Dr. Michael Barnett is a Hospice Physician with Four Seasons in Western North Carolina. Prior to his move to North Carolina in 2023, Dr. Barnett was an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He served nearly 10 years as the Program Director of the UAB Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship and was Associate Director of Education for the UAB Center for Palliative & Supportive Care. In addition to his current rural home-based practice, Dr. Barnett remains adjunct faculty at UAB for ongoing community-based participatory research focused on serious illness in older African American and LGBTQ+ patients and caregivers.  

Dr. Barnett attended medical school at the University of Kentucky, where he completed a rural training track in the Appalachian Mountains of that state. He completed residency in combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics at UAB and fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine for children and adults at UPMC/Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He obtained a Master of Science in Medical Education from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Barnett is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine.  

Dr. Barnett was a member of the AAHPM EPAs/Curricular Milestones/Reporting Milestones Workgroups in 2014-2019 and served as Co-Chair of the Pediatric Curriculum Workgroup in 2019-2020. He served as Chair of the Fellowship Director Special Interest Group in 2018 and on the AAHPM Nominating Committee in 2022. He was elected to the AAHPM Board of Directors in 2021 and became Secretary to the Board in 2025. Dr. Barnett currently serves as the AAHPM Board Liaison to the Hospice Medical Director Certification Board and as Chair of the Position Statement and Governance Committees.