About the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program

VCU Health's mission is to improve the health of people in Virginia and beyond through research, education, and service.  

Mission goals  

• Innovation: Develop new ideas, methods, and services that improve quality of life 
• Education: Offer programs to increase understanding of all patients' needs
• Research: Expand knowledge and creative expression  

The goals of the Fellowship Training Program are to provide comprehensive individualized training to: 

• Prepare individuals to meet the requirements for Board Certification in Geriatric Medicine.  
• Prepare individuals for the care of older patients.  
• Provide training in teaching, research, and administration.  

In order to accomplish these goals, the Geriatrics Fellowship Training Program includes the following components: 

• Geriatrics Curriculum: A variety of educational conferences and reading assignments are provided to assist fellows.  
• Clinical Experience: Fellows care for a spectrum of aged men and women in a variety of settings. The curriculum provides experience as a primary care provider and consultant to healthy, as well as acutely and chronically ill, elderly patients in outpatient, inpatient, long-term care, and home care settings.  
• Research: Research opportunities cover a range of clinical investigations. Fellows may choose a research project in areas of interest and are guided by preceptors.  
• Teaching: Fellows gain experience in teaching learners of different levels and backgrounds.  
• Administration: Fellows learn administrative requirements for research, curriculum development, and/or long-term care based on their interest.  

The traditional fellowship is one year. Fellows spend approximately 12 months in clinical rotations, thus allowing the fellow to be board-eligible for the geriatric medicine board exam. We provide a variety of venues for clinical rotations and education allowing the fellows to see and experience the breadth and depth of geriatric care across the health-care continuum.  We also have several educational opportunities that are truly unique to our program: 

• Reynolds Grants - Two grants from the Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs were formally completed in 2015, but the education initiatives spawned from these grants have been integrated into a longitudinal geriatric curriculum for medical students.  

   

• Geriatric Education Center - Established in 2010; a statewide collaboration directed by Tracey Gendron in the Virginia Center on Aging and co-directed by Peter Boling.  

   

• Independence at Home - Member of consortium through which the creation, demonstration, and implementation of delivering comprehensive care services at home.  

   

• Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program - Recipients of Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program grant.  

   

• CMD-Mentored Geriatric Fellowship Experience - One of our faculty geriatricians Dr. Christian Bergman is a certified medical director for the ABPLM. This gives our fellows an opportunity to be placed on a fast track to become a certified medical director. 

We are proud that many of our fellowship graduates have gone forward to accept academic positions, including seven of our current faculty members across both campuses. We have been fortunate to hire several of our recent fellows to stay on as faculty as our Division continues to rapidly expand. Our geriatric division continues to grow rapidly, giving more opportunities to experience a diversity of practice and tailored mentorship to our fellows. 

The Geriatric Medicine Fellowship training program offered at VCU Medical Center and the Central Virginia VA Health Care System is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. 

An additional $12,000 is added to the annual PGY4 salary for VCU geriatric fellows for the training year. Our academic institution is committed to our geriatric fellowship training program and its trainees. This supplementation is intended to help buffer the financial concerns of continued training, moving costs, or any other hardships that arise while you work to achieve your career goals. We are invested in your success. 

Learn more about our GME Salaries and Benefits for Housestaff.

Research and scholarship expectations: All fellows will engage in scholarly activity. These activities can vary from basic research to translational research to clinical research to health outcomes research or education research. Virginia Commonwealth University does offer a Graduate Medical Education research program for fellows that is conducted at the start of the academic year and is highly recommended for our fellows. Furthermore, the Department of Internal Medicine has designated funding which is set aside specifically to offset the travel cost for fellows who are presenting their work at regional, national, and international scientific and academic meetings. The division is similarly committed to assisting with costs associated with presenting and publishing scholarly efforts. 

Examples of possible areas of research include but are not limited to:

• Quality improvement in home based primary care 
• Delirium prevention in hospitalized elders 
• Understanding and enhancing medical school geriatric curricula   
• Quality improvement on co-management models with orthopedics and other surgical specialties 
• Research on transitions of care

Vacation Time
Each fellow is given a total of 3 weeks off a year

Nighttime Coverage
No in-house overnight call. Call is taken from home and occurs no more than 2-3 nights spread over each month on VCU rotation.

Weekend Coverage
Fellowship year is typically a relief in having most weekends off! Fellows are only expected to work one weekend day per week when on inpatient geriatric consult rotation, otherwise all other clinical rotations are weekdays only.  Fellows cover home call with a paired triage RN taking the call first for most hours. The fellow also has a co-assigned faculty attending on call for continuous support. Weekend home call for the fellow is approximately 1 weekend day per ambulatory block.

GME Resident & Fellow Well-Being
Graduate Medical Education training is not easy. With the GME Physician Well-being program, we first and foremost assert our commitment to your well-being, resilience and all aspects of a healthy lifestyle. VCU and VCU Health are dedicated to ensuring that you have the tools you need to be your best. (Learn more)

All About VCU, VCU Health, and RVA
First things first. We fondly refer to Richmond as RVA.  People love this city because it’s awesome. And Virginia Commonwealth University is in the middle of it all.  Learn more about VCU, VCU Health, and RVA!

VCU Faculty

• Carl J. "Christian" Bergman, MD
• Arline Bohannon, MD
• Peter Boling, MD - Division Chief
• Julia Breton, MD
• Marisa Christensen, MD 
• Brittany Craven, MD - Fellowship Program Director
• Kristina Fernandez, MD
• Saima Habib, MD
• Nasiffa Hossain, MD
• Sarah Hobgood, MD
• Kathryn Rackson, MD - Associate Program Director
• Rachel Selby-Penczak, MD
• Michael Weissberger, MD

VAMC Faculty

• Hana Ayele, MD 
• Angela Gentili, MD 
• Michael Godschalk, MD 
• Laura Lawson, MD - VAMC Site Director 
• Nalini Morishetty, MD  
  
• Natalie Penaranda, MD  
• Ruchir Shah, MD - Chief of Geriatrics and Extended Care  
• Elise Sideris, MD

Class of 2027

Maya Williams, DO
Medical School: Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine – Virginia Campus
Residency: Virginia Commonwealth University Health System

The Geriatric Medicine fellowship is a participant in the NRMP match. All applications will be accepted through ERAS and follow ERAS deadlines. 

All applicants to this subspecialty training program must be graduates of an ACGME accredited internal medicine or family medicine training program. VCUHS can only support J-1 visas. 

Application Timeline

We will review applications from July 15 through August 31. Invitations to interview will likely be issued during this time frame.

Interview Information

Interview dates for 2026 are:  

• TBA

All interviews will be conducted virtually. In addition to interviews with several faculty members, applicants will be provided a detailed overview of the program, take a virtual tour of VCU Health System facilities as well as the facilities at VA Medical Center, and meet with our current fellows. 

Program Director

Brittany Craven, MD
1200 E. Broad Street
Box 980509 
Richmond, VA 23298
Email: brittany.craven@vcuhealth.org

Associate Program Director

Kathryn Rackson, MD
Email: kathryn.rackson@vcuhealth.org

Fellowship Coordinator

Karen Carr, MD
VCU School of Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
Box 980509
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0509
Phone: (804) 828-1444
Fax: (804) 828-4926
Email: imfellowships@vcuhealth.org

For training verification requests, please visit us at https://intmed.vcu.edu/education/verification/