Rural Health Students
Rural Training Track (RTT) Technical Assistance Program
The Rural Training Track (RTT) Technical Assistance Program is a three year national demonstration program which began in September 2010. NRHA is currently a lead partner in the cooperative agreement that is supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy.
A consortium that taps the expertise of individuals and programs distributed across the nation, the Rural Training Track (RTT) Technical Assistance Program is an effort to sustain the RTT residency programs as a national strategy in training physicians for rural practice.
For students interested in learning more about rural training check out these sites supported by the program:
Train Rural: Where the scope is broad and the focus is you
Train Rural blog: Real Stories from Rural Students and Residents
On Facebook®
Meet NRHA's Student CG leaders
NRHA's Student Constituency Group is comprised of student members, who are the future workforce and leaders in rural America. As members, students can come together with their peers, educators, administrators, health professionals and other stakeholders to create a dialogue about rural health and related issues such as workforce and policy.
Travis Austin
Incoming RME liaison
Travis Austin earned a BA and MA in English literature from Brigham Young University, where he finished a master’s thesis on literature and medical case studies in nineteenth-century Britain. He is now a second year medical student at the University of Arizona-Phoenix. Austin has participated in the Rural Health Professions Program, which allowed him to return to his hometown of Snowflake, Ariz. Along with his wife, two-year-old daughter and infant son, Austin looks forward to returning to a rural area to practice medicine.
Michelle Clark-Forsting
Student Constituency Group chair
Michelle Clark-Forsting graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in Spanish. She earned her Masters of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She is currently a third-year medical student in the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She hopes to be a full-scope family physician with C-section privileges. She enjoys traveling, gardening, reading and spending time with family and friends, and she married her high school sweetheart in June of 2008.
Gena Cooper
Rural medical education liaison
Gena Cooper is a third-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine. Prior to medical school, Cooper worked in the Office of Energy Independence as an energy policy advisor and program analyst for Governor Jim Doyle. Cooper was also the official spokeswoman for Wisconsin’s $51 billion dollar agriculture industry and a full-time employee of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection.
FrancesAnn Hill
Student outreach coordinator
FrancesAnn Hill graduated from Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and a minor in biology. She earned her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky in 2008. She is a second-year medical student at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and will be spending her third and fourth years in Morehead, Ky., with UK’s Rural Physician Leadership Program. After fulfilling her HPSP service commitment in the U.S. Army, she hopes to return to rural Kentucky to practice family medicine. She is a wife and mother, and she enjoys playing volleyball, baking, watching UK basketball and making messes with her daughter.
Jenna Kennedy
Incoming Student Constituency Group chair
Jenna Kennedy is in her second year of medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She grew up on a farm in rural Kansas, so she is familiar with rural areas. Before medical school, she earned her BS in microbiology with a secondary major in natural resources and environmental science from Kansas State University. She staffed the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, where she was formally introduced to the rural health policy world and NRHA. She would like to train in a family medicine residency with obstetrics. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing volleyball, running, biking, camping and playing board games.
Jennifer K. Lipka
Incoming student outreach coordinator
Jennifer Lipka grew up in Pittsburg, Kan., and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor's degree in German literature before spending four years bumming around Europe. She returned to the states for more travel, working at a bakery in Seattle, living in a Benedictine monastery in Oklahoma, and volunteering at a Catholic worker house in West Virginia. She fell in love with medicine working as a CNA in the hospital in her hometown and is currently a third year student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. She is completing her third year core rotations at Maine General in Augusta. She looks forward to practicing family medicine in the wilds of Maine.
Mollie McCartney
Student outreach coordinator
Mollie McCartney is a medical student at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. Growing up in rural Walkersville, W.V., McCartney is excited to return to a rural area to practice medicine. She went into medicine to help close the gaps of health disparities, and she plans on applying for a family medicine residency and working in central West Virginia.
Sara Olmanson
Communications organizer
Sara Olmanson graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter Minnesota in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in biology and a minor in neuroscience. She is currently a fourth-year medical student at the University of Minnesota. She is pursuing family medicine as her specialty. Olmanson's clinical interests include full-spectrum family medicine, primarily women's health and pediatrics. She also enjoys addressing chronic health concerns. She would like to practice full-spectrum family medicine with a robust obstetrical practice. She enjoys traveling and experiencing different cultures and their culinary specialties.
Samantha Simpson
IT/media liaison
Samantha Simpson graduated from Davidson College with a Bachelor of Science in genomics. She is currently a second-year student at the Ohio State University's College of Medicine and a Rural Health Scholar. She is excited to fulfill her HPSP commitment to the United States Air Force before pursuing a career in rural medicine. Simpson grew up in North Canton, Ohio, but most of her extended family lives in rural Ohio and Indiana, and her inspiration to serve in a rural area comes from them.
Aniesa Slack
Incoming student outreach coordinator
Aniesa Slack earned a BS in biology and a BA in Spanish language and culture from Emporia State University in 2009. She is in her second year of medical education at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Mo. She will spend her third and fourth years in Salina, Kan., participating in the rural track option. Slack plans to participate in medical missions before returning to rural Kansas to practice full-spectrum family medicine and provide care to underserved, non-English speaking Kansans. Slack loves exploring and traveling the world, but her favorite destination is the farm on which she was raised in Oxford, Kan.
