Skills that resident physicians learn through Graduate Medical Education (GME) at ECU Health Medical Center and the Brody School of Medicine extend beyond their clinical roles, including the leadership skills that helped shape Dr. Portia West’s career in the U.S. Air Force and at ECU Health. Now, years after her military service, she continues to help GME improve the future of health care in eastern North Carolina.
Dr. West completed her psychiatry residency program at ECU Health in 2020. Having grown up in Charlotte and then spent six years in Washington D.C., she was grateful for the change of pace that came with treating patients in rural settings.
“I met the program director at the time, Dr. Toni Johnson, who made me feel like the program would make the best version of myself and the best physician I could be,” Dr. West said. “It wasn’t long before I grew to love Greenville. The people here are what make it home.”
Dr. West said the support she received from her directors and co-residents motivated her to seek out leadership opportunities. She also received a Healthcare Professionals Scholarship from the Air Force, where she said the skills she learned through GME were just as relevant.
“My co-residents support is what pushed me into leadership roles,” Dr. West said. “I became a chief resident, which I never thought I would do. That experience did wonders for my military career, I already had the leadership skills I needed through GME.
“I’ll always be grateful my peers pushed me out of my comfort zone.”
This year marks 50 years of GME at ECU Health Medical Center. Now, in 2026, leadership remains just as important as it was back in 1976, when a single program in Family Medicine began to train physicians in eastern North Carolina. Across 35 resident physician and fellowship programs, chief residents serve as liaisons between their colleagues in training and their program directors.
Dr. Herb Garrison served as associate dean for GME at ECU Health Medical Center and ECU’s Brody School of Medicine for 11 years from (date) to (date). Like Dr. West, he completed his residency at ECU Health Medical Center. Dr. Garrison had a chance to witness GME evolve to train physicians who go forth and lead in their respective specialties and communities.
“As GME has grown over the years, our programs aim not only to train physicians who have a passion to care for their communities, but to go forth and lead in those communities as well,” said Dr. Garrison. “GME continues to serve as a reliable, consistent pipeline to reinforce our physician workforce, letting doctors see firsthand how their work impacts patients in these unique communities.
Dr. West is now a program director for the psychiatry residency track, which lets her use the skills she learned as a chief resident to educate resident physicians and fellows as GME at ECU Health Medical Center continues to evolve.
“I get to use everything I learned as a chief resident and those memories I have from my time in service,” Dr. West said. “One thing that I see is so many people who trained here, either at the Brody School of Medicine or through GME, come back. Some go on their fellowship and here they are again, almost immediately. I think it speaks so much to how the hospital system not only trains their residents and their faculty members well, but treats them well so they want to stay here.”
That impact gets passed on to patients, too. Dr. West said a chance encounter with a former patient at the grocery store was a nice reminder that a physician’s work echoes with their patient long after treatment or counselling has finished.
“Within my first week back in Greenville from New Mexico, I saw someone looking at me across the aisle. At first, I thought they had me mistaken for someone else,” Dr. West recalled. “They came up to ask if I worked at ECU Health and told me they thought I used to be their doctor. I had been gone for four years at this point, but they told me, I’ll never forget it, ‘You don’t know how much you really helped me.’
“As doctors, we know we make a difference. Still, to be gone for so long and come back to hear that someone remembered you for the good you did, randomly, is amazing, having that kind of impact in our patient’s lives.”