Class of 2012
Hadjh Ahrns, MD
My name, Hadjh, refers to "one who makes a pilgrimage" and was inspired from a vision my father had shortly after I was born. Thus far, my "pilgrimage" has taken me through Asia, South America, Africa and Europe, imparting on me lessons of compassion, humility, suffering, understanding and much more. During my travels I have also had the opportunity to study with traditional physicians from Tibet, China and Peru, and I retain strong connections with those ancient systems of medicine as well as their philosophical understanding of health and healing.
I was born in rural Northern California in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and have a desire to promote and provide comprehensive medical care for the whole family. I graduated with honors from CSU, Long Beach and completed medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. I chose to carry out my residency at OHSU because it incorporates a focus on rural medicine with the educational opportunities and support associated with a premiere academic university. My family still calls the Sierra Nevada mountains home, but after living in Portland, Florence and Klamath Falls many years ago this feels like a homecoming.
As long as I can remember the mountains and outdoors have been a central aspect of my life and Portland's surrounding geography offers endless opportunity for exploration! I am an avid biker, runner, backcountry skier, snowboarder, rock climber and soon to be kite surfer if time permits. If I am not in the clinic or hospital I am surely out of cell phone and pager reception in the wilderness or on foreign soil!
Jean Bendik, MD
Jean was born and raised as the second of six children on Long Island. She finished high school and college in Georgia. She completed three years of post-baccalaureate infectious disease research in Haiti and Atlanta with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She then moved to Florida to teach outdoor canoe living to inner city youth with Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in the Florida Everglades and the vast Florida river system. Then, feeling the itch to climb, practice yoga and apply to med school she returned to Atlanta to help manage Atlanta Rocks climbing gym and study for the MCAT in various different asanas. After hearing of her admission to Emory Med School she took off through the Sahel of Northern Ghana on a motorbike with a local team working on Guinea Worm Eradication with the Carter Center and Ghana's NHS for three months. She returned to Atlanta to complete her first year of med school. The wind then carried her to Lusaka, Zambia for a couple of months of work with Zambia Emory HIV Research Project, focusing on prevention of HIV transmission between heterosexual married couples.
After four sunshine-years at Emory she is saddened to leave her best friends and family behind but thrilled be doing her residency in the promised land of Portland, OR. Her current interests in medicine include health care economics, adolescent medicine, care of children, women's health, integrative medicine, preventative medicine and sports medicine. She enjoys cooking, swimming, climbing, biking, traveling, gardening and her lovely Orchid and other plants she hopes will safely survive a move across the country.
Jean Bendik completed her MD at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA in May 2009. She has completed a Post-Baccalaureate Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellowship with CDC and research publications and conference presentations from her work in Haiti, Ghana, Zambia and Atlanta. Dr. Bendik is currently beginning her Family Medicine Residency at OHSU. Her clinical interests include the care of women, adolescents and children, preventative cardiology, integrative and sports medicine. Her research interests include healthcare economics and social and political impacts of infectious disease. Dr. Bendik was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She enjoys cooking, climbing and being outside with her friends and family.
Guinevere Casey-Ford, MD
Gwen was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spent the first four years of her life in sunny southern California, until her parents realized that the sun and the smog were not for them and moved the family to Portland, Oregon. She spent the rest of her childhood attending a Montessori school where her class had a garden, a pet turtle, and went on semi-annual camping trips to various parts of Oregon. At age 17 she moved back to the mountains of New Mexico where she spent two years attending the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, a boarding school with students from 75 different countries, dedicated to promoting international understanding, and conveniently located only 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas, NM, the 14th largest town in New Mexico. She attended college at Rice University in Houston, TX where she intentionally studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and accidentally realized her senior year that she was about to earn a History degree as well. She spent the year after college living in Madrid with Pablo Barbecho Mendoza, whom she dragged back with her to Rochester, NY for medical school, where the snow has provided a great contrast to his hometown of Seville. They were married in 2006 and are now the proud owners of four very fat guinea pigs, an attitudinal parakeet that Pablo found in a parking lot, and a more normal parakeet that they bought to keep the first one company.
Gwen decided to go into Family Medicine after doing an elective and realizing that she had finally found "her people". Special interests include care for women and children, working with underserved populations, and preventive medicine. She hopes to work abroad, to expand her experience of different cultures, and to learn as many new languages as possible. She is thrilled to be moving back to Portland and to be part of such an amazing program.
Paige Clark, MD
A native Kansan, Paige Erin Clark, MD grew up in a rural town. A classical musician, she's performed in numerous choirs and ensembles as a Soprano, as a choir director, and on French horn, trumpet, and trombone. She graduated from Wichita State University, majoring in Biology and minoring in Spanish, Psychology, and Chemistry. She attended the first two years of medical school at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, and then transferred to the Wichita campus for her clinical years. In between 3rd and 4th year, Paige lived in the DC area, working for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) as Director of Student Programming. She was a primary investigator for the Pharm Free scorecard, working actively on a campaign that ushered in new policies on conflict of interest across the country. The movement has been covered in The Politico, Time magazine, Newsweek, and The NY Times. During her year in DC, Paige also worked on issues of mental health parity, primary care workforce shortages, and mental health integration in primary care. Since that time Paige has served on the boards of AMSA and the AMSA Foundation as National Vice President for Programming. In 2008, Paige married Joshua Clark, a not-for-profit worker that she met while living in DC. They are active gardeners, love to eat and cook, and enjoy their two "children" Hercules the three-legged Great Dane, and Kato a long-haired Ragdoll cat. Paige chose family medicine because she wants to be "on the front lines" making difficult diagnoses, managing complex patients, and enjoying relationships with families as they receive medical care from cradle to grave. Paige plans to return to Kansas after graduation to honor her commitment to the State of Kansas, which financed her medical school education.
Jamie Dailey, MD
Jamie Dailey grew up in the great state of Nevada and spent the first 27 years of her life in the desert. Her undergraduate degree is from The University of Arizona, Tucson and her M.D. was earned from The University of Nevada School of Medicine. She's been interested in Family Medicine since the start of her medical school adventures and she can't imagine a more fulfilling and diverse field to be in – never a dull moment! Jamie chose OHSU because of the inquisitive and driven residents, the incredible academicians, and the fact that it's in Portland (the coolest city on the West Coast). Her interests include rock and/or roll, tropical fish-keeping, snowboarding, kayaking, velociraptors, Bigfoot, earthquakes, and listening to her ipod incredibly loud in her car. Jamie's medical interests include health policy, universal health care, psychiatry, and hospital medicine. She also loves teaching and hopes to someday pass on her passion for primary care to future generations of doctors.
Cara Davidson, MD
Cara was born in Scotland and spent her first few years in Florida, with resultant love of both haggis and Disney World. She moved to Raleigh, NC in elementary school and it quickly became home. Her early career ambitions included bus driver, marine biologist, and international singing sensation. However, she developed a love for science and thanks to many wonderful teachers, eventually set her sights on biology and medicine. Cara went to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill for both undergrad and medical school, during which time she spent many a memorable evening cheering on the Tarheels. Because she loves working with patients of all ages and feels strongly about preventive medicine, Family Medicine is the perfect specialty for her. While she's sad to be leaving her family and friends in NC, she's very excited to be coming to Portland and the beautiful Northwest! Her hobbies outside of medicine include reading, movies of all kinds, photography, travel, cooking (although, honestly eating more than cooking), knitting, and enjoying a good microbrew. She is thrilled to be joining the talented and inspiring family doctors at OHSU!
Enyinne Ejiasa, MD
Born in Ohio, I was raised in Colorado by my Nigerian parents. I graduated from University of Colorado undergrad and took 6 years off between that and med school, during which time I developed a nasty snowboarding habit. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for medical school where I fell deeply in love with the city, its randomness and its people. I had already begun applying to residency in OB/GYN when I started my 3rd year family medicine core rotation (which I had postponed to 4th year.) From day one I knew that there was a problem because I loved it. The focus on preventative care and anticipatory guidance for all age groups is so key to good medicine. The mix of pediatrics, men's health, OB was so appealing being someone who liked all patient populations. So I pulled all my letters and my application and started over again. One of my best decisions ever! I am so thrilled to have the chance to experience Portland, another great American city. And this program, the opportunities it offers and the people are so unreal; I can't wait to get started!
Ashley Hart, MD
Ashley was born in mid-Missouri where she lived until she was 16 years old. She moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to finish her last two years of high school and, upon graduating, was not eager to start college right away. She spent the next few years moving between Oregon and Colorado working as a baker until she decided she wanted a different challenge in life. Always drawn to health care, she decided on a career in medicine and finally started college a mere 6 years after finishing high school. She graduated in 2002 and moved to Portland where she has firmly planted roots. It is here that she met her husband, Mark, with whom she now has two wonderful children and a great dog who believes she is their third child. They have a lot of family in the area and plan to be here for many years to come. Ashley's interests in medicine include family planning, obstetrics, pediatrics, and, surprising to her, inpatient medicine. She enjoys gardening, cooking, home improvement projects, and mostly, spending time with her family.
Clea Lόpez, MD
A true child of the southwest, Clea grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There she learned to love red and green chile, big blue skies, and open desert landscapes. As a teenager, her high school taught her the importance of community service. From sunny Santa Fe, Clea moved to sunny California, where she and her husband, Teddy, met in their freshman dorm at Stanford University. At Stanford Clea studied Human Biology and Spanish and happily avoided being pre med. Unbeknownst to her, volunteering as a Spanish interpreter planted the seed for her future career in medicine. Clea moved to San Francisco after graduating and spent two years helping to complete a text book on clinically tested herbal supplements. Preferring to work with patients rather than read and write about them, she decided to go back to school at Mills College in Oakland for pre medical classes. Then, after a brief stint in bench research trying to grow fluorescing proteins from bacteria, Clea moved with Teddy across the country to Cambridge, MA where they both began graduate school at Harvard. After four excellent, if cold, years on the East Coast, they are sad to leave their good friends, family, and lots of good ice cream but are very happy to be moving back West! Clea and Teddy are looking forward to discovering the wonderful outdoors of the North West, as well as Portland's restaurants and movie houses. Clea's excited to be at OHSU during such an important time for primary care and Family Medicine. In the next four years, she looks forward to furthering her interests in women's health, integrative medicine and preventive medicine, and improving and assuring access to underserved and Spanish-speaking populations.
Mika McDougall, MD
A California native, Mika McDougall M.D. was raised in a multi-cultural home in a suburb of Los Angeles. She moved to Japan when she was eleven, where she enjoyed local food and friends from all over the world at the International School of Tokyo. During her college years at UC Berkeley she first entertained the idea of being a family doctor while working under team physicians as a student athletic trainer for the Cal Bears. While in the Bay Area she also enjoyed early morning bike rides and trips to Monterey Bay where she braved the cold water kelp forests as a SCUBA divemaster.
She earned her medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine, where she was involved with the care of the urban underserved at a student run free clinic. While studying at OSU, she also had the opportunity to participate in the high quality, low cost medical systems in both Costa Rica and Japan. She chose family medicine because she was drawn to its value of providing comprehensive, continuing, and equitable care to the whole family.
While in Columbus, she met her husband, Craig, who will be starting his Internal Medicine residency at OHSU. They look forward to their upcoming move to Portland with their two cats, Sox and Mittens, and are happy to be a new edition to the OHSU family.
Megan Smith, MD
Megan was born in Portland and raised in Sherwood, Oregon, along with her five siblings on a small farm. She did her undergraduate work at Gonzaga University in biology and philosophy followed by two years of transgenic research at OHSU. Eventually, she moved to Chicago to explore the Midwest and attend Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. In pursuing one of her professional interests Megan earned an MA in Bioethics and Health Policy from Loyola University during her time in Chicago.
Megan is ecstatic to be back with her family and in the Northwest. While she will miss the Cubs and the Sox, she can't wait to spend free time hiking, camping and skiing once again. Megan also loves to travel (for play and to volunteer) and while at school in Chicago she took trips to Guatemala, Chile, Dominican Republic and Vietnam. Other interests include dancing, running, and spending time with her 10 nieces and nephews.
Vanessa Vanderpool, MD
Vanessa grew up in Monroe, Louisiana, as the only girl among three brothers. As a child, she spent most of her summers in France, visiting her mother's family who still live in Lille, France, near the Belgian border. She was very fortunate to have enjoyed many family trips around the French countryside and other European countries, instilling a strong love of traveling and learning about new cultures. After graduating college at Tulane University in New Orleans with a degree in Biomedical Engineering, she decided it was time to leave the south and ventured west to San Francisco for a few years. There, she worked at St. Jude Medical providing technical support for patients, physicians, and other employees on pacemakers and implantable defibrillators. She also spent a year performing clinical research with ALS patients at the ALS Center of UCSF. After four wonderful years in San Francisco, she decided to go back to medical school and returned to her beloved New Orleans to attend Tulane University School of Medicine. She bought a house, survived Hurricane Katrina (so did the house), and adopted her beloved dog Aden who will surely love Portland as much as she will.
Vanessa discovered her love of family medicine while working in El Guayabo, Nicaragua, during her first year of medical school. That experience made her realize the importance and profound need for quality primary care throughout the world. Her interests within family medicine include international medicine, maternal/child health, general women's health, and preventative care. When not working, she will often be found sitting outside a coffee shop with her dog, getting lost in Powell's bookstore, or at home gardening or cooking. She has also recently discovered an interest in rock climbing after getting a few private lessons from a friend while traveling in Thailand. Vanessa is very much looking forward to becoming a part of the OHSU family. She was very impressed with the quality of physicians and residents who will become her new teachers and peers. She is also very excited to move to the Pacific Northwest and uncover all that Portland has to offer.
