Professional Bio
Martha E. Shepherd, DO, MPH, FAAFP, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Public Health, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center . She is board-certified in both family medicine and integrative medicine and holds a Master of Public Health from Dartmouth College.
She completed medical school at Kansas City University, followed by a family medicine internship at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, residency at the University of Tennessee and a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. She is a certified yoga instructor and a Level 2 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher through the Mindfulness Center at Brown University School of Public Health. She joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2008 after serving as a medical officer in the United States Navy. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and sits on the education committee of the Tennessee Medical Association.
Dr. Shepherd's research involves employer health, health equity and best practices in population health, including two clinical trials investigating mindfulness in medicine (NCT03571386, NCT05051969 (PI). Her work stresses the importance of effective health communication and including patients in their care plan using shared decision-making tools and evidence-based clinical care paths. She is particularly interested in leveraging technology to improve quality of care while enhancing the patient and provider experience. She has been an invited speaker locally and nationally at academic institutions, corporate health events and scientific meetings.
Dr. Shepherd is the Medical Director for Population Health at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). In this capacity, she leads Vanderbilt Health at MNPS, a network of five award-winning employer-based clinics with an interdisciplinary team dedicated to delivering whole-person care to Nashville's school district employees. She is active in the employer health space, serving on the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Communities Committee for the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), the Cigna Mid-South Physician Advisory Council and the Medical Director Council for the National Association of Worksite Health Centers (NAWHC).
Relevant Links
Publications
Education
DO - Kansas City University, 2001
Internship - Family Medicine - Naval Hospital, Jacksonville, 2002
Residency - Family Medicine - University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 2008
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307