The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK) and the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) celebrated the graduation of its second cohort of family medicine residents during a ceremony held on June 28, 2026.
For Emily Baker, DO, and Ashlyn Fisher, DO, graduation marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
Baker’s journey at CHC/SEK will come full circle as she joins the team as a full-time physician this fall. She got her start at the organization as a visiting medical student, returned for her residency, and now will serve as a family medicine physician at the Baxter Springs location.
When asked why she chose to practice at CHC/SEK, Baker said, “I wanted to stay close to home. I really enjoyed my time here and the people who work here. I also wanted to be able to get people the healthcare they need, which is more feasible at a community health center. I’m looking forward to building my practice and really settling into the things I love doing.”
Fisher will move back to her hometown in St. John, Kansas, to open a practice. She will also work at Stafford County Hospital, the local critical access hospital. Fisher said, “I’m excited to return home and provide care to an area that has been without a physician for a while.”
Baker and Fisher joined the residency program in 2023 as part of its second cohort. The three-year program provides comprehensive family medicine training across core clinical areas, including inpatient hospital care, outpatient primary care, women’s health, pediatrics, geriatrics, behavioral health, and procedural training. Residents also have access to a wide range of additional clinical experiences and rotations, working with CHC providers and partnering attending physicians while gaining experience in a variety of community-based practice settings.
Beyond clinical education, residents participate in a variety of experiences designed to build skills and foster teamwork, engagement, and well-being. These activities include an annual retreat, social activities, weekly didactic sessions, simulation trainings, conferences, participation in Inspire Health Foundation’s camp activities, and many more.
Along the way, the experience creates lasting memories for residents inside and outside the clinic. When asked about their favorite memories, Baker and Fisher each had a story to share.
For Baker, one of those moments came when she had the opportunity to care for a patient throughout her pregnancy, deliver her baby, and continue caring for the family afterward. “Delivering my first continuity OB was a special moment. Getting to see that person throughout their pregnancy, delivering a healthy baby into the world, and then getting to see that baby in clinic is really something special,” said Baker.
For Fisher, some of her favorite memories came from the connections she made during residency. “It’s been full of so many fun memories. Most of them are just enjoying work with our coworkers and attendings both in the clinic and the hospital. Perhaps my favorite specific memory is our residency retreat when we went to Noel to float on the river,” said Fisher.
Those experiences reflect the environment and culture CHC/SEK leaders envisioned when they first began planning the program.
“CEO Krista Postai had a vision for physician residency even before I started at CHC/SEK, and she recruited me in 2013 with the plan of starting a program. A combination of Krista’s dedication to improving healthcare for Southeast Kansas, and my love of teaching, helped propel us forward,” said Bethany Enoch, MD, FAAFP, PM-HC, CHC/SEK Rural Family Medicine Residency Program Director. “When we received the HRSA rural residency program development grant in 2019, we were overjoyed. This funding gave us the time and financial resources needed to complete the start-up and accreditation process, which took three years.”
All that hard work paid off, and the program welcomed its first residents in 2022 with a goal of training future physicians who have a passion for serving rural and underserved communities.
For Enoch, the most rewarding part of the program has been seeing residents transition from medical students to doctors. “I love when a patient develops a relationship with their resident doctor. It’s rewarding when the patient starts to call them ‘my doctor’ and values their knowledge and care,” she said. “I also love seeing the residents gain confidence in what they do. Starting out, they may know what to do, but haven’t yet developed confidence and their own style. It’s a joy to see them really come into their own.”
During their time at CHC/SEK, Enoch hopes that residents will not only strengthen their ability to provide excellent medical care to patients of all ages, but also, “just as importantly, foster a drive to provide that excellent care to every single patient regardless of their resources, backgrounds, or how the rest of the medical system may have treated them in the past.”
“I hope they all leave with a passion to be the doctors for the people who need it the most, even on the hard days,” she added.
The residency program welcomed its newest cohort in July 2026, with two more first-year residents joining the team. This year will be different from years past, as these residents will reside in Pittsburg during the entire program, rather than first completing their year in Kansas City.
Looking to the future of the program, Enoch said, “I hope we can expand our program to train more doctors per year, and that every resident who comes through leaves feeling confident to take care of any patient in any setting, especially those with the greatest need. Hopefully that’s in rural Kansas, but the mission is the same, regardless of where they decide to practice.”
Baker and Fisher are examples of that vision in action. “Drs. Baker and Fisher exemplify what we are trying to achieve,” said Enoch. “Thanks to this training program, two small towns in Kansas that currently do not have a single physician will now have access to highly skilled family physicians, an invaluable benefit to these rural communities.”
Enoch said Baker and Fisher have made a lasting impact on the residency program over the past three years.
“Drs. Baker and Fisher are highly motivated, and they have been instrumental in the continued development of our training program. They have helped develop our endoscopy track while providing excellent leadership and strengthening connections with our medical students,” said Enoch. “I am so proud of the family physicians they have become, and I’m eager to see what the future holds for them.”
Looking back on their time at CHC/SEK, Baker and Fisher reflected on what they learned and shared advice for the incoming class.
Fisher reflected on the pace of residency, noting, “The days are long, but the years are short.”
Baker said one of the most important lessons she learned was to trust her judgment and remain focused on what is best for her patients. She also offered this advice for new residents: “Work hard and look for opportunities. Spend time in the hospital. Be kind. You get out what you put in.”
With Baker remaining at CHC/SEK and Fisher returning to serve her hometown, both graduates will continue the program’s mission of improving access to care in rural Kansas communities.