Gilchrist County native returns home to
practice medicine

By Carrie A. Mizell

A desire to serve the community she grew up in brought Grace Mikell Dunn home to Gilchrist County where she is currently working as a medical doctor at Palms Medical Group in Bell (formerly Bell Family Healthcare).
After completing her residency at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Dunn moved back to Gilchrist County a month ago with her husband and infant daughter. Dunn graduated from Trenton High School in 1998 and moved to Tampa shortly after to attend college at the University of South Florida.

“I’m so glad to be here!” Dunn said on Tuesday. “The people here are so friendly …it’s a different type of people in Tampa.”
Initially, Dunn thought she would pursue her love for music, but once she started college, Dunn said she kept taking more and more science classes and eventually finished her science degree before her music degree.
As for working in family practice, Dunn calls it interesting and says you never know what you will see from day to day. No doubt her great-great uncle Rufus Rutherford felt the same way. In the early 1900s, Rutherford was one of the first doctors to treat patients in what is today north Gilchrist County and Lafayette County.
Dunn said she is looking forward to staying in Gilchrist County and raising her family here. Earlier this year, her mother, Zelda Mikell, retired after many years as a Gilchrist County school teacher; and she is now enjoying babysitting Dunn’s daughter, who was born in May.
“I think they are already playing school!” Dunn said.
To schedule an appointment with Grace Dunn, M.D., call Palms Medical Group in Bell at (352) 463-1100.