Meet The Faculty

Michael Malone, MD, Program Director

Our program director, Dr. Michael Malone, is a graduate of the University of South Florida College of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and completed a fellowship in obstetrics at Case Western Reserve/University Hospitals in 2008. Dr. Malone previously served as medical director and associate professor in the family and community medicine department at Penn State where he was a preceptor, adviser and instructor. He has received numerous teaching awards and has many peer-reviewed published articles. Dr. Malone also regularly presents at national conferences. In addition to his work in medical education, he has a strong interest in global health and has supervised residents and medical students on medical volunteer trips to multiple countries including Zimbabwe, Ghana, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Denay, and their three children. He and his family love the many activities available for kids and the numerous outdoor pastimes in our area.  Dr. Malone admires Abraham Lincoln’s leadership model because of Lincoln’s sense of purpose, communication style and desire for unification.

Steven Meixel, MD, Core Faculty

Dr. Steven Meixel has been involved in medical education for more than 30 years. A graduate of Duke University and Vanderbilt University Medical School, he completed his family medicine residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as director of undergraduate education at the University of Virginia Medical Center, program director at the University of Virginia Family Medicine Residency Program and director of pre-doctoral education and interim chair of family medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine-Tulsa before building a thriving practice at Tidelands Health. Dr. Meixel has not only been dedicated to his patients but also to his residents and students, gaining numerous faculty teaching awards. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Dotti, three children and grandchildren. The family loves the outdoors, especially the beach. Dr. Meixel admires the leadership examples of George Washington, Civil War commander Joshua Chamberlain and Capt. Richard Winters of the World War II unit best known as the band of brothers, who led with courage, commitment to principles, skill and example.

Sarah Allen, MD, Director of Geriatrics

Dr. Sarah Allen is a board certified Internal Medicine physician who serves as the Director of the Geriatric Curriculum in addition to attending a thriving clinical practice for all adults. She is originally from Florence, South Carolina and attended Wofford College and the Medical University of South Carolina for training. After serving on faculty and as Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency at MUSC, she relocated with her family to Murrells Inlet. In addition to clinical practice and research activities, she is active in the Telemedicine arena within the Tidelands Organization. Her leadership idol is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. His 14 leadership principles including “customer obsession, ownership, insisting on the highest standards, learn and be curious” drive her daily practice.

Kelly Edwards, PharmD, Faculty

Dr. Kelly Edwards completed undergraduate education and earned her PharmD degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. She completed pharmacy residency training in Primary Care at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Edwards worked in healthcare in the outpatient arena in the VA system for 6 years as a clinical pharmacist with a pharmacotherapy clinic. She transitioned to inpatient healthcare when she took a role as the Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator at Georgetown Memorial Hospital in 2009. She became the Assistant Director of Pharmacy in 2011 and is now working in a system role as Assistant Director of Pharmacy with a focus on Pharmacy Operations. She helped to integrate clinical pharmacy medication management services into the Tidelands Health Group physician practices. She is now helping to expand services into the new family medicine residency program and is facilitating the residency conference curriculum. Dr. Edwards has a passion for health and wellness and loves helping patients meet their goals through medication management, nutrition, and lifestyle changes.

Heather Partridge, Behavioral Health Consultant

Heather Partridge is a native of Ontario, Canada but has called Myrtle Beach home for the last eleven years. She has been practicing in the human services field in Horry County for over ten years. Heather has obtained multiple certifications in the treatment of substance use disorders and is recognized as both a Nationally Certified Counselor and a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor in South Carolina. In 2014, the South Carolina Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (SCAADAC) presented her with the award of South Carolina Counselor of the Year. Heather enjoys having the opportunity to educate others about behavioral health, including the residents of the family medicine program and other counselors in the community. In her free time she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and their three boys. A favorite quote of hers that Socrates once said is, “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” The leaders that inspire Heather the most are those committed to breaking down those walls and strengthening the families in our community one brick at a time.

Larissa Blackwell, Resident Program Specialist

Larissa Blackwell has more than 20 years’ experience in administrative support. She first came to Tidelands Health as a receptionist in imaging services in 2015 and joined the family medicine residency program in April 2018. Originally from North Carolina, she spent seven years in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee where she enjoyed hiking, but she traded in her mountain hikes for walks along the beach when her husband’s career gave them the opportunity to move to Murrells Inlet. The leader Blackwell most admires is the late college basketball coach Dean Smith. She appreciates that Smith was an innovator in teamwork, teaching his players to show appreciation for one another and to put the team above the individual, as well as being a civil rights advocate.