Our Fellows come from North Carolina, the nation, and beyond. Our program and our patients benefit from their experience, training, and dedication to improving health outcomes for older adults.

2021-2022 Fellows

Brianna Harder, MD

Brianna is from Lincoln, Nebraska. She received her bachelors in Biological Sciences and Psychology with a minor in Humanities in Medicine from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. During undergrad, she worked as an aide in a skilled rehabilitation/long-term care facility which helped her discover the joys of caring for older adults. She completed medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where she was in a focus-program for care of the elderly. For internal medicine residency, she attended the University of North Carolina. In her free time she enjoys hiking, cooking, listening to podcasts, and watching Netflix with her cat MoonPie.

What made you interested in pursuing a geriatric fellowship at UNC? I love how geriatric medicine is truly patient-centered care. I enjoy balancing the medical complexity often inherent in the care of older adults and the patient’s goals. In particular, I think the Geriatric Medicine fellowship at UNC allows for exposure to the many different arenas in which geriatric care takes place including outpatient clinic, continuum care retirement communities, community skilled nursing facilities, and the inpatient Acute Care of the Elderly unit (Med A). Additionally, the fellowship is flexible enough to accommodate experiences in the areas that align with a fellow’s vision of their career.

What do you hope to do after your Fellowship year? After fellowship, I hope to continue providing outpatient geriatric primary care. I am also considering providing care in the skilled nursing setting and perhaps even medical directorship. I would also like to continue to teach learners from various disciplines about care of the elderly.

Max Hockenbury, MD

Max grew up in Vienna, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. He studied chemistry and biochemistry at Virginia Tech. He went to Georgetown University for medical school in Washington, DC where he met his wife while playing intramural kickball. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of North Carolina prior to starting his Geriatric Fellowship. When he’s not seeing patients, Max can be found playing basketball, supporting the Washington Wizards, or playing the piano and singing for his two daughters.

What made you interested in pursuing a geriatric fellowship at UNC? I love the nuance of medicine and tailoring medical practice to provide individual care. This individualized care is never more vital than when working with a vulnerable elderly population in such variety of clinical settings. I had the privilege of working with the UNC geriatrics department throughout residency and during that time it was abundantly clear that they were experts in providing thoughtful nuanced care. I feel blessed that I get to learn and grow as a physician under their guidance.

What do you hope to do after your fellowship year? I will apply the skills I have learned in a community-based practice in the triangle area. Though I know I want to continue working with vulnerable populations, I am not sure in which clinical environment and am looking forward to exploring those clinical settings during fellowship year!

Tiffany Long, MD

Tiffany grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and went to UNC for medical school and Internal Medicine Residency. She loves trying new foods, walking/jogging, and hanging out with her newborn Ben and her husband.

What made you interested in pursuing geriatrics fellowship at UNC? I was exposed to the wonderful world of geriatrics during medical school at UNC on the geriatrics inpatient service. I immediately fell in love with the patient population and was so interested in the cognitive assessments, poly-pharmacy, and patient and family education.

Having this experience early on allowed me to pursue many more opportunities in geriatrics through medical school and residency including geriatrics clinic and scholarly projects. I became well acquainted with many of the geriatrics faculty who are some of the brightest and kindest people I have ever met. I knew I wanted to stay at UNC for geriatrics because of the well-rounded training and the supportive faculty and peers.

What do you hope to do after your fellowship year? I would love to stay in academic medicine doing a combination of teaching and clinical time.

Sarah Stoneking, MD

Sarah grew up in Greensboro, NC, and now lives in Durham, NC, with her husband, Will, and her dog, Sally. She attended UNC-Chapel Hill both for her undergraduate degree and for medical school. She completed her residency and chief residency in primary care internal medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as a Fellowship in Bioethics at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. She worked in primary care at the Durham VAMC and Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, NC, prior to starting her Geriatrics Fellowship.

What made you interested in pursuing a Geriatrics Fellowship at UNC? I was drawn to the thoughtful approach to primary care Geriatric medicine, the dedicated mission of UNC Hospitals to care for the state of North Carolina, and the creative group that makes up the Geriatrics Department at UNC. I feel privileged to be learning with a department that is dedicated to medical education at every graduate level, engaged in equitable delivery of care, and steeped in evidence-based Geriatric medicine.

As a medical student at UNC and in my residency at CHA, I was drawn to the faculty and staff working in Geriatrics as I saw them approach patient care and public health in a way that was holistic, reflexive, smart, and humble. I am excited to continue to be a part of such a committed environment.

What do you hope to do after your Fellowship year? I am still in the process of discerning this! I look forward to continuing a career as an educator and clinician in multiple care settings, with an arm in ethical decision making.