Medboard Matters Podcast
On this episode of the Remembering Hurricane Helene series, we interview Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, Rural Fellowship Director and Director of Rural Health Initiatives for the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville. Dr. Gilmer put his extensive global health experience in serving under resourced patient populations to good use and was busy practicing out of a donated bus in a church parking lot in Swannanoa in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Posted September 25, 2025 |
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Resources and Information
MAHEC’s Rural Health Initiative
Ways to help Western North Carolina
Podcast Transcript
Download Transcript (208KB pdf file)
Hosts and Guests
Jean Fisher Brinkley
Communications Director, North Carolina Medical Board
Jean Fisher Brinkley is NCMB’s Communications Director, a role that involves developing and overseeing production of communications materials and strategies needed to enhance public and professional awareness and understanding of the Board and its mission. She joined NCMB in 2008, after an 11-year career in newspaper journalism, most of it dedicated to reporting on medicine, health policy and the business aspects of health care.
Brinkley earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Raleigh with her husband and two daughters.
You can reach Jean at podcast@ncmedboard.org
Benjamin Gilmer, MD
Rural Fellowship Director, MAHEC Family Medicine Faculty, Physician, and Director, Rural Health Initiatives, Mountain Area Health Education Center
Benjamin Gilmer is a family physician and Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Mountain Area Health Education Center’s (MAHEC) Family Medicine Residency Program. He is an international Albert Schweitzer Fellow and attended Davidson College followed by medical studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France and East Carolina University. As the Medical Director for MAHEC’s Rural Health Initiative and Rural Fellowship, he is passionate about advocating for global and rural health disparities. He has worked extensively in Central and South America and West Africa. Benjamin is committed to advancing medical education, interprofessional collaboration and inspiring students to pursue rural health.
His advocacy work currently focuses on bringing media attention to the social injustice of mass incarceration. His current book, The Other Dr. Gilmer (Ballantine/Penguin Random House) and feature film project (Concordia Films) both highlight the atrocity of mass incarceration of people with mental illness. Both projects are based on a 2013 This American Life podcast (Dr. Gilmer and Mr. Hyde), a collaboration between Benjamin and Sarah Koenig (“Serial”) which has had more than 20 million listeners. A former neurobiologist turned rural family doctor, Dr. Gilmer has lectured widely about medical ethics, global and rural health, the intersection of medicine and social justice and the pursuit of advocacy. He lives in Asheville, NC with his wife, Deirdre, their two children: Kai and Luya, and their dog, Prince Peanut Butter.