September 2019

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am.  Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

9/20: Suicide in America: Suffering in the Shadow of the 2nd Amendment

Blair Davison, MD
Providence Psychiatry

Blair is a graduate of University of Montana and U of Washington School of Medicine (MT WWAMI).  She completed Brown University Triple Board Residency in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  She is the immediate past president of Montana Psychiatric Association.  Currently her work is with children and adults throughout MT. 

9/27: Pediatric Upper Extremity Trauma: Pearls, Pitfalls & Physis

 Patrick Parenzin has been a Physician Assistant at Seattle Children's in the Department of Orthopedics for 12 years.  He lives in Lolo, Montana and has clinics here in Missoula as well as Seattle and Everett Washington each week.  He speaks locally and nationally on a wide range of Pediatric Orthopedic topics.

October 2019

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am.  Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

10/4:  MT Migrant Council: Who We Are and What We Do

Nieves Gonzalez, LCPC
MT Migrant Council 

Nieves Gonzalez is a bilingual (English and Spanish) Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, based in Lolo Montana. She received her bachelor degree in Psychology from Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo in her home country, the Dominican Republic. Afterward, she completed a Masters in Adult Clinical Psychopathology followed by a PhD in Psychiatry both from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. During those years most of her clinical work and research experience was focused on Severe Mental Illness, (Schizophrenia and other psychosis as well as mood disorders and domestic violence). She’s worked in inpatient and outpatient care.

Nieves moved to Montana 5 years ago, soon after started working as the Behavioral Health Coordinator at Ag Worker Health & Services where she works today providing integrated behavioral health care to agriculture/migrant population. She provides counseling services to this population based in Missoula/Ravalli County as well as in Beaverhead/Madison County.  A year ago, she opened her private practice, Big Sky Therapy Works, in Florence, MT where she focus on trauma oriented work with adults and women with Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

10/11: Breast Reconstruction

Vincent Laurence, MD
St. Patrick Hospital 

Dr. Laurence is a Plastic Surgeon at St Patrick Hospital.  He completed a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar, then attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Following his residency at University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Vincent completed a clinical fellowship in reconstructive microsurgery at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan.  Vincent’s numerous publications include articles and book chapters. Dr Laurence was a sergeant in the US Marine Corps.    

10/18: Adverse Childhood Events

Ivy Anderson
Evan Stewart, PhD
The Parenting Place https://www.parentingplace.net/ 

Ivy Anderson is the Program Manager at The Parenting Place; a non-profit, child-abuse prevention center in Missoula, Montana. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Montana in 2008, and has been educating parents and community organizations for the last five years. Ivy was trained to provide the Adverse Childhood Experiences information by two of Montana’s very few ACE Master Trainers, and has presented to various groups including: University of Montana, CASA, Missoula County School District, Child-Care providers, and the Missoula County Detention Center. 

Evan Stewart began as the social worker at The Parenting Place this August. He earned his doctorate in Applied Anthropology from the University of Montana in 2019. He previously worked as an anthropology instructor at Missoula College and the University of Montana. He conducted his dissertation research in Nepal, focusing on rural hygiene and sanitation uptake in remote villages.  

10/25: Misdiagnosis in the Pediatric ED

Eileen Klein, MD
Seattle Children's/University of WA

Eileen grew up on the East Coast going to college at the University of Maryland and medical school at Johns Hopkins.  She came to Seattle for residency in 1988 and stayed for her chief residency, fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and MPH at the UW.  She is passionate about teaching and served as the Director for the fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine for 20 years.  In addition to teaching, Eileen is active in research and is Co-director of Emergency Research.  Her team was recently awarded a grant to become part of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN).

November 2019

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

11/1: Obesity and Cancer

Michelle Proper, MD
Community Medical Center 

Dr. Michelle Proper completed her radiation oncology residency at University of Colorado in Denver.  As an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, she specialized in treating CNS, gynecologic and GI cancers.  She joined Billings Clinic in 2013, then in 2014 moved to Missoula, where she currently treats all cancers.  Dr. Proper continues to be active with research in the community oncology setting and is the NRG liaison for the Montana Cancer Consortium. 

11/8:  Innovative Solutions to Pediatric Health Access & Care Coordination

Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Team: Drs Sarah Holexa, Emily Hall, Chelsea Bodnar and Allison Young

Sarah Holexa pediatric hospitalist in Missoula with an interest in healthcare access for rural communities and children and youth with special health care needs. She completed her residency training at UCSF with an emphasis in the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved program. Her With her passion for child advocacy, family engagement she is dedicated to working within communities to improve equitable health care access. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar working on a team of pediatricians that is focusing on innovative strategies to improve pediatric after-hours access to health care through a statewide pediatric collaborative and telemedicine.  Through community partners, Title V agencies and a collaboration with the Rural Institute at the University of Montana, she works to improve care coordination for CYSHCN in Montana. This RWJ team recently participated in the national HRSA MCHB Care Coordination Challenge for Innovative Solutions for Care Coordination for CYSHCN and pitched MP2- Montana Pediatrics Medical Passport and were awarded the great opportunity to compete in the final Phase III of this challenge.  
 
Dr. Hall is a healthcare leader with years of experience transforming pediatric healthcare for underserved families and low resource communities. She is best known for her innovation and vision in modifying the inpatient healthcare experience for infants and families struggling with addiction leading to development of a novel integrative care model adopted on a national scale. As a graduate of the University of Minnesota Pediatric Residency Program with emphasis in Global Health and Research, Dr. Hall continues to work intermittently abroad, primarily in Africa. In the US, Dr. Hall works primarily in Tribal communities and has experience both in urban and in rural settings. She uses cultural humility and a relationship-centered approach blended with innovation and strategic partnerships to achieve and drive improved healthcare outcomes for children.
 
Chelsea EF Bodnar is a pediatrician who attended Harvard Medical School and University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Since residency at Seattle Children's Hospital/University of Washington, she has been focused on improving the quality of primary care for children - as a health policy fellow at the Institute of Medicine, Director of Children's Healthcare quality at a large consortium of FQHCs, and a primary care physician for children from a wide range of backgrounds. Previously she led the transformation of preventive care using technology to dramatically improve screening rates for high risk children. Having worked in many very different pediatric care settings, she is now focused on ways to use technology to improve the pediatric care model for Montana's children families, doctors, and the future.
 
Dr. Allison Young completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, where she earned her B.A. magna cum laude in Anthropology with a focus on medical anthropology. After college, she spent time teaching high school and working for non-profit organizations focused on improving adolescent health, before returning to Harvard for medical school. She completed pediatric residency training at Seattle Children’s Hospital and joined Missoula Valley Pediatrics as a primary care pediatrician in 2010. During residency she participated in a Global Health Pathway which afforded her the opportunity to work in rural Kenya for 2 months of her training. She has been active in the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics since moving to MT and completed the MMA Physician Leadership Training Program in 2017-2018. She serves on the Board for the Montana Natural History Center and was a physician participant in Missoula’s Climate Readiness Seminars. She serves on the Primary Care Executive Committee and the Pediatric Executive Committee at Community Medical Center. In clinical practice she is the Site Director for the Reach Out and Read Program as well as the Missoula WWAMI Pediatric Residency training site. Along with three of her colleagues in pediatric medicine, she joined the 2018 cohort of Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars which affords her an opportunity to complete a three-year fellowship, while maintaining her clinical practice in Missoula. The focus of this fellowship work will be looking at use of telemedicine to reduce barriers to access to pediatric care in MT.   

11/15: Interprofessional Approach to the Opioid Crisis

Kim Madson, PharmD
University of MT

Kim is a graduate from the Skaggs School of Pharmacy at the University of Montana.  She completed a one-year residency at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, WA, and she is a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS).  She currently teaches at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy in Missoula.

11/22:  Through a Different Lens: Stories of Behavioral Health Crisis in Missoula County

Bonnie Bishop, MPH
University of MT

Bonnie graduated from the University of Montana’s Public & Community Health Science Program and is a Certified Health Educational Specialist. Her passion for suicide prevention and health equity led her to partner with the Missoula City-County Public Health Department to complete a graduate capstone project where she utilized a community-based participatory research tool called Photovoice. Based off the premise that people are the experts in their own lives, the capstone project empowered participants to take pictures and provide descriptions which document some of the gaps and barriers in our current behavioral health systems. She now works at Western Montana Area Health Education Center and UM's Health & Medicine division as a program manager focusing on interprofessional training and practice.

Levi Bessette
Missoula Resident & Project Volunteer

Levi Bessette is a Missoula native and an alumnus of Lowell Elementary, Hellgate High School and the University of Montana, where he was elected as ASUM senator. After losing his dad in 2000, Levi turned to drugs and alcohol. His use quickly escalated to daily abuse, and in 2005, he checked himself into treatment in Great Falls. Levi has since dedicated his life to helping people, especially addicts, find recovery. He works hard to help others better understand the disease of addiction by speaking locally and nationally, all while working a full-time job and being a single parent. Levi has been able to find recovery and be an active member of society thanks to the support and encouragement from his friends, family, recovery programs, Missoula community, doctors and counselors.

Chris Caldwell, DO
MT Spine and Pain Center

Chris Caldwell has been an interventional osteopathic pain physician at the Montana Spine and Pain Center for over a decade.  As a physician who has treated pain for 15 years, Dr Caldwell has a passion for the patient narrative (and named a daughter Storey because "nothing changes people like the power of narrative").  He is thrilled to have good news in pain treatment (describes himself as "captivated by neuroscience optimism"), but also knows from the trenches how difficult it can be to reach those you are trying to help.  He struggles daily with how best to teach into each patient's story.  All pain is real, and it comes from our threat detection system trying to protect us.  The connection to story is that our brains protect us based on our story.

11/29: Holiday- No Presentation

December 2019

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

12/6: Climate Change and Health: Interprofessional Perspectives and Solutions

Jennifer Robohm, PhD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Jennifer Robohm, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist who works as a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in Behavioral Science for the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana (FMRWM). She is also a Clinical Associate for the UM Department of Psychology. Dr. Robohm has a long-standing interest in climate change and its mental health impacts, and she is currently enrolled in the Yale School of Health Certificate Program in “Climate Change and Health".

Paul Smith, DO
Community Medical Center

Dr. Paul Smith is Director of Pediatric Pulmonology at Community Medical Center in Missoula, Montana and Research Professor in the School of Public and Community Health Sciences at the University Montana where he studies effects of wildfire smoke on health and is Director of the Montana Pediatric Clinical Trials Site of the NIH ECHO/ISPCTN network. This network conducts studies into environmental influences on childhood health.   He moved to Missoula from Cleveland, Ohio where he worked as an intensive care and pulmonary physician for children.  He cares for children both in the intensive care unit at Community Medical Center and treats children with a wide variety of lung conditions.  

Hayley Blackburn, PharmD
University of MT

Dr. Hayley Blackburn completed her undergraduate degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Montana. Upon completion of her Pharmacy degree in 2013, she continued her training with a postgraduate residency program at Community Medical Center. She has since worked as a clinical pharmacist in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings, and served as Residency Director at the Roseburg VA Medical Center.  Hayley joined the Pharmacy Practice faculty at UM as an Assistant Professor in 2017. She teaches throughout the professional curriculum, works as a clinical pharmacist at Curry Health Center, serves as a faculty mentor for an interprofessional global and planetary health experience, and directs a fellowship program to train pharmacy graduates in providing pharmacy care in rural Montana.  Off campus, Hayley is involved in the community as a member of the Board of Directors for Open Aid Alliance, and has a personal interest in climate change and planetary health. 

12/13: Approach to Anorectal Issues in the Clinical Setting

Charles Acher, MD, MPH
Community Medical Center

Colorectal surgeon with multifaceted experience in direct patient health care and population and global health with interests the role of uncertainty and bias in clinical decision making. I am initially from Wisconsin where I trained in General surgery and Colorectal surgery prior to which I worked abroad in public health mostly in China, Uganda and Ethiopia. I moved to Missoula this year with my partner Stephanie Suprenant, a plastic surgeon here at CMC, and our two children and have enjoyed becoming part of the Missoula Community.

12/20: Anticoagulation Management in Primary Care

Jon James, DO
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT 

I grew up in Anacortes, Washington – a small island town just north of Seattle. I attended Western Washington University, where I majored in Kinesiology and received a minor in Chemistry. I completed my medical school training at Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine in Henderson, Nevada. My move to Missoula has reinforced my commitment to rural family, wilderness, and preventive medicine. I look forward to establishing relationships with patients in Western Montana to develop a collaborative approach to health care.

12/27:  Holiday - No Presentation

January 2020

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

1/3: Holiday - No Presentation

1/10: Antibiotic Resistance

Patrick Secor, PhD
University of MT

Dr. Patrick Secor completed both his undergraduate in biochemistry and his PhD in biological sciences at Montana State University.  He continued his training at the University of Washington with two fellowships from 2011-2017.  Then, he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at the University of MT’s Center for Translational Medicine, and Center of Biological Structure and Design.  Patrick’s received many honors and awards, has numerous peer-reviewed articles, and is currently involved in several NIH/NIAID grants. 

1/17:  Cases Studies in Alcoholic Liver Disease 

Amy Richmond, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Amy Richmond was born in Great Falls, MT and spent the majority of her childhood in the Midwest. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at DePauw University in Biochemistry and History, and attended medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine. She returned to Montana for residency with the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana and is currently serving as a chief resident. She looks forward to continuing her commitment to rural healthcare in Montana after she graduates in June 2020. 

1/24: Statin Intolerance 

Matthew Weiss, MD
Community Medical Center

Dr. Matthew Weiss received his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School. He completed his Internship and Residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospitals in NYC, where he stayed on to pursue an academic fellowship in Preventive Cardiology. He subsequently completed his fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he served as Chief Fellow. He has a particular interest in lipoprotein metabolism and is a Board Certified Lipidologist, having previously served on the national board of the National Lipid Association.

 1/31: The Biology of Ticks and Their Public Health Significance

Tom Schwan, PhD
Rocky Mountain Labs

Dr. Tom G. Schwan received his B.S. in 1969 and M.A. in 1972 in biology from California State University, Hayward.  From 1974 to 1976, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya.  He received his Ph.D. in 1983 in medical entomology and parasitology from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1983 to 1986, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate at Yale University School of Medicine, where he studied tick-borne viruses. He joined the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in Hamilton, Montana, in July 1986, where he was a tenured senior investigator until January 2014. While at RML, Dr. Schwan served as Acting Chief of the Laboratory of Microbial Structure and Function and the Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, and then Chief of the Laboratory of Zoonotic Pathogens. He served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology for 9 years, was Associate Editor for Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases from 2010 to 2012, and is currently on the editorial boards of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases and Emerging Infectious Diseases. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and was an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer for 2011 – 2013. From 2013 – 2017, he helped develop and team-taught at the University of Montana the course Epidemiology of Vector-Borne and Parasitic Diseases. His research interests include the biology of ticks and fleas, the serodiagnosis of tick-borne infections, mechanisms of pathogenicity of relapsing fever spirochetes, defining geographic areas of risk for human infections, and how spirochetes adapt for their biological transmission by ticks. 

Ticks form a very small group of arthropods with approximately 950 species known throughout the world. Yet because of their obligatory blood-feeding behavior, and the diversity of hosts upon which they feed, ticks are capable of acquiring and subsequently transmitting numerous pathogens to humans that originate from wild animals. These zoonotic diseases, coined by early RML researchers as “diseases in nature communicable to man”, continue to become more wide spread, more prevalent, and more diverse with each passing decade. Given the lack of vaccines for any tick-borne disease for human use in the United States, preventing ticks from biting is still the primary means of protection. The history and current status of a few tick-borne diseases in western Montana will be discussed.

February 2020

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana.

2/7: Short Bowel Syndrome: Sequelae and Management 

Charlie Jose, MD, MPH
Family Medicine Residency of Montana

Charlie is a third year chief resident at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana.  He was born in Manila, Philippines and grew up in Henderson, Nevada.  He completed medical school at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and a Masters of Public Health at Boston University School of Public Health.  Charlie has an interest in full-spectrum, rural medicine as well as health policy research affecting rural and underserved populations.  Outside of medicine, he enjoys traveling, backpacking, hiking, camping, and cycling. 

2/14: Healing All Wounds:  New Outpatient Endovascular Therapies that Can Cure Leg and Foot Ulcers and Prevent Amputation

Robert L. Minor, Jr., M.D., F.A.C.C
Community Medical Center
Billings Clinic Heart and Vascular

Robert grew up in North Carolina, and went to Duke University for his undergraduate degree and medical school.  He completed residency and served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals, where he also finished his training in cardiology in 1992, followed by completion of interventional cardiology and endovascular training in 1993.  Prior to moving to Missoula, Montana in June 2017, Rob worked for 24 years as an interventional cardiologist and endovascular specialist in Rockford, Illinois where he developed a multi-disciplinary endovascular program focusing on new device technologies.  He served as an investigator in the first U.S. clinical trials evaluating stents for coronary, peripheral and carotid artery disease.  During this time, he initiated a “hands-on” training program offering first operator experiences in advanced endovascular interventions to visiting physicians from around the U.S.  Rob was then asked to extend this “hands-on” training to Asia, and over a 4-year period, made trips to train vascular specialists in Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea and India.  

While in Illinois, he also developed a new program for venous interventions, with a focus on stent-graft therapies for dialysis patients with central venous obstruction.  He has published in numerous medical journals, and continues to provide education for vascular specialists by speaking as faculty at U.S. and international meetings.  He serves as a consultant for endovascular industry device engineers and product managers.  

Rob is currently the Director for Endovascular Interventions for the Billings Clinic Heart and Vascular Center, at Community Medical Center in Missoula, Montana.  His clinical interests include transradial access with same-day-discharge for coronary, carotid and endovascular interventions, and innovative therapies for critical limb ischemia using embolic filter protection.   Rob’s hobbies include downhill skiing, scuba diving, hiking, and collecting Western art.  He enjoys traveling with his wife Sandy, and spending time with his four adult children and their growing families. 

2/21: Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Medicine

Chris Hallberg, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Chris Hallberg is a third-year Family Medicine resident at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana. He is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After finishing his undergraduate degree at Marquette University, he worked on global health projects in El Salvador and as an engineer at a start-up medical device company prior to attending medical school at the University of Washington. While in medical school he developed a low-cost ultrasonic spirometer. He plans to practice medicine in Western Montana.

2/28: Advancements in Robotic Hernia Repair

Stacie Campo, MD
Missoula Surgical Associates

Dr. Campo is a General Surgeon at Missoula Surgical Associates. She specializes in Breast Surgery, Robotic/Laparoscopic Surgery, Trauma Surgery and Venous Disease. She completed medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia and served her residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was named Chief Resident of General Surgery. Dr. Campo has been providing care to patients in Missoula, Montana since 2011. When Dr. Campo is not providing care to the patients of Western Montana, she enjoys photography, staying active and spending quality time outdoors with her family.

March 2020

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana. 

3/6: New Developments in General Surgery; Changes to Colorectal Surgery

Charles Swannack, MD
Missoula Surgical Associates

Dr. Swannack is a General Surgeon at Missoula Surgical Associates. He specializes in Bariatric Surgery, Robotic/Laparoscopic Surgery, Trauma Surgery and Venous Disease. He graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans before completing his residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. Dr. Swannack has been providing care to patients in Missoula, Montana since 1989. He was the lead surgeon in the creation and implementation of the Perioperative Surgical Home Program for Colorectal Surgeries at Providence St. Patrick Hospital in early 2017. When he is not working in the clinic or operating room, Dr. Swannack enjoys hiking, running and skiing.  

3/13: DOAC Use in Patients with Renal or Hepatic Insufficiency 

Rachel Tension, PGY1
Travis Edington, PGY1

Rachel is currently completing her PGY1 pharmacy residency at St. Patrick Hospital. She grew up in Michigan where she earned her bachelor’s in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan. She graduated pharmacy school from the University of St. Joseph in Hartford, CT and moved to Missoula shortly after for residency. Her specialty interests include medication safety and diabetes, and she is also assisting with the implementation of the DOAC monitoring service. Outside of work she enjoys going out with her co-residents, reading, sewing, hiking, and scuba diving. 

Travis is currently completing his PGY1 pharmacy residency at St. Patrick Hospital. He grew up in Michigan and graduated pharmacy school from Ferris State University. His clinical interests include oncology, infectious disease, and academia. Outside of work he enjoys mastering the art of grilling.

3/20: Community Medicine Through Radical Listening

Katie Camarata, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Katie is a third year resident at Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana. She grew up in rural northern California.  She went to undergraduate school at Humboldt State University where she received a BA in psychology and then completed premedical training at UC Denver.  She went to medical school at Pacific Northwest University in Yakima, Washington and finished my third and fourth year clinical rotations in Billings, Montana.  She's been in Missoula for 2 1/2 years now at FMRWM.  

3/27: The Role of Buprenorphine in Pain Management

Lauren Parks, PGY1
Tonia Schueller, PGY1

Tonia Schueller is a pharmacy resident at St. Patrick Hospital. She grew up in central Wisconsin and completed her bachelor degree at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, then attended Pharmacy school at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.  She has an interest in rural health and enjoys fishing, hiking, and traveling.

Lauren Parks is completing her PGY1 pharmacy residency at St. Patrick Hospital. She grew up in Billings, Montana and earned her bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Organismal Biology with a minor in mathematics prior to  pharmacy school at the University of Montana. Her pharmacy interests include emergency medicine and pain management. Outside of work she most enjoys spending time visiting lakes in western Montana with her husband and two toddlers.

April 2020

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana. 

4/3: “Triage: Making Hard Decisions”

Alyssa Cowell, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Alyssa Cowell is from the upper peninsula of Michigan, raised in the small town of Menominee.  She attended the University of Rochester and obtained a degree in Chemistry which lead her to a short career in analytical chemistry working for Bausch and Lomb developing surgical lenses before pursing her career in medicine.  She was a part of the inaugural class at Central Michigan University College of Medicine.  Currently, she is a third year at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana in Missoula, MT and hopes to continue to serve rural  Montana after graduation.

4/10:  Substance Use Disorders & The Continued Drop in Life Expectancy 

Marc Mentel, DO
Western Montana Mental Health

4/17: Stridor: A Case Study

4/24: Diabetes Care in the Time of Tiger King (COVID-19)

Hayley Miller, MD
Community Medical Center
CPG Diabetes

May 2020

All presentations are 7:30-8:30am. Presentation locations are color-coded (visit location page for directions):
Green is at Saint Patrick Hospital.
Purple is at Community Medical Center.
Blue is at University of Montana. 

5/1: Coronavirus and Climate Change: Opportunity in Crisis?

Jennifer Robohm, PhD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT

Jennifer Robohm, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist who works as a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in Behavioral Science for the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana (FMRWM). She is also a Clinical Associate for the UM Department of Psychology. Dr. Robohm has a long-standing interest in climate change and its mental health impacts, and she is currently enrolled in the Yale School of Health Certificate Program in “Climate Change and Health".

Hayley Blackburn, PharmD
University of MT

Dr. Hayley Blackburn completed her undergraduate degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Montana. Upon completion of her Pharmacy degree in 2013, she continued her training with a postgraduate residency program at Community Medical Center. She has since worked as a clinical pharmacist in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings, and served as Residency Director at the Roseburg VA Medical Center.  Hayley joined the Pharmacy Practice faculty at UM as an Assistant Professor in 2017. She teaches throughout the professional curriculum, works as a clinical pharmacist at Curry Health Center, serves as a faculty mentor for an interprofessional global and planetary health experience, and directs a fellowship program to train pharmacy graduates in providing pharmacy care in rural Montana.  Off campus, Hayley is involved in the community as a member of the Board of Directors for Open Aid Alliance, and has a personal interest in climate change and planetary health. 

Peter McDonough, MS
University of MT

Peter McDonough began teaching as an education volunteer with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, where he lived and taught high school for three years. Service brought to light the global and human reality of environmental crises and the challenge of energy development. Since returning home, Peter has worked primarily in climate change education, introducing a climate and energy class to Stanford’s summer institutes and developing similar courses at UM within Environmental Studies, Climate Change Studies, the Global Leadership Initiative, and MOLLI. Outside of school, he can be found interpreting Swahili for refugees resettling in Missoula, or drumming with the local bagpipe band. Peter holds a BS in Physics from the University of Puget Sound, a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford, and a MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. He coordinates the Climate Change Studies program at UM, and identifies as a dog person.

5/8: Physical Therapy: Vital in Recovery from Breast Cancer

Pam Nation, PT
Community Medical Center

5/15: Good vs Evil: Probiotics Edition

Amanda Hartman, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT