Dr. Amy Beard is a Board Certified Family Medicine MD, an Institute of Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner, a Dietitian, an ER Physician, a previous Cardiac Rehab Medical Director, and has extensive clinical and personal experience in Functional Medicine principles.
Dr. Beard was born and raised along the banks of the Mississippi River and has called Little Rock, AR home for the past 20+ years. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Arkansas with a degree in Dietetics and Nutrition. She became a Registered Dietitian after completing a Dietetic internship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. She worked for several years as a RD before pursuing a career in medicine. Dr. Beard has always known that a healthy diet and lifestyle were keys to optimal health. Feeling limited by her degree in dietetics, Dr. Beard completed a Doctorate of Medicine from the College of Medicine at UAMS in Little Rock, AR. She then went on to complete a three-year residency in Family Medicine in Fayetteville, AR. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine by the ABFM. While working as an ER and Family physician Dr. Beard quickly realized that the pathway to optimal health begins with patient empowerment.
Dr. Beard is one of five MD/Dietitian/Certified Functional Medicine Practitioners in the country. Outside of work she is also a competitive athlete. Patients with chronic conditions, performance athletes and frustrated weight loss patients seek out her unique gift for unlocking their health potential. Dr. Beard is an advocate for changing our current healthcare model to one that is dedicated to prevention, early assessment, and improved management of complex, chronic disease by intervening at multiple levels to correct core clinical imbalances and thereby restoring each patient’s functionality and health to the greatest extent possible.