PHOENIX, AZ – Kathleen Brite Hillis, MD, has been appointed interim vice dean of Medical Education for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, Yuma Branch, the university announced today. The appointment comes as the college prepares to launch a new three-year Primary Care Accelerated Pathway (PCAP) program in July 2026, designed to address the state’s critical shortage of primary care physicians.
The Yuma branch, established in collaboration with Onvida Health, represents a significant expansion of the University of Arizona’s medical education footprint. Dr. Brite Hillis will oversee the clinical training component of the PCAP program, which will be entirely based at Onvida Health facilities. The program will matriculate fifteen students annually, offering full tuition scholarships funded by Onvida Health to those committed to careers in internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics.
“For nearly 15 years, Dr. Brite Hillis has worked to advance our priorities in undergraduate medical education (UME), focusing on rural and tribal regions of our state,” said Dean Fred Wondisford, MD, MS, MBA. “She has studied, strategized and built strong partnerships with health care delivery sites across the state, developed Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC), bridged UME training with the Graduate Medical Education (GME) continuum and established the clinical components of the three-year medical school curriculum.” Dean Wondisford added that Dr. Brite Hillis’s efforts were “major building blocks in the evolution and culmination of the College’s Yuma regional branch.”
The establishment of the accelerated pathway program received approval from the Arizona Board of Regents in June 2025, according to the University of Arizona Health Sciences. The program aims to reduce student debt and increase the number of primary care physicians serving underserved communities, particularly in rural and tribal areas of Arizona, where access to healthcare remains a significant challenge. Arizona currently ranks 42nd in primary care access and is projected to demand an additional 1,941 primary care physicians by 2030.
The initiative builds on earlier efforts spearheaded by Dr. Brite Hillis, Jonathan Cartsonis, MD, and Sharry Veres, MD, to expand primary care training opportunities in the state. A $3.9 million grant awarded to the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in January 2025 by the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services will support these efforts, focusing on partnerships with tribal, rural, and community health centers. Dr. Brite Hillis will continue to lead the Office of Community Engagement in Phoenix alongside her new role.
The three-year PCAP program is the first of its kind in Arizona, and will require students to complete 18 months of clinical training at Onvida Health, encompassing all required clerkships and training requirements.