Shawn Higgins, D.O. began working at Dover-Foxcroft Family Medicine on Oct. 15. The practice has also recruited two new physician assistants in Carolyn Wiese, PA-C and Joanne Reiniger, PA-C. Wiese started work on Oct. 20, and Reiniger will begin seeing patients early in November.

The practice continues to recruit additional physicians to join their staff.

Dr. Higgins is returning to Piscataquis County after growing up in Abbot and graduating from Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford. She went on to earn in B.A. in biology from the University of Southern Maine, and during her undergraduate studies spent a year abroad at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Higgins worked as a microbiologist laboratory technician at IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook for two years after graduating from USM, and then attended the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, receiving her Doctor of Osteopathy in 2005. She completed residency training this summer at the Maine-Dartmouth Family Practice Residency Program in Augusta.

Dr. Higgins is a Certified Reiki Master practitioner, and has an interest in naturopathic and homeopathic medicine. She is also seeing patients at Milo Family Practice.

Wiese earned her Master of Science in Medicine, with a concentration in Physician Assistant Studies, in 2001 from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She also has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in health care administrative systems, from Western Michigan.

Wiese has practiced as a physician assistant in Michigan and North Carolina for the past six years. She is certified by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA), and is a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Reiniger graduated from the physician assistant program at Alderson-Broaddus College in West Virginia with a B.S. in Health Science and has practiced as a PA since 1996 in Wyoming and Wisconsin. Reiniger was most recently a primary care provider for the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin.

In addition to her primary care background, Reiniger has provided OB/GYN care as a lay midwife and worked in the gastroenterology department at the Marshfield Clinic. She is also certified by the NCCPA.