When Dr. Michelle Val joined Mountain Medical Clinic after leaving the Army as a Lt. Colonel, the primary care facility was already in the midst of an overhaul.

There are new floors and décor, local art on freshly-painted walls, and other renovations to add space and make patient flow easier. Val, who started in November, said the clinic is also in the process of adding three new staff members.

“We’re trying to best expand our services to meet the needs of the community,” she said, “and becoming more involved in the community.”

A West Point graduate, Val’s medical career was in the military prior to bringing her skills to Monteagle, a place she hopes to stay for a long time.

“This is an area that not only met our dreams of being in a small-town atmosphere and beautiful area, but it was one we could make a difference in,” she said. “I preferred to find a community where I could retire into and not move again, a place for my kids to call home.”

She and her husband, a West Virginia native whom she met at West Point, have five children, ages 9 to 19.

Val hails from Philadelphia originally, but said the South became home because she spent much of her military career in family medicine here, including her residency at Fort Benning in Georgia, and serving as officer in charge at Joel Health Clinic at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

“Family medicine is where we have the most interactions with soldiers and the hands-on ability to make a difference,” she said. “I had a wonderful time doing that, serving soldiers, family members and retirees.”

In addition to assignments at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, she also served a year in Iraq as brigade surgeon for the 555th Engineer Brigade. Val earned a Bronze Star for her service providing medical care during the Brigade’s construction efforts in the war-torn country.

She noted that there are some significant differences between family medical care in the military and in private practice. In private practice, patients are typically older and a little sicker, she said, with concerns about affording health insurance and medications.

“Many of the issues on the military side relate to continued deployments, possible skeletal injuries, just the wear and tear that comes from that type of lifestyle,” she noted.

Stacey Walker, a medical assistant at Mountain Medical, said the clinic is fortunate to have Val as a caregiver.

“The patients really love her and she’s good to work with,” Walker said.

In addition to Val, nurse practitioners Anne Porcher Burnett, a Sewanee graduate, and Jennifer O’Neal, a Pelham native, also provide patient care at the clinic.

Mountain Medical is part of the Southern Tennessee Regional Health System. For more information or to make an appointment, call (931) 924-8000.