Faculty and Staff

Seattle Sites’ Faculty

Kristin Anderson, MD
Carolyn Downs

Kristin Anderson (she/her), a Seattle-area native, studied neurobiology at the University of Washington before heading to the East coast for her medical school training at Tufts University in Boston. She graduated from Tufts with an MD/MPH in 2007, and then returned home to complete her family medicine residency at the Swedish First Hill Family Medicine program. Following residency, she pursued additional training through the Swedish First Hill geriatric fellowship program.

Upon graduation from fellowship, she was hired on at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, a clinic proudly founded by the Seattle Black Panther Party in 1968 and one of the Cherry Hill residency satellite continuity clinics.

Though she has worked with the Carolyn Downs residents in both the outpatient and inpatient settings since 2011, Dr. Anderson officially joined the faculty at Cherry Hill in the fall of 2014. She is currently the faculty lead for the geriatric and LGBTQ+ curricula and the faculty advisor for the Palliative Care Area of Concentration.

Dr. Anderson lives with her wife, Natalie, their daughter, her mother-in-law, two cats, and a dog (it's a full house!). She enjoys softball, hiking, travel, and a good cup of coffee.

Lisa Chan, MD
Cherry Hill

Lisa Chan (she/her) is a second-generation Chinese (Taishanese) American who hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. She studied Biochemistry as well as Chinese Language & Literature at the University of Utah before going on to medical school at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine. Lisa completed her Family Medicine Residency at our very own Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency and was the inaugural class at the International Community Health Services (ICHS) International District continuity clinic. She continued to work at ICHS after residency until she joined the Cherry Hill faculty in 2023.

Lisa’s clinical interests include integrative medicine, geriatrics, obstetrics, procedures, and clinical informatics. Outside of medicine, Lisa enjoys creatåing art, reading, kickboxing, kayaking, baking, trying out new recipes, and learning new languages (and building her vocabulary in Cantonese and Taishanese). She also enjoys hanging out with her partner, cat, and dog.

Christine (Yoojung) Chon, MD
Cherry Hill

Christine (aka Yoojung) Chon (she/her), was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea before she immigrated to Portland, Oregon during her elementary years. Eventually she moved up to the Seattle vicinity and completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Washington. Soon after, she headed back to South Korea to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). This experience piqued her interest in teaching and led to further training at Teachers College Columbia University, where she graduated with an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

While living in New York City for many years, teaching ESL at community colleges and summer abroad college programs in Japan, she found a renewed interest in medicine and completed per post-baccalaureate premedical program at City University of New York, Hunter College. She returned to Seattle to attend medical school at the University of Washington, followed by completion of family medicine residency at the University of California, Irvine Family Medicine program. At first, she intended to practice in Southern California but soon became nostalgic for the colder fall and winter seasons and found herself drawn to Seattle again.

Though she loves working with her patients and building her continuity panel, she missed teaching and found her calling in academic medicine. She joined the faculty at Cherry Hill in the summer of 2023.

Her professional passions include training the next generation of family medicine physicians to be life-long learners and pursue any interests in the wide spectrum of family medicine. She is devoted to promoting diversity and equity in healthcare and providing compassionate, excellent medical care to patients.

Dr. Chon lives with her husband and three young daughters who keep her very busy outside of medicine. She enjoys swimming, playing racquetball, biking outdoors and is a huge coffee lover!

Trevor Dickey, MD
Seattle Indian Health Board, Interim Site Director

Trevor (he/him) completed his residency at the Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency program in Seattle, Washington. He completed a fellowship in Addiction Medicine and a second fellowship in Hospital Medicine, both at Swedish Medical Center. He splits his time in between working as a primary care physician with the Seattle Indian Health Board and working as a hospitalist with Swedish Medical Center. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and being outside with his two sons.

Jen Flament, MD
Cherry Hill

Jen Flament (she/her) received her undergraduate degree in International Relations at American University. After graduation, she served in the Peace Corps as an HIV/AIDS Education volunteer in Mali. Her experience in West Africa led her to consider a career in medicine and to appreciate the role that health and healthcare play in communities and development. After completing the post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Goucher College, she attended Tulane University School of Medicine. Back in the US, Jen was constantly reminded that one does not have to search far to find communities in need of primary care. Jen strongly believes in the Family Medicine model of empowering patients to understand and manage their own health, and the Reproductive Justice approach to patient and community-centered care. Outside of the residency, she works to promote anti-racism within medicine with her webpage Race & Medicine.

In her spare time, Jen enjoys running, reading, and hanging out with friends.

Chinyere Obimba, MD, MPH
Cherry Hill and Associate Program Director

Chinyere (she/her) is from Ann Arbor, MI, where she lived for 22 years surrounded by a large and loving extended family. After completing a double major at the University of Michigan in Cell and Molecular Biology and Spanish, she headed to the East Coast to attend Harvard Medical School, completing her Master’s in Public Health in Family and Community Health along the way. Her favorite parts of medical school included her participation in Student National Medical Association, advocating for local immigrant families through a community clinic-based project, co-directing a cultural show celebrating the African Diaspora and conducting a maternal-child health project in Northeast Brazil. She fell in love with family medicine because of its special dedication to the care of underserved populations and its unique position to address the social determinants of health for communities.

Chinyere then made her way west and completed her family medicine residency at Swedish Cherry Hill with Carolyn Downs as her continuity clinic, completing an Area of Concentration in Integrative Medicine. She joined faculty at Cherry Hill in 2018 after working for two and a half years at Carolyn Downs. She became Associate Program Director of Curriculum in 2021. In addition to her responsibilities as APD and Integrative Medicine faculty, she also contributes to the Anti-Racism curriculum. Her other interests include parent-child health and developmental pediatrics. She’s also into language learning, everything Brazil, creative writing, singing, dancing, reading, cooking, documentary watching and city-going. She lives on the "east side" with her husband, trickster son and active, sassy toddler daughter.

Hieu Pham, MD, MSPH, AAHIVS
International Community Health Services, Site Director

Hieu (he/him) considers himself a Saigonese and New Yorker at heart. He was fortunate to spend his formative years in Saigon, Viet Nam before moving to Queens, New York with his brother and mom. Hieu attended Columbia University for his undergraduate studies and went on to study Public Health at Johns Hopkins. He spent time working in population health before going to Rush Medical College for his medical degree. He met his partner at Rush and went on to couples match at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency at the International District clinic. He continues to work at the International District clinic as an attending. As an immigrant, queer physician of color, Hieu is particularly interested in immigrant and refugee health and care for the LGBTQIA+ population. His other clinical interests include HIV care and prevention, chronic hepatitis B, procedures, POCUS, women's health, and obstetrics.

When not practicing medicine or involved with residency activities, Hieu really enjoys reality TV shows, camping, board games, and learning how to cook the food of his motherland, as well as trying new recipes. On the weekends, you will find him and his partner, Ed, wandering the International District and little Saigon enjoying some good coffee, baked goods, and dim sum. Hieu is always in search of the best bún bò huế.

Ngoc Pham, MD
Cherry Hill

Ngoc Pham (she/her) is originally from Boston. She went to Bates College in Maine where she was a double major in Biochemistry and European History (she was also a mathematics minor). Ngoc started her journey out west and obtained her MD from the University of Wisconsin SMPH in 2017, followed by her family medicine residency at Allina United Family Medicine in St. Paul, Minnesota. After residency, she completed two fellowships at Swedish in Seattle, the Advanced Obstetrics Fellowship at First Hill followed by the Addiction Medicine Fellowship at Cherry Hill.

After completing her training, Ngoc was hired as faculty at the Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency. She is passionate about prenatal care, addiction medicine, homeless healthcare, and full spectrum family medicine. She believes that integrating whole-person care, including a patient’s physical, mental, spiritual, and social/environmental aspects, is important in influencing their health. 

Ngoc lives with her husband, Neil, and their two dogs, Merry and Pippin. She enjoys hiking/trail running, doing anything on the water, traveling the world, and eating everything on the way (especially all the Vietnamese food!).

Mary Puttmann-Kostecka, MD
Cherry Hill

Mary Puttmann-Kostecka, MD, MSc (she/her) completed undergrad at St. Louis University where she studied political science, Spanish and international relations. During her undergraduate experiences she was drawn to healthcare as a way to advocate for social justice. In the year before medical school, she completed a masters of social psychology in Health, Community and Development at the London School of Economics where she learned the power of community level change and participation. She then went on to complete medical school at Georgetown University, residency in Santa Rosa, California and then completed a maternal-child health, advanced OB fellowship at PCC Community Wellness in Chicago, IL. She spent another year in Chicago as interim Inpatient Medicine Course Director for West Suburban Family Medicine Residency. Her professional interests include OB, international health, migrant health, immigration, trauma healing, peer education, community health center organization and social justice. She also enjoys cooking, skiing, anything outdoors, spending time with her family, cards, board games and playing the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira.

Samuel Rennebohm, PhD
Cherry Hill

Sam (he/him) was born here at Swedish and grew up just a few miles from the hospital. He completed his undergraduate degree in Ethnic Studies at Columbia University and a Masters of Divinity at the Graduate Theological Union. After divinity school, Sam balanced a number of ministry roles, including grief and bereavement counseling, faith-based community organizing, and mentoring young adult service corps volunteers. While theology and spirituality provided some answers for Sam, they ultimately raised many more questions. Clinical psychology seemed to provide a disciplinary structure well suited for exploring those questions.

Sam completed his doctoral training in the School of Psychology, Family, and Community at Seattle Pacific University. As part of his doctoral training, Sam spent a year at the First Hill Residency as a Behavioral Health Practicum Student. He completed his Doctoral Internship at the VA Puget Sound-American Lake, with rotations in Primary Care Mental Health, PTSD treatment, and Couple/Family Therapy. He then completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Seattle VA in Couple and Family Health.

His clinical and scholarly interests include population based approaches to mental health, contextual behavioral science, brief acceptance and commitment interventions, and behavioral health consultation for families and romantic partners.

Outside of work, Sam likes to spend time with his partner and toddler and their extended family, develop new routes for bike commuting, and follow Seattle municipal politics.

Nasya Sierra, MD
Carolyn Downs, Site Director

Nasya Sierra (she/her) received her undergraduate degree in Biology and Government with a special interest in Health Policy at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. She went on to complete her MD degree in her home state at University of Washington. With special interest in full spectrum care and social justice, she completed her residency at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency – Carolyn Downs Clinic. She later stayed on at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, the only Black Panther Clinic still serving patients. She joined faculty at Swedish Cherry Hill as Carolyn Downs Residency Site Director in early 2022. She also manages the HIV AOC and Carolyn Downs Youth Mentorship Program. Nasya’s curricular interests include mentorship within sustainable pipeline programs, reproductive health, POCUS, and inpatient medicine.

Julie Taraday, MD
Cherry Hill and Seattle Residency, Program Director

Julie Taraday (she/her) received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Brown University and her MD degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Swedish Family Medicine Residency at First Hill where she worked at the 45th Street Clinic FQHC. She joined the faculty at Swedish Family Medicine, Cherry Hill in 2005 where she is the Associate Program Director of Curriculum and the Program Director.

Her curricular interests include maternal/child medicine, obstetrics, gyn procedures, wilderness medicine (ski patrol), POCUS ultrasound (seeking ACCP/SHM Certificate hospital medicine POCUS and teaching OB ultrasound). She is a Centering Pregnancy Workshop Instructor and is passionate about the advantages of Group OB care as a tool to flatten the health disparities seen in marginalized populations. She’s also devoted to removing barriers to successful breastfeeding for high-risk patients.

Julie works as the Swedish System Chief of Family Medicine which allows her a unique opportunity to connect the work of the residency with our sponsoring institution. She’s honored to partner with patients to help them achieve their health goals and to partner with residents to help them achieve their educational goals. She’s grateful every day to work amongst colleagues with shared values who challenge her and hold her accountable to the work of creating an anti-racist organization.

Julie’s superpower is the capacity to embarrass her teenage boys…even when there’s nobody else around. She enjoys hiking, backpacking, skiing, climbing, digging in the garden and generally being a dork with her wife Gretchen, her boys, her dogs and her COVID bubble.

Alice Tin, MD, MPH
Cherry Hill

Growing up, Alice (she/her) spent time in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Boston. As an undergraduate, she loved her studies in history and community health at Tufts. The concepts of preventative and population health were so enthralling that she completed a Master of Public Health concentrating in Biostatistics and Epidemiology to wrangle data into cohesive stories and gain a better understanding of health systems before diving into her medical education.

Continuing her scenic route to medical school, Alice completed a post-bacc program at NYU, soaking in all (the mostly free things ) the city had to offer, while conducting research to evaluate the care management program for pregnancy women with Hepatitis B at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center.

As someone deeply interested in interdisciplinary collaborations, Alice co-founded Open Style Lab in 2013, a non-profit platform for engineers, designers, and occupational therapists to collaborate to create clothing with and for disabled clients. She also has an avid interest in One Health, a health paradigm that recognizes the intricate links between human, animal and environmental health. As a medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she had the opportunity to see One Health in action by interning at the Centers for Disease Control, and was part of a team at the University of Washington that created a joint human and animal clinic serving unstably housed youth.

Alice feels fortunate to have trained at Cherry Hill with the ICHS/International District clinic as her continuity clinic for residency. She is ecstatic to have the privilege to continue work at the residency as core faculty.

Alice is curious about many things, but she is particularly interested in point of care ultrasound, re-imagining and optimizing health care delivery systems, clinical applications of One Health, end-of-life care, and procedural medicine. Outside of work, Alice enjoys visiting bookshops, cleaning up after her two chickens, and working on becoming a better urban cyclist.

Jackie Wong, MD
Cherry Hill

After completing her Art History and Biochemistry degrees at University of Washington, Jacqueline (she/her) headed east for medical school at Drexel University College of Medicine. After enjoying Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, she returned home to Seattle and completed her residency at Swedish Family Medicine Cherry Hill in 2009. Following her residency, she completed an Addiction Medicine fellowship before splitting her time between Seattle Indian Health Board, a community CHC, and Addiction Recovery Services in Ballard, an inpatient detox/treatment unit for pregnant women with addiction issues until 2014. She joined the Cherry Hill faculty part time in 2014 and continues to work at Addiction Recovery Services. Jacqueline's interests include addiction medicine, women's health and obstetrics. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family, hiking, reading, cooking (with the occasional misadventure) and training her cat (who thinks he's a dog).

Alexandra Zaballa, MD
Sea Mar, Site Director

Alexandra Zaballa (she/her) received her undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Diversity Studies at the University of Washington. She earned her medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine, completing both the Underserved Pathway and Hispanic Health Pathway. She completed residency in 2019 at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency where she worked at Sea Mar South Park. After graduation she continued her work at Sea Mar Burien practicing full spectrum family medicine. She joined the faculty at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine in 2022 as the Sea Mar Site Director. Her clinical interests include reproductive health and obstetrics, immigrant and refugee health particularly in the Latinx community, social justice and advocacy, and addiction medicine. Outside of the clinic and hospital, Alexandra enjoys spending time with her husband and family, quality time with friends, and all things outdoors including running, hiking, biking and playing soccer.

Rural Training Track Faculty

Rob Epstein, MD
Rural Training Track, Program Director

Born and raised in Seattle, Dr. Epstein (he/him) earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington, going on to earn a master’s degree in Nursing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  He then worked in the rural Southwest on the Navajo Reservation and then Northern Pakistan as a Nurse Practitioner where he decided to undertake the additional training to become a doctor.  Rob returned to Seattle to attend the University of Washington School of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency in Spokane in 2001 and then moved to Port Angeles.

Dr. Rob and his wife, Betsy Wharton have enjoyed raising their children, Forrest and Maya and becoming a part of the Port Angeles community over the last 20 years. His clinical interests include high risk obstetrics including C-sections, pediatrics, procedural medicine such as endoscopy and hospital medicine, and addiction medicine. He was the first buprenorphine waivered physician in Port Angeles starting in 2007. He has taught medical students and residents since he arrived in Port Angeles and helped create the Port Angeles Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in 2015. Dr. Rob is the Program Director of the Port Angeles Rural Residency and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, his academic interests center around Rural Generalism and his hobbies include historic woodworking/building projects, backcountry skiing, river/canyon boating and sustainable alternative energy.

Ned Hammar, MD
Rural Training Track

Haitian-born artist Ned Hammar (he/him) takes to heart these words from the real Dr. Hunter Patch Adams: "The health of the individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, the community, and the world." At the age of six, he moved with his family from rural Haiti to the town of Halfway, Oregon, population 362. Here he grew up bucking hay bales, scrubbing dairy barns, guiding whitewater river trips, and learning to live in community.

After graduating from Wesleyan University with a bachelor's in chemistry—and the majority of his remaining classes in dance—he had the opportunity to live and serve for two years in a black township in South Africa, part of the second Peace Corps group in the country following the end of Apartheid. It was here, working with farm schools children who would sometimes walk seven miles one way to read outdated textbooks still written in the state language of Apartheid, that he decided to go into family medicine, with an eye towards improving the health of the world.

Upon returning to the States and working briefly for the Sierra Club and the CDC in Atlanta, Ned was fortunate to be accepted into the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After graduating with his M.D. he finally returned to the Pacific Northwest. In residency at Swedish Cherry Hill / Seattle Indian Health Board, he met the love of his life, Lissa, a fellow family medicine resident. When Lissa graduated from Sea Mar, the two of them moved to Omak (north-central Washington) for the next five years. Here they were blessed with two beautiful children. In 2015 Ned and his family accepted an offer to move to Port Angeles to help start the nascent Rural Training Track residency program. As their boys grow up, he and Lissa continue to try to be the best partners, parents, and physicians they can be all while working to improve the health of the individual, family, community, and world.

Linsey Monaghan, MD
Rural Training Track

Linsey Monaghan (she/her) was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri. Dr. Monaghan earned her medical degree at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and completed her residency at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency in Seattle. Following residency, Linsey worked at Pacific Medical Centers Beacon Hill clinic in Seattle and continued doing continuity deliveries and teaching medical students and family medicine residents at Swedish First Hill.

In 2017, Linsey moved to the Olympic Peninsula and joined North Olympic Healthcare Network (NOHN) practicing full spectrum family medicine in addition to serving as the clinical lead of NOHN’s office based addiction treatment (OBAT) program. In 2023 she achieved board certification in addiction medicine. She is also the medical director of the Clallam County jail and juvenile detention facility. Linsey joined the faculty of the Swedish Cherry Hill Rural Program in 2019. Her medical interests include obstetrics, pediatrics, breastfeeding, addiction medicine, and correctional medicine. At the heart of her philosophy of care is forming relationships with her patients and making personalized decisions within the context of a patient’s life, family, and community. She lives in Port Angeles with her husband and two children and enjoys hiking, camping, cooking, baking, reading, and backyard birding.

Brianne Rowan, MD
Rural Training Track

Brianne H. Rowan (she/her) is an Olympic Peninsula native who grew up in Port Townsend, WA, and always wanted to someday return home to the peninsula. She completed her undergraduate training at Juniata College, majoring in Global Health. She then returned to the University of Washington for her medical training, where she also obtained a Master’s of Public Health in Global Health, with a focus on maternal-child health. She completed her residency at Tacoma Family Medicine and stayed on an additional year as a Rural Family Medicine with High-Risk Obstetrics fellow.

In search of a job that would allow her to give back to the community that raised her, provide excellent care for traditionally underserved patients, practice full spectrum inpatient & outpatient medicine with surgical obstetrics, and be involved in medical student and resident education, Brianne cold-called North Olympic Health Network in 2020—and was thrilled to join the practice after her fellowship. Brianne loves the full spectrum of family medicine, and the long-lasting relationships with patients it provides. She also believes it is part of her responsibility as a physician to engage in issues affecting the health of her patients through volunteer work and social justice advocacy and remains active in organizations such as the Washington Academy of Family Physicians and other local and national groups.

Outside of work, Dr. Rowan enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband and soon-to-be-two children, traveling abroad and learning new languages, being outside (especially hiking, sailing or skiing), and on a rainy day cuddling up with a cup of coffee and her two kitties.

Program Staff

Renee C. Conroy
Program Coordinator

Renee C. Conroy (she/her) has been a native of Seattle for most of her life. She’d say her biggest accomplishment was being a single mom and raising two exceptionally successful kids. She has lived and observed all the challenges, changes, growth, and opportunities firsthand of the beauty and intrinsic transformation of the community she grew up within the Emerald City of Seattle. She is excited about the opportunities that await the ever changing landscape of equity and diversity manifesting in real time and her active involvement with various committees and taskforces, via partnerships and volunteering, within the Swedish organization.

Renee joined Swedish in 2011, working her way up from customer service representative in the ER to main registration and working as a PSR at Swedish Colon & Rectal. She brings a variety of coordination, leadership, and teambuilding skills. Her organization, team work, and positive energy is highly recognizable and welcoming when you arrive to our main office. She enjoys working with the faculty, residents, and staff. Her greatest accomplishment is willfully assisting new residents that join the family medicine program flourish as adults, while assisting them in every way possible in achieving their goal of becoming medical doctors and leaders in activism and service to those underrepresented in our world. You’ll see Renee's smiling face at the front desk to greet you when you come to visit.

Jaima Hardman
Rural Training Track Program Coordinator

Jaima (she/her) is a born and bred Washingtonian, growing up in Puyallup and moving to Port Angeles to start a new career in healthcare. After 15 years of working for the public health office, she moved on to private practice where the residency program was to establish and became residency coordinator. Outside of working you can find her spending time with her close-knit family, enjoying her three cats (Barnes, Noble, and Kindle Fire), reading, or taking in the beautiful sites around the amazing Olympic Peninsula.

Katherine Venables
Program Manager

Katherine (she/her) is a fourth-generation Washingtonian who was born and raised in Seattle. Initially inspired to go into healthcare after spending a lot of time in and out of hospitals as a child, she attended the University of Washington where she obtained her undergraduate degree in Public Health and fostered a fierce belief in health equity and social justice. Katherine is always eager to learn more about the ins and outs of the residency program. When Katherine isn’t at work, she can be found on a patio at one of the many breweries in Seattle, making a mess of her kitchen, or spending time with her cat Juniper.