STAFF & INVESTIGATORS

David Buckley, MD, MPH, Investigator
Dr. Buckley received his medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque in 1993 and did his residency in the school's Department of Family and Community Medicine. From 1996 to 1998 he served as an attending physician at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic in Keene, New Hampshire. In 1999 he joined Kaiser Permanente as an attending physician until 2001, when he joined the faculty of the Oregon Health & Science University as an Assistant Professor in Family Medicine. Dr. Buckley completed an NIH NRSA post-doctoral fellowship in primary care research, which included work on an MPH degree in epidemiology and biostatistics. He has been a research investigator with ORPRN since 2003 and serves as Vice Chairman of the Scientific Review Committee. Dr. Buckley is Co-PI of the ORPRN Preventive Services study in 2004 and is preparing to serve as PI on an ORPRN study examining the provision of preventive services to rural residents receiving chronic opioid therapy. He is also working with OHSU's Alzheimer's Research Center on a study of dementia screening in rural primary care practices.

Jillian Currey, MPH, Northeast Oregon Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator
Jill Currey has her MPH from the University of Pittsburgh and has experience in clinical and community-based research. Her previous research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center focused on the social behaviors of aging and cardiovascular functioning in women.  Jill has also worked at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She received her BA in Sociology, Chemistry and French from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.  Originally from Corpus Christi, TX, Jill is an avid traveler.  Her office is located on the Eastern Oregon University campus in La Grande. 

Melinda Davis, PhD, CCRP, Research Scientist
Dr. Davis spent four years in La Grande, OR as a Practice Enhancement and Research Coordinator (PERC) for ORPRN prior to accepting a position in Portland following the completion of her PhD in Social-Developmental Psychology from the University of Vermont in May 2010.  Melinda uses participatory research approaches and mixed method study designs to explore health service delivery in community and primary care settings.  Her work focuses on rural populations; interventions to facilitate healthy/optimal aging across the lifespan, addressing topics such as childhood obesity, unmet dental needs, and primary care clinician age-expectations and quality of care; and evaluating effective strategies for practice facilitation.  Melinda grew up in the beautiful rural Columbia River Gorge (Stevenson, WA) and she enjoys rock climbing, mountain biking, trail running, and practicing yoga in her spare time. 

Molly DeSordi, Cascades East Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator
Molly is a Practice Enhancement Research Assistant serving the Cascades East region. Molly works in tandem with Christine Toomey to serve this region. Molly is a Crook County High School graduate who will work to build a community of clinical practices and community resources in Central and Southern Oregon. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in both human physiology and psychology. While at U of O, she worked as a research assistant in the Social Cognition Laboratory, where she conducted research projects for dissertation research of doctoral students.

Lyle "L.J." Fagnan, MD, Network Director and Investigator
Dr. Fagnan has been with the Network since it was founded. He received his medical degree from the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland and following his internship in Hartford, Connecticut he joined the Indian Health Service in Bethel, Alaska where he was a general medical officer and was the Community Health Director for the Bethel IHS Service Unit. He completed his residency training at the University of Washington Family Practice Residency of Southwest Idaho in 1977. He has been board certified in Family Medicine since 1977. In 1977, Dr. Fagnan founded a medical clinic in the rural community of Reedsport, Oregon, which was one of the 13 model rural practices funded by the Robert Johnson Foundation's Rural Practice Project. Later he and the clinic were part of the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network (ASPN), a national practice based-research network. Dr. Fagnan served at the Reedsport clinic for 16 years before joining the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in 1993 as medical director of OHSU Gabriel Park Family Health Center and is an associate professor of family medicine. In 2002, Dr. Fagnan was named as Director of the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network. Dr. Fagnan is the PI of several ORPRN studies, including: Evidence-Based Practices: An Opportunity to Prevent Behavioral Health Disorders; the National Children's Study PBRN pilot; the Clinical Information Study; Primary Care Network Survey I and II; and the Rural Clerkship Project. He is also a co-investigator on several active ORPRN studies, including: Osteoporosis Screening in Rural Oregon; the Rural Oregon Immunization Initiative; and Using IT to Improve Mediation Safety for Rural Elders.

Sonya Howk, MPA, Research Assistant
Sonya is a research assistant with ORPRN, where she coordinates data collection, creates study databases, works with the PERCs, and coordinates contact with clinics. She has a Masters in Public Administration with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration from Portland State University. Sonya has worked at OHSU for 10 years. At the Oregon Office of Rural Health, she was an Information Coordinator, and most recently she was the Fellowship Program Coordinator for the Department of OB/Gyn. Sonya is excited to join a team promoting health research in partnership with rural health clinics.

Paul McGinnis, MPA, Community Health, Quality and Practice Development Director
Paul joined the ORPRN staff in 2005 as ORPRN's Community Health and Practice Development Director. In this capacity he provides technical assistance services to ORPRN practices, communities, organizations, and public bodies. Paul assists with design, development, and project management related to community based participatory research and coordinatse with the Practice Enhancement Research Coordinators (PERCs) to support work in rural areas. He assists rural health care providers by disseminating information regarding policy development, regulations, reimbursement and other issues relevant to rural practice. Paul was previously the Director of Field Services at OHSU’s Office of Rural Health, and has 22 years of experience providing services to rural communities throughout the nation. He is the creator of the Community Health Improvement Partnership (CHIP) community health development model which directly involves citizens in improving health status and health resources in rural areas and has been used by hundreds of communities nationwide. Paul has a BS in Community Development from Penn State University and a Masters in Public Administration from Valdosta State University.

Leann Michaels, Network Manager
LeAnn is the ORPRN Network Manager. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in nuturion, and worked as a Clinical Research Manger of the Clinical Outcomes Research Initiative (CORI) at OHSU from 2001 to 2008. Ms. Michaels worked as project manager of the Colonoscopy in Rural Oregon Practice (CROP) study, a joint project bwteen CORI and ORPRN. She grew up in the farming country of the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota and attended North Dakota State University in Fargo for her degree in Food and Nutrition. From the University of Minnesota she obtained a degree in Piano Performance.

Cynthia "Cindy" Morris, PhD, Research Director and Investigator
Dr. Morris serves as the Research Director for the Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network since 2005. She is a Professor of Medicine at OHSU and Vice Chair of the OHSU Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology. She received a Master of Public Health degree in 1982, and a PhD. in epidemiology in 1985 from the University of Washington. Dr. Morris researches the etiology and epidemiology of congenital heart disease and the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease at OHSU. She helped guide the development of ORPRN and as Research Director, works to develop a systematic approach to our research program focusing on research design, methods, data management, analysis and publications. [read biosketch]

Nancy Rollins, BA, Research Associate and Columbia-Willamette Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator
Nancy joined ORPRN in 2005 and serves as a research associate on ORPRN projects and as the Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator for the Columbia-Willamette region. Prior to joining ORPRN, Ms. Rollins worked in the OHSU Family Medicine department for 12 years, where she served as a development project coordinator. She managed grant financials and organized educational and training programs. She received her undergraduate degree from Florida State University.

Michelle Thomas, MSW, Oregon Pacific Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator
Michelle worked for the past 29 years at the University of California at Irvine Medical Center in Orange County, CA. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she began her career in the Department of Psychiatry. She spent several years working in clinical trials in the Inpatient Research Unit, later working in community recruiting and screening of patients for studies. She later worked on medical/surgical units, oncology inpatient/outpatient areas, as well as covering adult/pediatric clinics, the Emergency Department, and Intensive Care units. Michelle retired in 2008 as the Chief Clinical Social Worker and she and her husband settled in Gleneden Beach. Her office is in Lincoln City.

Chris Toomey, BSN, Cascades East Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator
Chris born and raised in Dufur, OR, on land homesteaded by her family. Her BSN came from the University of Oregon School of Nursing in Portland. She worked in Labor and Delivery at OHSU, and gained experience in research while doing an ante-natal fetal monitoring trial using some of the newest technologies. When Dr. Leon Speroff, former OB/GYN Dept. Chairman returned to OHSU he was able to create the Women’s Health Research Unit and Chris and another RN were responsible for all aspects of clinical trials in all areas of women’s health. Chris retired with her husband to 120 acres on a hay and cattle farm in Madras where she enjoys the outdoors. She was excited to return to OHSU and research again, this time in the rural setting which she loves. She works in tandem with Molly DeSordi as a Practice Enhancement Research Coordinator in the Cascades East Region.