Francis Dennehy, MD

Shenandoah Valley Family Practice Residency Director — Clinical Professor VCU/MCV

Francis Dennehy, MD, was raised primarily in metro Philadelphia, where he yearned for rural and open spaces. After medical school, he completed his internship in Colorado. He then spent four years in the Air Force as a “GP” medical officer - Emergency Physician, Flight Surgeon, and Primary Care Physician - with many adventures, many stories.

Afterwards, Dr. Dennehy returned to Pennsylvania to complete residency. He practiced for almost a decade in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, in a rural Community Health Center doing full-spectrum family medicine with obstetrics. He then opened a small non-profit Christian health center. He was involved in overseas missions, doing medical work several times in poor areas of the Caribbean. He came to the residency in Virginia in 2003, to begin full-time teaching in Family Medicine. He became the Program Director about a year later. He has completed extra training as a Medical Consultant in Natural Family Planning (NaPro Technology) and the Program Directors’ Fellowship of the National Institute for Program Director Development (branch of AAFP). He continues full-spectrum Family Medicine, including hospital/ICU and Obstetrics. His presentations nationally and regionally have included medical uses of Natural Family Planning, the Hippocratic Oath, and workforce demographics. In 2010, he was named the Family Medicine Teacher of the Year by the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Dennehy and his wife are the parents of four grown children and 5 grandchildren, all of whom love living in Virginia. He is an avid reader and enjoys running, hiking, biking, kayaking, and Church activities. Medically, he enjoys Sports Medicine, NFP, and Medical Ethics. He manages the Sports Medicine and Preventive Medicine curricula for the  Shenandoah Valley Family Practice Residency .