Class of 2010
Corinne Cohen, MD (Michigan State)
Corinne grew up in Buffalo, NY, making the most of Western New York before moving on to attend Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. There, she took the bare minimum in pre med courses and instead focused on medical anthropology, writing her thesis on how Navajos choose between doctors and healers. She lead wilderness expeditions for teens during the summers, and seized the opportunity to take a break from academics after graduation, heading for 3 months of backpacking in Southeast Asia followed by 6 months as a nanny and ski bum in Switzerland. Unable to leave the Alps, and her soon-to-be husband Josh (a proud Canadian), she spent 2 more seasons there as a massage therapist, traveling the world and leading wilderness trips in the “off” season. She finally went back to school, attending Michigan State’s rural medicine program in Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She and her husband love to do anything outdoors, from mountain biking to surfing, skiing, and rock climbing. They look forward to exploring Oregon’s mountains and coastline, and to taking advantage of Portland’s young, vibrant scene!
Jessica Cozzens, MD, OHSU
Jessica was born in the small town of Cody, Wyoming but moved to the booming metropolis of Billings, Montana at the age of 5, where she stayed until she graduated high school and headed west to study psychology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. After a two-year stint back in Billings following college, during which she worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer and met her future husband, Jourdan (they will get married just one week before Jessica graduates from medical school), she pursued a masters in maternal and child public health at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. Though she loved studying public health, she soon realized that she really wanted to practice public health on the level of individual patients, so she then attended medical school at OHSU.Throughout medical school Jessica thought her love of women’s health and family planning would lead her to a career in obstetrics & gynecology, so it came as a big surprise to her when she also loved internal medicine and pediatrics. After much soul-searching, she decided that family medicine was the best fit for her, so that she could incorporate all the things she loves into her practice. She also is excited by the opportunities family medicine will provide her to care for the medically underserved and to practice preventive healthcare. Staying at OHSU for residency seemed like the natural next step in her training, since she has loved working with family medicine residents and faculty as a student, is impressed by the strong program, has fallen in love with living in Portland, and really, really dislikes moving.Outside of medicine, Jessica enjoys spending time with her soon-to-be-husband and their four four-legged children (2 cats and 2 basset hounds). They especially like to take the dogs on long walks, and to go hiking. She has recently taken up knitting and enjoys it even though she only knows how to knit in straight lines. She is also a karaoke fanatic (despite limited vocal abilities) and is something of a sponge for pop culture knowledge.
Mark Dunn, MD, University of Texas-Dallas
Mark was born five minutes ahead of his identical twin brother in a small, one-stoplight southeast Texas town called Mauriceville, renowned for its annual Crawfish Festival. In this quiet neck of the world, he and his twin squandered many happy days out in the woods and swamps building forts, catching things and searching for great adventure. Life became a little more serious as a collegiate freshman in Lake Charles, Louisiana where he harbored aspirations of becoming an environmental engineer. It was not until he began a church mission in the Dominican Republic that his current life path began to take shape. The next two years he spent on this Caribbean island acted somewhat like a crucible forever changing this carefree country boy. He returned to the states invigorated with a newfound desire to create a life centered on serving others. By a simple combination of his interests and talents he decided to become a doctor. At the University of Utah he found a home in the gross anatomy lab surfacing now and again to volunteer in the 2002 Winter Olympics, get married and graduate. His twin came to the rescue by introducing him to his wife, Kristi, on a blind date. (Well, at least I didn't know what she looked like.) From beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah they landed in not so beautiful inner city Dallas, Texas. Medical School at UT Southwestern confirmed his love of connecting meaningfully with people which naturally led to his matching in Family Medicine at OHSU. Other highlights of the medical school experience included the birth of his two adorable children Aubrey and Ryan. The entire Dunn clan is yearning for the natural beauty of the Northwest. Mark is excited to move forward in his career and pursue his interests in integrative and sports medicine. He is passionate about his family and longs to return to rock climbing in the near future.
Jenny Kim, MD, University of Illinois
Jenny and her husband Dave are native Chicagoans, born and bred in the land of two seasons: winter and road construction. Perhaps because of the latter, she couldn’t venture far for college and medical school, attending the University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago, respectively. Prior to attending medical school, she worked with HIV-infected pregnant women, and helped contribute to the perinatal HIV testing protocol in Illinois, inspiring her interest in clinical medicine and general primary care.Her ample time spent in the inner city during her undergrad, research, and med school years honed a passion for advocacy for the underserved. This broadened to the international realm, where she ended up taking a year off after medical school to work at a missions hospital in Western Kenya. She and her husband, also a family medicine doc, hope to return to work in the international setting someday.She was impressed with OHSU’s depth of training and strong commitment to family medicine. She’s also very excited to move to Portland and see real mountains in lieu of skyscrapers dotting the sky. In her spare time, she commiserates with Dave over the state of the Chicago Cubs, enjoys baking, running (in response to the previous activity), hiking, swimming, and readily confesses to enjoying the “Gilmore Girls”.
Lyndsey McCartney, MD, University Newcastle Upon-Tyne
Lyndsey enjoyed a happy Geordie childhood growing up in Newcastle in the Northeast of England. She graduated from University of Newcastle Medical School which provided her an amazing undergraduate medical education including the chance to spend time in pediatric and women’s health rural outreach clinics in Sri Lanka.After Lyndsey’s internship and 23 years of living in Newcastle, itchy feet stimulated her to broaden her horizons and travel to Western Australia, where she worked as a Resident Medical Officer, entrenched herself in surf culture and ate a lot of barbequed food! On her return she began a residency in General Practice in Northumberland, which she completed in 2005. During this time she pursued special interests and sat post-graduate diplomas in child health, obstetrics and gynecology and family planning as well as successfully passing and becoming a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners of the United Kingdom. Lyndsey met her now husband, Phil, just before leaving for Australia. Their relationship has often been long distance between Australia, England and The Netherlands! They married in August 2005. They moved to Portland together the following month to take advantage of a fantastic job opportunity for Phil and to live in the same house in the same country! They are really enjoying living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and are taking full advantage of everything it has to offer.Completing family medicine residency in the UK has affirmed Lyndsey’s passion and commitment to the specialty. She enjoys being able to holistically manage a cross section of a community’s population from the boisterous toddler to frail senior, and feels privileged to be involved in the lifelong health education and promotion which is core to family practice. Lyndsey’s professional interests include pediatrics, women’s health and improving the health care of underserved populations. She is thrilled to be joining such a fantastic group of people at OHSU and excited to start the next chapter in her development in medicine and life!Outside of medicine she enjoys running, hiking, downhill skiing, photography, drawing and scuba diving and tries to combine as many of these hobbies as possible whilst traveling and exploring new places with Phil.
Sarah Present, MD, Tulane University
Sarah was born in Marin County, California and lived in New Mexico for three years before moving to her father’s home town of Kansas City when she was six years old. She spent most summers in Colorado, climbing mountains and horseback riding where she developed her passion for outdoors activities. Sarah’s first serious thoughts of a career in medicine started while spending a month with a family in Thailand during high school. She was teaching English at an elementary school near Bangkok, but was also able to volunteer at a local hospital. Here she saw her first surgeries and developed an interest in the role of physicians in communities around the world. Sarah majored in Biology at Stanford University and focused mainly on ecology and plant biology as she has always been passionate about environmental issues. She found her true interests however, in the relationships of humans and human health with the health of the planet. After college, Sarah spent nine months traveling in South and Southeast Asia where she studied Thai massage, Tibetan Buddhism and Hatha Yoga.Sarah’s broad interests in medicine including international health, women’s health and adolescent medicine made Family Medicine a clear choice for her. Her love of Family Medicine was strengthened by her experiences of disaster and community medicine after Hurricane Katrina during her third year of medical school at Tulane University in New Orleans. She also obtained a Masters of Public Health in Environmental Health from Tulane University. Sarah will be moving to Portland with her boyfriend, Monte, who is an industrial electrician whom she met while living in Lawrence, Kansas before medical school. Monte shares her love for the outdoors, and while they have learned how to enjoy the waterways of coastal Louisiana, they are both excited for the topography and abundance of solid land in Portland. Sarah is also excited to live near many family members and friends in the Portland area, including her sister who is currently studying acupuncture at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine
Lindsey Pych, DO, Touro University
Lindsey grew up in Okemos, Michigan, a suburban town allowing for plenty of time to lovingly torment her older sister Erica, eat lots of chips, and play make-believe with neighborhood kids. After attending college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, she made the great Midwestern escape to Washington D.C. where she lived and worked, doing research at the National Institutes of Health. She continued her schooling at Touro University – College of Osteopathic Medicine, and will be leaving Berkeley with her most favorite button lamp so that it may look pretty sitting at her bedside in Portland.Lindsey looks forward to joining the OHSU family, and working with such an impressive group of people. Her interests within family medicine include sports medicine, osteopathic medicine, women’s health and preventative care. In her time off she will most surely be found walking about town wearing jeans that are two inches too short, a Patagonia fleece (most likely on permanent loan from her sister) and grey-purple Saucony shoes that she will no doubt wear into the ground quietly wandering. She also loves sharing her time and herself with those closest to her, especially her partner Amar, a most beautiful man. I hope that you know her a bit better now, so you might understand why her real name is the irreplaceable Pindsel.
Sonia Sosa, MD, University of Illinois
Sonia was born and raised in the small town of Normal, IL and has spent the rest of her days rebelling against that name. As a child she spent the majority of her time tumbling around the gym and continued to play in the gym as a coach until entering medical school. When she was 13 she found the book The Coming Plague and her fascination with Infectious Disease and Epidemiology began which eventually led her to an internship at the CDC, an interest in public health, international medicine and medical school.After falling in love with Colorado during many family vacations Sonia chose to go to undergrad at Colorado College where she majored in Biochemistry and Russian and met her husband playing Frisbee in freshman orientation. While at Colorado College Sonia was also introduced to alternative medicine in the form of Reiki and shamanic healing. This interest has continued and Sonia has spent much time learning about Integrative medicine and has been involved in the planning of several conferences and also HEART, a 4 week elective in alternative medicine, activism and reflective transformation through AMSA. During this time Sonia also explored her interest in international health and spent a summer in Ecuador working on her Spanish, delivering breech babies and finding medicinal herbs in the rainforest.Sonia returned to flat Illinois for medical school at the University of Illinois- Chicago. She quickly became involved in AMSA through which she fought for universal healthcare and against big pharma and disparities in healthcare. Sonia plans to one day finish her Masters in Public Health and to bring Integrative Medicine to an underserved population while focusing on women and children. She is very excited to move her husband and 2 cats out to Portland where both Family Medicine and greenery flourish and can’t wait to take her backpack and hiking boots down off the shelf. She will continue to enjoy running, biking, dancing, Pilates, reading, making art and cooking delicious meals.
Heather Whetstone, MD, University of Pittsburgh
Heather was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When it came time to go to college, she rode the bus five miles down the road to the University of Pittsburgh, where she majored in chemistry. When it came time to pick a medical school, she walked up the hill to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Now for residency, she is thrilled to finally “leave home” and drive about 2,500 miles to OHSU. In medical school, Heather realized her love for service and working with the underserved. She is a National Health Service Corps scholar and hopes to work at a rural site upon completion of residency, possibly with the Indian Health Service. She has particular interests in working with victims of domestic violence; as a second year medical student, she created a health outreach program for one of the local women’s shelters. She was also a founding member of a non-profit organization that raises funds for children with HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Part of their fund-raising efforts included the creation of an annual 5K run, the Run with HAART, which is now in its 3rd year! Heather is moving to Portland with her new husband (as of June 2, 2007!), Joe, who will start his radiology residency at OHSU in July 2008. Heather’s hobbies include volleyball, hiking, cooking, knitting and spending time with family and friends. Heather is very excited to train at OHSU because of the quality of the training, the family medicine friendly medical community, and the amazing scenery of the Pacific Northwest. She is also happy that she can bring her Steelers flag and Terrible Towel, as there is no professional Portland football team!
Thayer White, MD, University of North Carolina
Thayer began life in the Bay Area but moved soon after, growing up mostly in Ohio and Delaware. He eventually arrived in North Carolina, where he attended undergraduate and medical school at the University of North Carolina. As an undergraduate, he watched numerous Tar Heel basketball games and volunteered as an EMT, finding time in between to study biology and philosophy. During medical school Thayer was drawn to primary care because he wanted to form long-term relationships with his patients, and he became interested in the academic side of family medicine. This led him to spend a year working with several faculty in the department of Family Medicine, participating in a research project of quality improvement related to health promotion.Thayer loves Family Medicine because of the tremendous diversity of patients, an emphasis on family-oriented and behavioral health, and a focus on procedures. OHSU will provide excellent training in all these areas, and it was the perfect choice for its diverse group of outstanding residents, and ideal location in Portland! After completing residency, Thayer hopes to spend his career practicing, and advocating for, full-spectrum family medicine.Thayer is blessed to share his life with a fantastic and supportive wife, Sonya, and their two cats, Hugsy and Mouse. Thayer and Sonya met while attending UNC, where they enjoyed eating good sushi, basking in the beautiful weather, and spending time with great friends. They will always have a soft spot for Chapel Hill, but they are excited about their west coast adventure. They look forward to exploring everything Portland has to offer, including its boundless running trails and microbreweries (although not necessarily in that order).
Nicole Yonke,MD, OHSU
Nicole was born in Southern California, but realized that she was actually an Oregonian at heart after her family moved to Portland. She attended the University of Oregon, where she studied ecology and Spanish. She discovered her passion for new cultures, people, and travel while studying abroad on Semester at Sea and Spanish in Ecuador. Since that time, she has tried to plan her life around international adventures. After college she worked as a high school teacher in California. However, while working in a clinic in Nepal she realized that she really wanted to study medicine, with an interest in family medicine and public health. She decided to return to Oregon, to attend medical school at OHSU where her interest in primary care would be supported.Nicole’s favorite experiences in medical school include working in clinics in Ecuador and Tonga, working with girls at Girls Inc, and facilitating a health literacy workshop at Cascade AIDS Project. Why stay at OHSU? She is very excited to have the opportunity to pursue excellent family medicine training and combine this with public health training with the family medicine/preventive medicine track. Nicole and her husband, Arkadiusz, are also looking forward to continue enjoying everything Oregon has to offer.
