Dr. Wendling is a rural family physician in Northern Michigan and a professor of family medicine. She is the senior associate dean for academic affairs and director of the rural health curriculum for Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. She has received many awards including MSU-CHM's Outstanding Faculty Award in 2022, Outstanding Curriculum Contribution Award in 2019, The Arnold P. Gold Humanism Award for MSU-CHM in 2015, MSU-CHM's Outstanding Community Volunteer Faculty award in 2012, the Distinguished Faculty Award in 2004, and the American Academy of Family Physician's Pfizer Teacher Development Award in 2000.

She was inducted into the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Society in 2017 and Alpha Omega Alpha in 2022. Dr. Wendling served as an assistant editor for the Family Medicine journal for over a decade and is a founding associate editor for Peer Reviewed Innovations in Medical Education Research (PRIMER), a journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Wendling lectures on rural medicine and regularly precepts students in her rural practice. She has presented and published widely on supporting the rural and primary care health workforce. In 2018, Dr. Wendling was named the Michigan Rural Health Professional of the Year by the Michigan Center for Rural Health, and in 2020 was the National Rural Health Association's Outstanding Educator of the Year.

Publications: Search PubMed at the National Library of Medicine for Dr. Wendling