MACON – William F. Bina, M.D., M.P.H., FAAFP, dean of Mercer University School of Medicine, and Gayle Bina, assistant director for international medical programs at Mercer, received recognition from the Bibb County Medical Society last fall.
Dr. Bill Bina was presented with the organization's Physician of the Year Award for his leadership in the community, unsurpassed dedication to educating young physicians, as well as his work through the Mercer On Mission program in a number of countries around the world.
Gayle Bina was recognized as the society's Citizen of the Year for her sustained involvement in community outreach, as well as her dedication to Mercer On Mission.
Dr. Bill Bina joined the School of Medicine in 1991 and has served in various family medicine and community medicine departmental roles, including director of the Family Practice Residency Program, chair of community medicine and director of the nationally accredited Master of Public Health degree program. He served in the school as executive associate dean and interim dean prior to appointment as dean in March 2009.
He earned his bachelor's degree in nuclear science from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and his M.D. from the University of Nebraska in Omaha. He completed his family medicine residency at Naval Regional Medical Center in Camp Pendleton, California, as well as a general preventive medicine residency and his M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gayle Bina, who volunteers with a number of local organizations such as Rooms for the Heart, has served as assistant director for international programs in Mercer's Office of International Programs since March 2013. In that role, she prepares undergraduate and medical students, young physicians and faculty members for medical mission trip experiences. She also serves as the University's liaison for the exchange visitor visa program that hosts Ph.D. students and post-doctorates on all medical school campuses, aids in the facilitation and expansion of medical student overseas experiences, and assists with arranging visiting delegations from international partner medical schools.
She serves as an assistant professor in the medical school's Department of Community and Medicine and helped develop – and teaches in – the Global Health Studies Program in Mercer's College of Liberal Arts.
She earned her master's degree in community health education from Towson State University and bachelor's degree in health and physical education from the University of Hawaii in Manoa.
Bibb County Medical Society is a local professional organization with more than 500 physicians in various specialties as members. It is affiliated with the Medical Association of Georgia and the American Medical Association.
For more information, visit www.bibbphysicians.org.
About the Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, Savannah and Columbus)
Mercer University's School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. Today, more than 60 percent of graduates currently practice in the state of Georgia, and of those, more than 80 percent are practicing in rural or medically underserved areas of Georgia. Mercer medical students benefit from a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. The School opened a full four-year campus in Savannah in 2008 at Memorial University Medical Center. In 2012, the School began offering clinical education for third- and fourth-year medical students in Columbus. Following their second year, students participate in core clinical clerkships at the School's primary teaching hospitals: Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon; Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah; and The Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. The School also offers master's degrees in family therapy, preclinical sciences and biomedical sciences and a Ph.D. and Psy.D. in clinical medical psychology.
