He was born and raised in Huntington and was a member of the last graduating class of Barboursville High School. After completing his undergraduate studies at West Virginia University, he had a brief career in sales before going on to medical school at Marshall University where he graduated in 2009. He remained at Marshall to complete an Internal Medicine residency, serving as chief resident during the 2011-2012 academic year. He has served the local area as a primary care physician since 2012, and held various educational and administrative roles within the Department of Internal Medicine at Marshall University along the way. In 2022, Dr. Hettlinger decided to pursue a vision of starting his own private practice under a Direct Primary Care model, and began putting the pieces together to make Hettlinger Health a reality. He is married to his wife Nika, a local dentist also in the village of Barboursville. They have two children, Hampton and Campbell.
