When Dr. Allen Flack of Wichita Falls was a stressed out medical student, every so often he would get a welcome taste of his hometown’s spirit from Future in the Falls.
The physician recruitment program sent care packages from Wichita Falls bristling with much appreciated snacks. Future in the Falls, also a scholarship initiative, stayed in touch through his long years of schooling.
His path through medical education took him to Dallas and then South Carolina, but when it was time to put down roots again, he returned to Wichita Falls.
“It wasn’t set in stone when I went to medical school,” Allen said. “Being involved in the program … and just really feeling supported by the medical community here made the decision to come back a lot easier for me.”
He went into practice with his father, Dr. David Flack – who helped start Future in the Falls -- at Pathology Associates of North Texas in 2015.
Allen and his wife Whitney have three children, Charles, 5; Lillian 3; and Marilyn, 2. A fourth child is on the way.
Five medical students awarded a $3,000 scholarship each are the latest to benefit from the United Regional Health Care System program, according to a media release.
Those notified Monday, June 11, included Collin Buerger of Archer City, Canon Cornelius of Burkburnett, Jacob Heuring and Nicole Monk of Wichita Falls, and Mallory Schenk of Scotland, according to the release.
Canon Cornelius, a student at McGovern Medical School in Houston, said the program means so much to him.
“To receive this kind of support from my hometown gives me pride,” he said in the media release.
“There is nothing like it in any other city from what I can tell, and it makes my classmates wish they were from the Wichita Falls area too,” Cornelius said in the release.
Several generous individuals and local foundations made the scholarships possible, according to the release.
The Future in the Falls Scholarship Fund has awarded 43 scholarships totaling $131,000 since it was established in 2009.
Allen was still in medical school when United Regional Health Care System launched the program in 2008.
Designed to encourage medical students from the area to return, Future in the Falls grew from a conversation between his father David and Phyllis Cowling, president and chief executive officer of United Regional, the release stated.
Concerns have been raised about physician recruitment since it was announced the Wichita Falls Family Medicine Residency Program was shutting down by the end of the month.
Cowling and other officials have offered assurances that attracting physicians to Wichita Falls will not be an issue.
Twelve physicians are practicing here who were part of the Future in the Falls program, according to the release.
Allen graduated from UT Southwestern in Dallas, completed a pathology residency at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas and did a year-long fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, he said.
“I really think this is a useful program that really does make it much easier and more desirable for the homegrown physicians to come back to town,” Allen said. “It’s been very useful in bringing some really good doctors back to Wichita Falls.”