packed up and moved across the country – back to Roanoke – where he is now an emergency medicine physician for Carilion Clinic and assistant professor for the medical school.
In addition to Moore, three other charter class graduates came back to Roanoke this fall to practice after doing residency and/or fellowships elsewhere. Another signed a contract to come back this year after finishing a fellowship. Two charter class members, Josh Nichols and Josh Eikenberg – though Eikenberg graduated a year later to obtain a master’s in public health – stayed for residency and afterward to practice.
Robert Brown left after graduation and headed to Baltimore for a combined residency in internal medicine and emergency medicine at the University of Maryland. He just wrapped up a fellowship in critical care there – an important field as the COVID-19 pandemic began – before his return to Roanoke.
“I always had in mind that I would be lucky to come back here,” Brown said. “I had a unique experience. Not to mention, I came with scholarships and other things that made my way easier. A big part of me knew that if I was going to give back in some way, Roanoke could be a place to do it.”
Don Vile started his studies with the charter class with his wife and a weeks-old baby by his side. After graduation, they – along with a second child they welcomed during medical school – moved to Winston Salem, N.C., for an internal medicine residency at Wake Forest University. He stayed at Wake Forest for training in hematology and oncology.
When Vile started his job search, no positions in his field were available in the Roanoke area. “Looking at all the different factors – how much we enjoyed Roanoke and what the medical school and the community did for us while we were here – we really hoped for the opportunity to give back,” Vile said.
A position did subsequently open up at Blue Ridge Cancer Care. Vile is now a hematologist and oncologist at its Roanoke and Salem locations.
Ashley Gerrish thought her stay in Roanoke as a charter class student would be temporary. “I remember coming to medical school and thinking, when I finish, we’re leaving for residency,” she said. “Then I decided I wanted to stay for residency, but after that, we are leaving for good. Then, it really became home.”
Gerrish did leave Roanoke – temporarily – for a year-long minimally invasive surgery fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University. After the fellowship, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl to their family and, this fall, she began practicing back at Carilion Clinic as a bariatric and general surgeon.
“The fellowship made me appreciate a lot of the things that I have here. I realized I liked the size of Roanoke. I live two minutes from the hospital,” Gerrish said. “There are good things that I learned from my fellowship and the health system there that I can bring back to my practice here.”
Matt Joy is currently completing a reconstructive microsurgery fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Like Gerrish, Joy completed his residency with Carilion Clinic. He continued to pave the way in new academic opportunities as the first resident in Carilion’s integrated plastic surgery residency. He’s already contracted to return to Carilion Clinic after his fellowship. His family even stayed in Roanoke to await his return this coming summer.
“We love the city. It’s been a really great place for us to raise a family,” Joy said. “All three of our kids were born here in Roanoke over the course of medical school and residency. We’ve just really loved the greater community.”
Josh Eikenberg started with the charter class but graduated one year later to get a master’s degree.
“I have to admit that I couldn’t even find Roanoke on a map before I heard of VTC,” Eikenberg said. “Coming from a larger city [Baltimore] when I started medical school, I did not expect that I would stay in Roanoke after graduation.”
He did – completing his residency in dermatology. “As a graduate from a dermatology residency program, there was no shortage of job opportunities anywhere in the country,” Eikenberg said. “After seeing what was out there and ultimately deciding to stay in academics, I felt like there was no place better to start my career than at VTCSOM.” He now holds a faculty position with the medical school.
Beyond a love of the region, another theme that united the physicians in a desire to stay or return to Roanoke was mentorship and strong relationships with faculty, who are now colleagues.
