Why These Columbus Doctors Love Living Here
Meet three physicians who are providing passionate care in Greater Columbus, Georgia.
Columbus, Georgia, is a vibrant and changing city, where you will find a growing number of leading medical facilities and professionals dedicated to providing modern and compassionate care. Three Columbus doctors share a little about the person behind the name on their white jackets and why Columbus is where they chose to practice and enjoy life.
In This Article
Dr. Kimberly Brown-Gullatt
Chief Medical Officer | Valley Healthcare System
Kimberly Brown-Gullatt (shown above, middle) was born to be a caregiver. As a child, her parents told her about being born prematurely and having to be resuscitated at birth. “Ever since then, that was the seed that was planted into me to be a healer,” the Valley Healthcare System chief medical officer recalls.
It has always been my childhood dream to become a physician,” adds Brown-Gullatt, who completed medical training at Tulane University School of Medicine and residency at the Medical Center in Columbus.
“I have the gift of giving, which has always brought me much joy,” she says. “My practice as a physician is just another form of me giving and serving other people. Patients remind me that when I serve them, I’m searching for ways to help in all areas of their lives, not just the pain they may be presenting to me during the medical exam.”
A Fort Valley native living in Phenix City, Alabama, Brown-Gullatt “really felt connected to the diverse community.”
“Columbus is a great place to raise a family, and professionally rewarding for me. My previous private practice and my time at Valley Healthcare has allowed me to create a strong network of patients and families, providing me with a sense of community and family,” she says.
Dr. Daniel Gwan-Nulla
Director of Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Oncology | Piedmont Columbus Regional – Midtown
Dr. Daniel Gwan-Nulla
Strong roots of care and compassion run deep in the life of Daniel Gwan-Nulla, a nationally recognized cardiothoracic surgeon. He says his interest in medicine started at an early age.
“My father was a doctor and my mother was a nurse. Together, they cared for the sick. People knocked on our door when they needed help,” he says.
A father of three, Gwan-Nulla graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and is the hospital’s director of thoracic surgery and thoracic oncology at the John B. Amos Cancer Center.
While his goal is to bring cutting-edge treatment and technology to the Columbus area, he continues a tradition of going above and beyond for his patients.
“I treat them like they are family and carefully listen to what they are experiencing,” Gwan-Nulla says.
He and wife, Dr. Meesha Beauvil Gwan-Nulla, an internal medicine physician, have a heart for medical missions. They founded African Children’s Healthcare Fund, a nonprofit organization, working to build a children’s hospital in his native Cameroon, the first full-service children’s facility in western and central Africa.
Along with their careers and mission work, they enjoy Columbus’ “good restaurants, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts and nice places to walk and jog, plus being close to Atlanta’s airport and Florida’s Gulf Coast,” Gwan-Nulla says.
Dr. Jacob Dunn
St. Francis Orthopaedic Institute
Helping people return to their daily routines and enjoy life is a key reason Dr. Jacob Dunn chose the field of orthopedic sports medicine.
“I take great pride in and love being able to treat a patient, whether it be with a surgical or nonsurgical treatment, and see them be able to return to sports, leisure activities or whatever their desired activity might be,” says Dunn, a physician and surgeon with the St. Francis Orthopaedic Institute.
The Clarksville, Tennessee, native studied medicine at Lincoln Memorial University’s DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a fellowship at Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine prior to starting to practice in Columbus a little more than a year ago.
Married with two young boys, Dunn says “what really set Columbus apart from other job opportunities was how genuinely kind everyone is here. I love the size of the city yet also its small-town feel plus being close to the beach.”
You are likely to see the Dunn family trying out local restaurants and at the baseball diamond as part of the Peach Little League community.
“Columbus is a growing city that provides an excellent opportunity to build one’s practice and raise a family,” he says.
New Medical School Opens
Choosing to work in Columbus as an obstetrician and gynecologist was a full-circle experience for Dr. Matthew Kahrmann. He is a graduate from Mercer University’s School of Medicine’s newly opened Columbus campus, a beautiful, 6-acre site located on the banks of the Chattahoochee River that offers 77,000 square feet of classroom, research and office space.
“Returning here to work is like coming home. The physicians that were my teachers are now colleagues. People I know from the community have become my patients,” says Kahrmann, who met wife, Kristen, a family medicine practitioner, while in medical school together.
The couple embodies one of the school’s main objectives – to attract outstanding medical students who will graduate and either stay or return to Columbus and continue its transformative mission of caring for West Georgia.
“Having a medical school in our community has been a vital step in establishing a home for our students,” Kahrmann says. “Data shows that most physicians end up practicing where they did medical school and/or residency.”
Both Kahrmanns “embrace the opportunity to have medical students rotate with us, sharing in the experience of taking care of our patients and performing surgeries,” he says.
An advocate of his alma mater, Kahrmann says studying at Mercer University School of Medicine trained him extremely well and inspired his curiosity of medicine, disease and people. “It taught me to treat people first, then disease. And I was taught to understand and treat disease very well,” Kahrmann says. “I am excited to be in Columbus. It is a city filled with opportunities to advance the health of the wonderful people that make up this community.”
Get to Know Columbus
Want to learn more about living and working in Columbus, GA? Check out the latest edition of Livability Greater Columbus, Georgia.
