Our Team

Heather grew up in Bristol, Tennessee, and studied family and consumer sciences with a minor in marketing at East Tennessee State University. After four years in Gainesville, Florida, she moved to Asheville in 2015. The Blue Ridge Mountains have always been home to her, and she’s drawn to the beauty and resilience of Appalachia.

Heather came to Lantern as a member before she joined the team. In 2018 she was working in an Asheville restaurant when direct primary care was introduced as part of the staff benefits package — and she couldn’t quite believe that she, as a service industry worker, was about to have real access to care. A 90-minute first visit, telehealth, health coaching, lab services, discounted prescriptions: things that had been out of reach became routine. She stayed a member for years, and in 2025 she joined the team at our South Asheville practice. Her path to this work runs through more than twenty years in customer service and hospitality, healthcare administration in a large teaching hospital and a specialty clinic, and volunteer shifts as a NICU and PICU cuddler that first drew her toward healthcare.

What Heather loves most is connecting with people. As the first person many members see, she wants the practice to feel like a safe, comfortable place to be, and she’s always glad to hear your story — and especially glad to hear about your pets. Outside of work you’ll find her on a long walk with Herman, her Australian Shepherd, tending her 82 house plants, growing zinnias and dahlias, weaving on one of her two looms, painting, or snowboarding. She is also, for the record, forklift certified.