Meet Dr. Chalmers "Chal" Nunn

Chalmers “Chal” Nunn, a distinguished local doctor, received a Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities for 2024. The 56th Lynchburg Humanitarian Awards Dinner, will take place on Thursday, May 23, 2024. At the event, Dr. Nunn and five other individuals from Greater Lynchburg will be honored.

A native of Clarksville, Chalmers M. Nunn Jr. earned his medical degree from Duke University. He has had a remarkable career, held various management and leadership roles while also served as a practicing gastroenterologist and internist. His career took a significant turn when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, which led to his retirement. However, this diagnosis did not deter him from continuing his involvement in the Greater Lynchburg community. Since then, despite new challenges, he has remained an active supporter and openly shares his story about living with Parkinson’s.

Despite having no familial background in medicine, Dr. Nunn was driven by a desire to serve and by personal strengths that suited the medical field and catered to his natural strengths and character traits. Nunn likes people, he said, and thinks relationship building is important. His father's role though as a church deacon and community helper greatly influenced his own path. His father assisted neighbors and others with things like finances when asked. This example influenced Nunn. “I think that set sort of a stage for me to do something more,” he said. “I always had a good example, but I also think it’s, I just like people.”

Additionally, sports played a pivotal role in his life, teaching him valuable lessons about teamwork and breaking barriers, particularly racial ones, during his youth in the Jim Crow era.

Even in the thick of medical school, Nunn made time for one of his passions: baseball. He played since he was “a little kid,” participating in Little League, then high school baseball. Nunn made the baseball team at Duke and played throughout his college career. He participated in summer leagues during breaks and maintained baseball during the intensive period of medical school and residency.

It’s just what I love to do. Give me a ball, I can hit it," said the left-handed Nunn, who is not only an avid Duke basketball fanatic but also once featured a low single-digit golf handicap.

Nunn carried certain lessons he learned on the field, to off the field. Teamwork and barrier-breaking were core skills he cultivated through sports. While growing up during the Jim Crow era, segregation was the law of the land and racism, whether intentional or implicit, ran deep. Baseball was one place this dynamic was different, at least on the teams Nunn played with. “It brought people together, and it broke down color barriers,” Nunn said. Black and white athletes played together. “You instantly became friends, or teammates who also taught me a lot about how to overcome barriers by being in a team sport,” Nunn said. “It made me realize how bad Jim Crow was. At the time, when you were a kid, 12 years old, you didn’t really know, you know? And as you get older, you become aware. I think it really helped with that. It helped with all the other issues we had in society about including people.”

It was during medical school that Nunn met Katy, his wife of 47 years. He was prepared to attend the University of Virginia for medical school but meeting her persuaded him to attend Duke instead - all this was the best decision he ever made, Nunn said. She is a nurse.

 “My grades went up after we got married,” Nunn said.

After completing his schooling and residency, Nunn became a full-fledged practicing gastroenterologist, also doing internal medicine. “I think it was, you could work with your hands. You could use a scope. It was a little bit more medical treatment training, rather than surgical training,” Nunn said, reflecting on what led him to gastro.

He spent a decade practicing gastroenterology full-time at a multispecialty clinic in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Then, he said he “got the bug” to go into leadership. A leadership role presented itself in 1994, when he became Chief Physician Executive for Nash Healthcare Systems. In 1999, he became the Chief Medical Officer of Centra Health, and moved to Lynchburg. He remained in top leadership positions for the rest of his career.

Even with his numerous responsibilities Nunn felt compelled to extend his contributions beyond the realm of medical practice. “I can remember having a conversation with the county commissioner back in Rockingham County, ‘What can I do to help?’ He put me on the board of health. That was the first board I think I’d ever been on,” he said.

Nunn has been on many boards and committees ever since, geared toward helping communities. His involvement in local organizations such as Academy Center of the Arts, HumanKind, and the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance reflects his commitment to community engagement. He also served on a school board, coached youth sports, and was President of high school athletic boosters.

Then one day in 2014, as he was walking out of an endoscopy, Nunn felt such pain in his legs that he could hardly walk. “I came in the room and said, ‘I just can’t go another step. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’ It took us three years to figure it out,” he said.

After multiple treatments, tests, and surgeries - a knee replacement in 2014, neck surgery in 2016 for suspicion of a compressed spine, screening for arthritis, a second opinion in 2017 - Nunn learned he had Parkinson’s disease. “My Parkinson’s presented atypically,” he said. “It presented with pain, mostly, in my legs. Couldn’t stand for long, couldn’t walk for long.”

In some ways, the diagnosis opened new opportunities for Nunn. He continues helping others by sharing his story about Parkinson’s, remaining on some local boards, and by working as a consultant coaching individual medical professionals, and consulting medical groups on leadership and organizational dynamics.

“I fell into executive coaching and consulting. I just never thought about doing that, but people kept calling me about it, ‘This doctor needs to be helped.’ ‘This doctor needs a little leadership advice.’ So, I got into that,” he said. “I’ve been doing that for Centra and other places the last year, so I’ve been trying to use my experience. I’m very relational oriented, so that’s what I’m focused on.” The coaching role also enables him to join his wife Katy at their Vermont summer home every year.

Nunn said he is fortunate to have ready access to good doctors most patients do not have, thanks to his professional network - but that made him wonder about what other Parkinson’s patients do when they do not have such inside access.

While he has overcome a lot and exhibited resilience through trying experiences, Nunn does not pretend living with Parkinson’s is easy or pleasant. He chooses to be honest about it. It altered his life, and is difficult, however strong he may be and despite the opportunities that have come of it. Dyskinesia, or involuntary movements that might look like twitching, was a side effect of his medication for a while. It has improved, he said, but can still crop up. Parkinson’s also impacts his speech.

“I don’t think people are aware of how hard it can be,” Nunn said. “It’s just the struggle of getting up and getting breakfast. It’s like, ‘OK, I can’t move.’ Getting up and going to the bathroom at night, hoping I don’t fall, and stuff like that. Other people with Parkinson’s, they go through the same thing. I’m right out of the textbook.”

On top of Parkinson’s, Nunn developed an infection from his neck surgery two years after the procedure. This phenomenon is not unheard of in surgeries of this nature, he said, but he is on amoxicillin for the rest of his life because of it.

Nunn’s drive to help communities and build relationships keeps him going, even with a new set of circumstances to adjust to. “I’m 70 years old now. My wife says I’m always doing more than I should. I’m always sticking my nose where I shouldn’t, but I only care about one thing, and that’s helping the community and bringing people together. That’s what I do,” he said. “I just think all this division we have; we don’t know each other.”

The quest for treatment continues. Most recently, Nunn said he was identified as a likely candidate for deep brain stimulation therapy later this Summer. “The hand that’s dealt to me, that’s what I’m going to play with,” Nunn said.

Chalmers M. Nunn Jr is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist, and is also a Certified Physician Executive with a Master’s Degree in Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University.