Alumni of UNE COM make a difference in Rural Maine
Story by Deirdre Fleming Stires, March 25, 2025
Many who went to start their careers in remote
regions of the state
chose to stay for
the natural beauty,
sense of community,
and rewarding work.
When Steven Weisberger, D.O., ’83, graduated from the University of New England’s College of Osteopathic Medicine 42 years ago, he wanted to practice medicine in Portland, Maine, where he did his residency. How Weisberger ended up running a family practice in a remote fishing village came down to a chance meeting with a Downeast doctor who recruited him there. Why Weisberger stayed came down to the good people of Jonesport, Maine.
“I loved the people,” Weisberger said. “We went there with the idea that we were going to be there for only four years. But after two years, we were smitten. We built a house, raised our family, and stayed and practiced for 33 years until we retired. My wife, Teri, and I used to say as soon as we crossed the line into Washington County while driving home, all the stress fell away.”
Weisberger’s continued calling to provide health care in rural areas comes from a deep-seated desire to help underserved communities. It’s a common thread through the personal stories of many UNE medical school graduates who work in rural Maine, said Guy DeFeo, D.O. '88, UNE’s senior associate dean for Clinical Education in the University’s medical school.
Since UNE’s medical school was founded in 1978, it’s graduated nearly 5,000 students, including between 600 to 700 who chose to practice in Maine. DeFeo said a large percentage of those physicians chose to serve in rural locations.
Drawn by the natural beauty, the sense of community, and the critical need, graduates of UNE’s medical school have spent long careers in rural Maine towns such as Eastport and Calais near New Brunswick, Canada; Presque Isle, Caribou, and Houlton in far northern Maine; and Greenville beside Moosehead Lake, a western Maine town with a year-round population of just 1,400.