Dominic Geffken, MD, MPH
Program Director
Dr. Geffken (he/him) joined the NHDFMR faculty in July 2004 as the director of Leadership Preventive Medicine. He graduated from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He completed both his family medicine residency and preventive medicine residency at the University of Massachusetts - Worcester. He also received his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. His interests include preventive medicine, quality improvement, behavioral health, geriatrics, addiction medicine and providing health care to homeless populations. In his spare time, Dom likes to run in local road races, walk around Concord and sample the latest hometown microbrewery offerings.
Teri Brehio, MD
Medical Director
Dr. Brehio (she/her) joined the NHDFMR faculty in 2004. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2001 and completed her residency here at NHDFMR, where she served as chief resident from 2003-2004. She served as Education Director from 2011-2019. In 2020, Dr. Brehio became the Medical Director for the Family Health Centers - Hillsboro and Concord, along with the RICH program. She practices in the Hillsboro clinic site, in the town where she grew up. She coordinates the ICU curriculum and collaborates on the Clinic curriculum. Her clinical interests include obstetrics, dermatology procedures, preventive health, and teaching. When not at work, she does tap dancing, and hip hop, plays indoor and outdoor soccer and attends her children's sporting events. She is also an avid animal lover with two dogs and six cats.
Rory Richardson, MD
Associate Program Director
Dr. Richardson served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps prior to attending Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He attended NHDFMR for resdiency and upon graduation worked in community practice prior to returning to NHDFMR as a faculty member for 6 years. His clinical interests were on continuity clinic education and the care of New Americans arriving to Concord as part of the refugee resettlement program. He joined Portsmouth Regional Hospital in 2019 to start a new Family Medicine residency as Program Director. In 2023, he returned to Concord and is serving as the Associate Program Director with focus on the curriculum and practices outpatient family medicine.
Tamara Shilling, DO
Associate Program Director and Director of Osteopathic Education
Dr. Shilling (she/her) went to medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. She did her residency in family medicine at Albany Medical College. Dr. Shilling was instrumental in securing the residency's Osteopathic Recognition in 2023 and is the Director of Osteopathic Education for the residency. Her areas of interest include behavioral health and preventive care.
Andy Valeras, DO, MPH, FAAFP
Associate Program Director of LPMR
Dr. Valeras (he/him) joined our faculty in 2012 following the completion of the NHDFMR and Dartmouth Hitchcock Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency (LPMR). Dr. Valeras is an Associate Program Director for LPMR. He is a designated American Academy of Family Physicians fellow. Dr. Valeras currently seeks to integrate quality improvement and systems-based thinking with the clinical practice and education of family medicine providers in integrated teams. Dr. Valeras does this through the [Systems] course, taught via 480 hours of longitudinal experiential learning, over three years for primary care teams. Dr. Valeras has served as President of the Board of Directors for the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association 2019-2020 and currently is the Chair of Concord Hospital Medical Group Governance Council.
Craig Betchart, MD
Dr. Betchart joined our faculty in the spring of 2021 following close to five years of working in private practice. Dr. Betchart serves as the director of the musculoskeletal and sports medicine curriculum. He is a board-certified Primary Care Sports Medicine physician. Dr. Betchart currently splits his clinical time between his primary care clinic and his sports medicine consultation clinic. He is a strong proponent of point-of-care ultrasound and is in the process of developing a formal curriculum for the residents. In his free time, Dr. Betchart enjoys being outside with his dogs, working on home improvement projects, waterskiing and downhill skiing.
Linda E. Haller, MD, MPH
Linda (she/her) attended Tufts University School of Medicine and graduated in 2017. As a resident at NHDFMR (2017-2020), she affirmed her interest in full-spectrum family medicine, including OB and discovered an interest in quality improvement, change management and leadership. In the fall of 2022, she completed the Leadership and Preventative Medicine Residency (LPMR) and joined the faculty at NHDFMR in October 2022. Her interests include women’s health, OB, addiction medicine, health equity and developing creative solutions about how to improve healthcare for all. In her life outside of the clinic, she enjoys spending time with family, being outdoors, painting and baking with her COVID-19 sourdough starter.
Cynthia King, MD
Dr. King (she/her) joined our faculty in 2006. She received her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts in 2002 and trained at the University of Rochester Family Medicine Residency Program. Her interests include patient and resident education, adult inpatient care, and international and migrant health. Her other interests include hiking, kayaking and exploring with her family.
Gregory Thesing, MD
Dr. Thesing (he/him) joined the NHDFMR faculty in 1997 after spending two years as a staff physician at the United States Air Force Academy. Additionally, he was a clinical instructor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Services Center. Prior to his work in Colorado, he spent three years as a staff family physician at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Currently, he practices at the Family Health Center - Hillsboro. He was the past chair of the Concord Hospital Credentials Committee as well as the Medical Staff President. He is a member of several Hospital committees. His teaching interests include outpatient procedures, chronic care management and working in multidisciplinary primary care teams.
Angela Yerdon McLeod, DO
Dr. Yerdon McLeod (she/her) received her medical degree from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2001. Following her residency at NHDFMR, she completed a fellowship in Women's Health at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. She then returned to NHDFMR to join the faculty in 2005 as the Maternal Child Health education leader. She is an active board member of the NH Academy of Family Physicians and an advocate for opportunities in leadership advancement, particularly for residents and women in medicine at the national level. Her clinical and research interests include family-centered maternity and neonatal care, breastfeeding medicine, neonatal abstinence syndrome, contraception management and postpartum mood disorders. Angela recently initiated and leads the Concord Hospital Health and Wellness Taskforce. When she is not catching babies or teaching about them, she can be found nurturing the well-being of her own two teens, her husband or herself. She enjoys running, kayaking, mountain biking or hiking in the New Hampshire or Maine mountains.
Viking Hedberg, MD
Dr. Hedberg (he/him) joined the NHDFMR faculty in 2020. He graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his pediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He worked in Camden, New Jersey for three years at a community health center and a school-based clinic before completing an Adolescent Medicine fellowship and his public health training at the University of Rochester. Dr. Hedberg practiced full-spectrum general pediatrics in Plymouth, New Hampshire for 20 years including being the school physician for area public schools, at The Holderness School and at Plymouth State University. Prior to joining NHDFMR, he served as a pediatric hospitalist at Concord Hospital and continues to work in both the outpatient and inpatient settings. At NHDFMR, Dr. Hedberg oversees both inpatient and outpatient pediatric education for the residents. Areas of specific interest are optimizing the effectiveness and efficiency of primary care for children and adolescents, collaborative care in addressing learning, mood and attentional issues and management of chronic symptoms. He and his wife, Katie, who is a family nurse practitioner, live in Plymouth with their dog, Buddy. They have two adult sons who both live in the Greater Boston area. Together they enjoy time with family and the lakes and mountains of New Hampshire.
Ana Castellanos Mendez, MD
Dr. Castellanos Mendez was born and raised in Guatemala City, and completed medical school in Guatemala, at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. She completed residency in Family Medicine in Bethlehem, PA at St. Luke's University Hospital, followed by a geriatric fellowship at the same hospital, after which she joined St. Luke's Senior Care Associates in Bethlehem practicing full-time Geriatrics in different settings, working in collaboration with other specialties, including in-hospital geriatric consultations, outpatient geriatric primary care, nursing home care and sub-acute rehab services. She served as the Medical Director at a large CCRC in Nazareth, PA, providing care for nursing home residents, as well as primary care for personal care home and independent living residents as well. She is very passionate about providing the best care to her patients and establishing relationships with them and their loved ones, providing education and advocating for them. She is devoted to improving the health, independence, and quality of life of older adults while focusing on their emotional, physical and functional needs. She loves dogs and has two Airedale Terriers, including a puppy that is in training to become a therapy dog. Hobbies include cooking, traveling and relaxing with her husband and dogs and exploring beautiful New England.
Alexander Brown, PhD
Associate Program Director and Behavioral Health Manager
Dr. Brown (he/him) is a licensed psychologist, Manager for the Behavioral Health Team and core faculty member. He coordinates both the Behavioral Sciences and Population Health curricula. He teaches residents the diagnosis, management, and physiological underpinnings of mental and behavioral health concerns; patient-centered counseling skills (including motivational interviewing and shared decision-making); health policy advocacy; biomedical ethics with a focus on health equity; and reflective practice. He received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology from West Virginia University; completed his clinical internship in Integrated Primary Care at the Battle Creek VAMC in Battle Creek, MI; and a postdoctoral fellowship in Primary Care Behavioral Health jointly at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VAMC in Bedford, MA, and the University of Massachusetts Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. When not working, he can be found cultivating his Alterna-Dad persona at the local record store, independent cinema, microbreweries, and at home where he bakes lots of bread (some of which he leaves in the resident office).
Alexandra (Sasha) Kuftinec, MD
Dr. Kuftinec (she/her) completed a triple board residency in Pediatrics, Adults Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts/ Boston Floating Hospital/ New England Medical Center after graduating from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1988. After working for more than 10 years in community mental health centers, she joined the NHDFMR faculty in 2007 where she teaches family medicine residents and provides psychiatric consultation for patients across the lifespan who have behavioral and mental health issues. She has an interest in, and a commitment to, the assessment and treatment of mental health issues as part of a team in an integrated primary care/behavioral health setting where patients often have significant medical and psychosocial complexity. Beyond work, her passions include hiking, music (especially choral singing), theatre and spending time with family and friends.
Aimee Burke Valeras, PhD, LICSW
Dr. Valeras (she/her) is Scholarly Activity faculty at the NHDFMR and Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency (LPMR) and works in the Behavioral Health Department at the Family Health Center. She received her undergraduate and Master of Social Work degrees from Boston College and her Doctorate in Social Work from Arizona State University. She has presented nationally and internationally on the topics of integrating behavioral health and primary care, on disability and illness identity and on qualitative research methodology. Her interests include working with survivors of domestic violence, addressing ‘isms’ in the medical environment, and narrative medicine. With NHDFMR, Dr. Valeras serves as a resource to residents, faculty, and staff in the areas of quality improvement and quantitative measurement, as well as proposing, presenting, or publishing their work. With LPMR, she assists in resident coaching, practicum implementation and program development. In her clinical role, she fulfills precepting and patient care responsibilities. In her free time, she enjoys being with her three children, hiking, writing, drinking coffee and listening to live music.
