C. Donovan “Dino” Beckett, D.O.
CEO and Physician,
Williamson Health and Wellness Center, Inc.
JEAN HARDIMAN
As a student at West Virginia School
of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM), C.
Donovan “Dino” Beckett’s struggle with
choosing a specialty led him to a path that
has had an immeasurable impact on the
small Southern West Virginia community
of Williamson.
“I loved all of my rotations and couldn’t
narrow them down to just one I wanted to
do,” he says. “Ultimately, I chose family
medicine because it gave me tremendous
flexibility in treating patients as well as
the ability to combine all of the rotations
I loved.”
Beckett opened his private practice in
family medicine in Williamson in 2003.
He considers himself an old-school physi-
cian because he continues to see patients in
his office as well as in the hospital, and he
believes serving in the dual role of CEO
and physician has been the secret to his
practice’s success. “For me, it is imperative
to see patients and perform the tasks of
CEO because I get real-time feedback on
our organization,” he says. “Sometimes
as an administrator you only see one side
of an issue, not the whole picture.”
It’s that big-picture perspective that led
Beckett to open a clinic, and that’s when
things really began to take off.
The community’s economic downturn
led him to start a free clinic once a month
in his private practice. Demand forced the
clinic to open more frequently—weekly
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Photo by Charlee Lifestyle Photography.
first, then daily. With some external help
and the support of his stakeholders, he
created the Williamson Health & Well-
ness Center, a federally qualified health
center, expanding access to health care
to the entire Mingo County region. His
knack for finding innovative partners and
programs and seeing good ideas through
to completion has helped the center and
the health programming in Williamson
flourish in recent years.
The center then established the Mingo
County Diabetes Coalition, which received
grant funding from the Center for Medi-
care Services. The coalition offers outreach
to diabetic patients in the community that
has helped high-risk patients reduce both
blood glucose levels and hospitalizations.
It has become a model for treating diabetes
in high-risk populations and is now in
three states and 29 counties.
The project that followed was the
Williamson Farmer’s Market, which was
the result of consulting with two students
at Southern West Virginia Community
and Technical College.
“They were charged with finding a
model we could use in Williamson,” says
Beckett. “Their research led to the cre-
ation of a weekly market and a mobile
farmer’s market.”
Part of that success can be attributed
to identifying potential leaders on his
staff and fostering their ideas and growth