Class of 2026

Justin Abadejos, DO
Cherry Hill

Justin (he/him) was born and raised in sunny San Diego, California by his amazing Filipino immigrant parents and grandparents. He attended the University of California, San Diego where he received a Bachelor’s and Masters in Biology doing research in immunology and universal flu vaccine development. During his time at UCSD, he developed a passion for social justice leading a service learning organization called Alternative Breaks and directing a production of The Mending Monologues, a collection of monologues written by male-identifying people advocating for gender equality and an end to gender-based violence.

Justin then traveled across the country to complete medical school in Detroit, Michigan at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine where continued his passion for community service by dedicating his time to street medicine and leading Detroit Street Care, an organization centered around providing basic necessities, harm reduction, and medical care to our friends experiencing homelessness. Justin saw the importance of advocating for his patients outside the four walls of the clinic and beyond the scope of medicine and was involved in advocacy efforts to end unjust encampment removals in the city of Detroit. These passions inspired him to dedicate his career to family medicine due to his love for longitudinal relationships and providing true, full-spectrum care for some of our most vulnerable populations.

Justin is so excited to continue working with underserved populations at the Cherry Hill Clinic and hoping to further his interests in street medicine, addiction medicine, and health equity in the city of Seattle.

Outside of medicine Justin loves listening to music at all times of the day, going to concerts, trying new restaurants, and being an amateur snowboarder in the winter.

Virkamal Dhaliwal, MD, MHS
Cherry Hill

Virkamal Dhaliwal (she/her) was born in Everett, WA and raised by her Punjabi immigrant parents and grandparents. Much of her formative years were centered around love and care for her younger brother, who lives with a neurodegenerative disorder. Being a first-generation oldest daughter, Virkamal had the distinct privilege of bridging the gap between her brother, her family, and his physician. Throughout their lives (and even today), Virkamal has been able to witness and participate in intense advocacy efforts and collaborate with her brother’s healthcare teams to ensure he had the best quality of life possible in his condition.

Virkamal attended undergrad at the University of Washington Bothell where she studied Biology and pursued her research interests in Gene Editing and Infectious Disease. After a couple years, she moved to Baltimore, MD to pursue her Master of Health Sciences in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. It was here that her desire to pursue medicine was solidified, she realized she wanted to work at the crossroads of public health and individual advocacy, to become a physician. Upon returning to Washington, she took several more years to work in a research lab, as a medical scribe in her hometown, and as a shelter advocate at the Bailey-Boushay House. These experiences culminated in her acceptance to the University of Washington School of Medicine- Spokane Campus.

At UWSOM, Virkamal served as medical student association president and got to lead the charge in transitioning to virtual medical education at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the middle of her first year. She also served as the liaison between regional students and central UWSOM leadership and led the charge to challenge racist practices in their curriculum, classroom, and beyond – resulting in the creation of a microaggressions workshop in their orientation curriculum. She was represented in the Spokane County Medical Society, holding a seat on the board and discussing issues affecting their education within the local community. She was able to volunteer in the local free clinic in Spokane to provide care to the city’s undomiciled citizens. While in medical school, Virkamal also served on regional leadership within the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), as corporate affairs officer, associate regional director, and then regional director for Region 1. In this role she had the opportunity collaborate with her peers throughout the region in the creation of the “Allyship: A Lifestyle” talk series which was attended by medical students, residents, and faculty nationwide. A project created in direct response to shortcomings in how medical schools were reacting to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to provide allies with tools to support our BIPOC colleagues and ease the burden placed on them by our medical schools, and to better educate medical students in the history of racism in healthcare.

Throughout medical school, she kept finding that she found the most fulfillment when she really got to know her patients, their lives, their families, and use that information to streamline her patient’s care. She found joy in advocating with her patients for their specific needs and finding individualized solutions to their healthcare challenges. Virkamal is thrilled to be staying home to pursue family medicine residency at Swedish Cherry Hill.

Virkamal’s interests include reproductive justice, parent/baby dyad, surgical obstetrics, gender-affirming care, immigrant health care and addiction medicine. She looks forward to getting to know patients and families and taking care of the community that raised her. In her free time, you can find Virkamal either at home, in Marysville, with her family or spending time with her partner as they plan their impending Punjabi wedding. She finds joy in dance (bhangra), watching reality TV, and taking long walks with her family dog, Oreo.

Madeleine Kane, MD, MS
Seattle Indian health Board

Maddy (they/them) grew up in a suburb of Denver where they developed a deep love for the mountains and all things outdoors. They moved to the Bay Area for college and accidentally stayed for many years. During undergrad at Stanford University pursuing a degree in Human Biology (public health / social determinants of health emphasis), they got “auntie’d” by an indigenous Reproductive Justice organizer and elder, which set them on the lifelong path of racial justice work.

After college, Maddy worked at a collective impact organization doing public health in Redwood City’s government. They ultimately decided to pursue medicine after encountering an incredible doctor who was equal parts community organizer, public health professional and physician and begrudgingly began to take night chemistry classes. Maddy then worked as the Community Health Manager with a nonprofit in Pescadero, CA providing wraparound services to farmworkers and their families. These experiences underscored the necessity of both accessible whole-person family medicine and addressing upstream determinants of health for marginalized communities.

Maddy then attended UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP) and the UCSF PRIME-US program for medical school. They supported community organizing with asylum seekers in the Bay Area and ultimately wrote their thesis analyzing letters from ICE detention during early COVID-19. Learning from the JMP’s emphasis on critical race theory, Maddy worked with colleagues to launch the Institute of Healing and Justice in Medicine (addressing structural racism in medicine; e.g., inappropriate use of race in algorithms) which continues to be deeply meaningful work.

Maddy is thrilled and humbled by the chance to learn on and from Coast Salish land as a part of the Cherry Hill and Seattle Indian Health Board communities. Their passions in medicine include OB, addiction medicine, antiracism work, and integrative medicine. When not in clinic or the wards, they are likely to be either spending time outdoors in the mountains and learning plant medicine, exploring new restaurants across Seattle or at home cooking and snuggling their partner and cats (Mu & Luna) on the couch.

Sarah Moritz, DO
Cherry Hill

Sarah Moritz (she/her) was born at Swedish First Hill and raised in Seattle. She earned a double B.A. in Biology & Spanish from the University of Denver, where she played on the women’s club water polo team. During her junior year, she earned a scholarship that allowed her to study abroad for one trimester in Granada, Spain; during her time there, she took five courses in Spanish, lived with a local family, and traveled. Prior to starting medical school, Sarah worked as a medical assistant for an orthopedic trauma surgeon in Bellevue, WA for four years. It was this job where she fell in love with medicine and making meaningful connections with patients and their families.

In 2019, she moved to Yakima, Washington to attend medical school at Pacific Northwest University where she thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a different part of her home state. In her pre-clinical years, she served on the Student Government Association (SGA) where she learned to advocate for the needs of her peers and collaborate with the school administration to improve the student experience. Over the course of clinical rotations in the Yakima Valley, Sarah’s passion for primary care and working with underserved populations grew immensely, and she was drawn towards the FQHC model of healthcare. Outside of rotations, she loved volunteering as an English teacher with the non-profit organization La Casa Hogar, which aims to support the Latinx community in Yakima.

She is honored to return to her hometown to train at Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency, and is passionate about reproductive health, the parent-baby dyad, family dynamics, mental health, patient advocacy, and providing care to the Latinx community. Outside of work, you can find Sarah walking, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, and running her favorite trails. In May of 2022, she ran the Eugene Marathon, and in May of 2023 she completed the Half Ironman in Victoria, B.C. She loves going to concerts and live shows whether it be stand-up comedy or musicals. Above all, she uses her free time to connect with family and friends near and far!

Al Ogawa, MD
Carolyn Downs

Al Ogawa (they/them) was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM. Growing up they learned about community and healing in the kitchen, where intergenerational stories came in all forms: artfully shaped dinner rolls, handmade tortillas, and New Year’s sushi pocket parties.

Al studied sociology at Amherst College and came to appreciate that true healing demands understanding each person within their lived experience and social context. This ignited their interest in health equity and healing systems, not just treating symptoms. In medical school at the University of Rochester, they were grateful for the opportunity to work with incredible colleagues on projects promoting migrant health, anti-shackling policy, antiracism in medical education, and LGBTQ+ health.

Al’s love of narrative medicine led to a year-long Medical Humanities Fellowship, building community with LGBTQ+ older adults in New Mexico and learning about the community’s COVID-19 pandemic experiences. In backyards, gay bars, and on the pickleball court, they witnessed lived narratives of deep joy and grief that illuminated the other side of medicalized “risk factors:” resilience and survival.

Al spends a lot of time thinking about ways to re-embody and decolonize medicine. Inspired by a good friend and classmate, they co-created MovementMed, a class that uses movement, awe, and play to build community and learn anatomy. Trained as an end-of-life doula, Al hopes to bring the doula-heart to their family medicine practice to better support people in living (and dying!) in accordance with each person’s values.

Al’s interests lie in geriatrics, palliative care, LGBTQ+ health, integrative medicine, food justice, health policy, and narrative medicine. When they aren’t in the hospital, Al can be found writing poetry in a hammock somewhere in the mountains or reading your favorite cookbook (recipes are just love letters we write to ourselves and each other, right?).

Al is constantly inspired by their amazing community of co-residents, mentors, family and friends. They are both honored and elated to be a Cherry and join the incredible Carolyn Downs clinic and community. Al is humbled to be a part of the 15th generation of Japanese doctors in the Ogawa line and hopes to bring that healing tradition into their work as a family medicine physician.

Binhan Pham, MD
International Community Health Services

Binhan Pham (he/him) was born at Swedish First Hill and raised in the greater Seattle area. He attended University of Washington, earning a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. After graduation, he worked in engineering before steering his course towards medical school.

In his time at University of Colorado Medical School, he helped lead APAMSA (Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association) and volunteered at a student run clinic for those without health insurance.

He is excited to be at his dream program, one that allows him to give back to the very communities that raised him. Thank you to the International Community Health Services team and patients for helping him become the physician he wants to be.

Some of Binhan’s favorite things include cooking, movies, board games, nature walks, and exploring the constantly growing food scene in Seattle.

Ezequiel Ramos, MD
Sea Mar

Ezequiel Ramos (he/him) was born and raised in Mesa, AZ. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Biology from Johns Hopkins University. As an undergraduate, Ezequiel participated in service opportunities in areas of mentoring, resource dissemination, case management and advocacy for food access. Ezequiel’s passion and love for family medicine flourished from serving the Latinx population.

He attended Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, New York, as part of the Primary Care Scholars Program. He quickly became involved in the student run clinic for the East Harlem community in many roles from interpreter, case manager to teaching senior. During the summer of 2020, he led a team fundraising effort that raised over $67,000 to provide food boxes, medical supplies, and cash grants to the low-income undocumented population in East Harlem. Throughout medical school, he was involved heavily with Latino Student Medical Association as Co-Leader and in conference organizing.

Ezequiel has broad interests within family medicine, but he’s particularly passionate about immigrant and refugee health, community health education, and obstetrics. These passions brought him closer to home on the West Coast, specifically Swedish Cherry Hill and Sea Mar to continue to learn how to provide compassionate, culturally, and linguistically appropriate care. As a product of pipeline programs and incredible hardworking, supportive parents, he is committed to supporting incoming generations of healthcare workers. He is honored to spend the next 3 years largely caring for and establishing connections to the Latinx community in Seattle. New to the area, he looks forward to exploring all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Lily Rolfe, MD
Seattle Indian Health Board

Lily Rolfe (they|them) was born in Iowa, raised in rural Wisconsin (it is called a bubbler, not a water fountain!), and went to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the University at UMN – Twin Cities where they got their B.S. in Biochemistry with a Minor in Psychology. They fell in love with Minneapolis and after a solo self supported bike trip from Portland to Portland, they stayed in their new hometown for a couple of years working as an ER Tech.

After having many friends and family have extremely negative experiences with the healthcare system due to their gender identity, Lily decided to aim to be a family doc and go into medicine to act as a friendly first contact for folks who have been historically harmed by the broken healthcare system that we have. While in Med School, Lily had a focus on LGBTQ+ health, particularly Gender Affirming Healthcare and Trans and Gender Diverse activism in the healthcare education setting. They put on a 5 part workshop introducing people to the concept of transgender healthcare, including social, medical, surgical, legal transition options and the mental health effects of living in a transphobic world. They also had many a midnight meeting on the leadership board for TPATH (The Transgender Professional Association for Transgender Health) an international trans health advocacy org and a member of the USPATH (US Professional Association for Trans Health)'s Education Committee with the hopes to expand education around healthcare for gender diverse folk for medical students and all other healthcare related students.

Lily is excited to be in Seattle and hopes to continue exploring museums, exploring the local circus scene, continue to DM their DnD game, and advocate for a better healthcare system for LGBTQ+ folks and others who have been historically harmed, ignored, and treated poorly by the medical healthcare system and others inside it.

Diana Sahagun Andrews, MD
Sea Mar

Diana (she/her) was born in Cuautla, Jalisco a small mountainous town in west-central Mexico. Since moving to the U.S she has spent her formative years in Bellingham and Seattle Washington. She attended the University of Washington where she earned her degree in molecular biology and gender, women, and sexuality studies. During her undergraduate studies she became involved in tutoring and mentoring other students of color pursuing STEM degrees. She went on to help found Biology Students for Equity which continues to be a space for marginalized students within the biology department to seek peer mentoring and be a unified voice for change within the university’s biology department.

After taking some time after undergrad she attended the University of Washington School of Medicine where she was part of the Targeted Rural Underserved Track (TRUST), a program that exposed her to rural and underserved medicine within the state of Washington and ultimately led her to fall in love with family medicine. Throughout medical school she continued to seek mentoring opportunities through LMSA (Latinx Medical Student Association) which works closely with pre-medical students from Chicanos/Latinx for Community Medicine.

Her clinical interests include Latinx health, full spectrum family medicine, immigrant health, gender affirming care, and reproductive care. She is a proud mom to her English bulldog Bowser and her beautiful flowering Hoyas. In her spare time she loves reading (particularly speculative fiction), picking her monthly book from Book of the Month, attending concerts with her partner, playing board games and petting other dogs at the local dog parks.

Katie Stevenson, MD, MPH
Rural Training Track

Katie Stevenson (she/her) was born and raised in Ewing, New Jersey. She was privileged to spend many summers at a summer camp that instilled in her the value of community, imagination, and a love for the outdoors. She completed her undergraduate training at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She graduated from Bates with a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies and a passion for Correctional Health reform. After taking a break to move to Colorado and learn to ski, she attended medical school at Tufts University’s Maine Track Program. Through the Maine Track, she split her medical school years between Boston, MA and Maine, which solidified her commitment to rural medicine. Katie took a community-based year between her third and fourth years of medical school. During this time she served as a Hospital Chaplain Intern and worked as Program Director for an Opioid Use Disorder street outreach program, Project REACH.

Katie is thrilled to be a part of the Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Rural Program and is looking forward getting to know new communities in both Seattle and Port Angeles. She is incredibly grateful to working with and learning from co-residents and other colleagues who see social justice and health advocacy as an integral part of Family Medicine. In Maine, Katie spent most of her free time around the water; paddleboarding, cold water swimming, learning to surf, and watching the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean. She’s excited to get to explore the waterways in the PNW and to learn about and from the indigenous communities that have been and continue to be caretakers of this water. Katie’s favorite flower is the dandelion.

David Wang, MD
Carolyn Downs

David (he/they) is a queer, Chinese American poet, linguist, and podcast lover who believes in reducing as many barriers to healthcare as possible. He was raised in Richland, Washington and went to Rice University, where he nurtured a love for how family medicine directly addresses health inequities. Knowing he would come back to medicine, he detoured into applied linguistics and completed an M.A. at a small school that ended up being extremely queerphobic about his clothing, his friends, and his academic life. Eager to live somewhere more welcoming, he moved to Seattle and worked as a school-based health center coordinator and a health educator.

These experiences would inform his studies at the University of Michigan Medical School where he led groups on queer health, disability health, and dismantling race-based medicine. One group aimed to expand trauma-informed care into trauma-preventive care by counteracting the ways that the patriarchy damages the health of men and people assigned-male-at-birth. David is especially proud of choreographing dances made completely out of physical exam maneuvers for his medical school’s dance show. He was a Class Advocate on Student Council and a Gold Humanism Honors Society member, graduating with Distinctions in both Medical Education and Service and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award.

Outside of the hospital, you can find David testing the limits of how far he can go with public transportation and walking, spending an uncomfortable amount of time at buffets, trying to pet every cat he passes, and propagating plants. His brain is—for better or for worse—inordinately occupied with taking advantage of deals, happy hours, credit card benefits and sign-up bonuses. David has wanted to be a family physician for over a decade and is elated to be at Swedish Cherry Hill because of the program’s passion and commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression. He is honored to join fellow activists in medicine and is particularly humbled and fortunate to be at Carolyn Downs. Clinically, he is working on his skills in point-of-care ultrasound, Health at Every Size® principles, integrative medicine, and abolition medicine.

Stephanie Sunmi Wentzel, MD, MPH
International Community Health Services

Paula Whitmire, MD
Rural Training Track

Paula (she/her) is from Kent in southeast King County. She attended University of Washington for her BA in Medical Anthropology and Global Health, focusing on systemic oppression and health inequities in the United States. She has always had a passion for working with marginalized communities, which led her to volunteer overnight with Roots Young Adult Shelter in the U-District during college. After graduation, she worked in research at Mayo Clinic Arizona for a few years and learned to appreciate the beauty of the desert.

Paula attended University of Massachusetts Medical School with intention of going into rural Family Medicine. She was a part of the Population Based Urban and Rural Community Health track, which meant that her clinical years took place at a community hospital in Western Massachusetts. In medical school, she co-led various interest groups and enrichment electives focused on advocacy, social justice, and primary care. Her experiences in medical school re-affirmed that she wanted to improve access to quality full-spectrum healthcare in rural areas. Her areas of interest in medicine include LGBTQIA+ care, addiction medicine, and psychiatry in inpatient, emergent, and outpatient settings.

Paula is excited to return to her home state of Washington and be a part of a program that understands that social justice advocacy and anti-racism work are at the foundation of good medical care. She is grateful to serve a community in Seattle that looks like the one she grew up in and is looking forward to new adventures in beautiful Port Angeles. When she isn’t in the hospital, she loves to craft (knit, sew, cross stitch), pet her cats, be with family/friends, run, hike, kayak, and be outside. She is always taking suggestions for new hobbies to be perfectly adequate at.

Becca Wolinsky, MD
Cherry Hill

Becca (she/her) was raised on bagels and cream cheese and Tex-Mex—she grew up in the Jewish community of Houston, Texas. Becca’s upbringing was full of countless Hanukkah parties, welcoming Shabbat dinners, and the spirit of Tikkun Olam, the Jewish value of social justice.

Understanding that her upbringing in a homogeneous community limited her perspectives, she started college at Brown University enrolled in a preorientation with a mission to provide new students education and community building for resistance and social change. This inspired her commitment to a career rooted in equity and justice. She completed an Africana Studies and thesis which analyzed impacts of racism in medicine on US refugee healthcare and included a Needs Assessment of the Providence Refugee Clinic.

Through Health Leads, Becca connected families at Hasbro Children’s hospital to social resources, witnessing how racism and classism impact health outcomes. She directed the Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment summer camp, a now annual enrichment program for Providence refugee youth. Becca worked as a medical practice assistant in a gynecology clinic that specializes in transgender health. Certain about a career in Family Medicine, she became a National Health Service Corps scholar.

Becca co-founded Boston University School of Medicine’s (BUSM) Creating Leadership and Education to Address Racism, which created an enrichment series, performed review of curriculum, and developed recommendations for addressing racism in medicine. This culminated in a report and publication, “Deconstructing Racism, Hierarchy, and Power in Medical Education.” Committed to reproductive justice, Becca organized workshops to expand abortion access in Massachusetts through leading BUSM Medical Students for Choice. She led the largest delegation of medical students at the ROE Act Hearing and was the sole medical student to testify.

During the residency application process, Becca couldn’t shake the feeling that Cherry Hill was home. She chose Cherry Hill to become the physician activist she’s always dreamed of becoming. Becca’s interests include reproductive justice, substance use disorders, and gender affirming care. Outside of medicine, Becca performs stand-up comedy which reminds her that she is human. She firmly believes that recognizing our own humanity is essential to recognizing the humanity of our patients. She also loves all things pizza, cats, and singing.

Becca attributes everything good in her life to her mom, Dr. Marcia Katz, the best doctor and mother in the whole wide world. She managed to both never miss Becca’s weekly elementary school Shabbat ceremony and won Baylor College of Medicine’s highest award for clinical humanism. She died right before Becca started residency, and Becca misses her more than words. Becca hopes she will come close to filling the big shoes her mom left to fill, and she is grateful to her amazing co-residents for helping to remember and honor her mom every day.

Becca wanted to share her mom’s obituary, which she and her mom wrote together: https://www.providencejournal.com/obituaries/ppvp0459310

Joe Wood, MD
Rural Training Track

Joe (he/him) was born originally in Rapid City, SD and began his story in the small town Custer, SD in the Black Hills. He moved to Helena, MT when he was 11 and enjoyed life under the Big Sky where he found joy exploring the wilderness on horseback. He attended Montana State University where he discovered his passions for both medicine and philosophy graduating with a B.A. in Philosophy. Joe focused his undergraduate education on biomedical ethics taking his thoughts to various conferences his senior year. As certified Nursing Assistant for three years at the local hospital’s medical floor, Joe saw firsthand the difference thoughtful providers could make for patients and staff alike.

After working in Maryland as a medical assistant for a year while he applied to medical school; Joe began his medical schooling at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. During this time, he started a biomedical ethics interest group, assisted in revitalizing the geriatric interest group, and was a leader in the rural medicine interest group. He was also a participant in the ROME (Rural Opportunities in Medical Education) program at UND which involved a six month longitudinal clinical rotation in Benson, MN. It was at this time he fell in love with the broad spectrum family medicine he experienced there. He was especially excited to experience the crucial role a rural family medicine physician could play in enabling underserved populations access to care that would otherwise be inaccessible.

He is committed to providing spaces where any and all can seek care and feel safe to do so, regardless of social background or geographical limitation. He believes family medicine excels at enabling doctors to serve underserved communities and meet the various particular needs that each unique community may have. Which is why he is so excited to be at a program that continually pushes harder for an anti-racist and equitable health system.

Joe spends his free time exploring outdoor spaces through backcountry backpacking, skiing, and kayaking. He also explores digital spaces by enjoying exploration focused video games via his self constructed computer. He shares these interests with his wife Kaitlyn and their two cats Atlas and Fluff.