When Jennifer Winbigler, MD, saw the disruption COVID-19 created in school systems, she worked with her husband and created a solution for the community. A resident of Maryville, TN, Winbigler and her husband, Brian, established Winbigler Medical in 2019. They provided quick and reliable COVID-19 tests to area schools and businesses during the pandemic. Before establishing her own business, she partnered with Alcoa City Schools (ACS) in 2018 and started the Alcoa Care Clinic to provide onsite, cost-free medical services to faculty and staff.
Given Winbigler’s background with ACS and priority to keep students safe and healthy because of her own three children, she partnered with area schools at the start of the pandemic to develop testing protocols to limit the spread of COVID-19 and keep schools open. Because test results were taking too long to be efficient, she also expedited test results to 12 hours or less by partnering with a laboratory in Maryville and donating $5,000 worth of tests for teachers to use. In addition to her direct support for school systems, Winbigler has helped 13 schools across Tennessee apply for, and receive, over $15 million in grants to keep classrooms open for in-person learning.
While treating COVID-19 patients at Blount Memorial Hospital, Winbigler also worked on investigating vaccines. After obtaining the equipment to store doses, Winbigler Medical distributed over 5,000 COVID vaccines in Blount County and surrounding counties.
Earning her Doctor of Medicine degree at UT Health Science Center in 2013, Winbigler is currently on staff at Blount Memorial as a Hospitalist Physician. As an internal medical resident, she was an ambassador for the internal medicine residency program and recognized by the Tennessee Chapter of the American College of Physicians for an essay she wrote. In 2006, Winbigler was one of just a few women to graduate in her chemical engineering group from the Tickle College of Engineering. She was also the first woman elected president of the Blount County Medical Society of the Tennessee Medical Association.
