Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Faculty Bios

Lisa Miura, MD, FACP, AGSF
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program Director

Dr. Miura is Associate Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and practices at the VA Portland Healthcare System, running specialty clinics in geriatric assessment, dementia telehealth, and falls. She received her BSN from University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at OHSU and Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at UCLA. In addition to fellowship program director, she is the clerkship director for the OHSU medical student Geriatric/Palliative Medicine elective, core faculty for the OHSU Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship and teaching for the OHSU Internal Medicine Residency.  Her research interests include hip fracture care, falls, dementia, and women’s health issues. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, concerts, cat rescue, and spending time with her family.
 

Suvi Neukam, DO, FACP
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Associate Program Director

Dr. Neukam is a dual Finnish-American citizen originally from New England where she grew up in New Hampshire and then studied at Middlebury College in Vermont. Before attending medical school in Maine, Dr. Neukam worked at a health care best practice research firm in Washington, DC. During medical school she completed a year-long medical teaching fellowship and also engaged in geriatric research at the University of California San Diego.  She completed her internal medicine residency, chief residency and geriatric fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University and is now a geriatrician who sees both primary care and consult patients within the OHSU internal medicine clinic. She has special interests in physical activity and healthy aging along with care planning conversations. When she is not with patients, Dr. Neukam enjoys riding her bicycle, amateur piano playing, writing snail mail and using her three children as an excuse to become an expert in arts and crafts. 

Elizabeth Eckstrom, MD

Dr. Elizabeth Eckstrom, MD, MPH, MACP, is Professor and Chief of Geriatrics in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Her research focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle in older adults, with an emphasis on tai chi for fall prevention. She has been part of the investigator team for three randomized trials that showed tai chi reduces falls by at least 50%, among other positive outcomes. She is Director of Integrating Special Populations for the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute, focusing on inclusion of older adults in research and training research teams who study diseases of older adults but have no aging expertise to successfully include older adults in trials. Other research interests include improving primary care of older adults with dementia, interprofessional education and team-based implementation of best practices for care of older adults. She co-directs OHSU’s Healthy Aging Alliance.

Ella Bowman, MD, Ph.D., AGSF, FAAHPM, FACP

Dr. Bowman is a clinician educator and geriatrician at OHSU, where she holds the inaugural William A. Whitsell Endowed Professor of Geriatric Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of the Inpatient Geriatric Consult Service. Dr. Bowman received her medical and doctor of philosophy degrees at West Virginia University, completed her Internal Medicine Residency and post-graduate geriatrics and palliative care training at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, IN, and served on staff at St. Vincent and later at Indiana University for a combined total of 10 years. She holds dual board certification in Geriatrics and Hospice & Palliative Medicine, and joined OHSU in Spring 2023 after relocating from Birmingham, AL where she previously was Section Chief of Geriatric Medicine at the Birmingham VA Health Care System (BVAHCS) and led that institution’s efforts at achieving designation as an Age-Friendly Health Care System Committed to Care Excellence.  Dr. Bowman’s more than 2 decades of practice and teaching focuses on complex care transitions, addressing unmet palliative needs, evaluating cognitive complaints including delirium screening & prevention, and training interprofessional teams about the complex care of vulnerable elders. Dr. Bowman is most passionate about promoting interprofessional collaboration toward the higher goal of providing exemplary care to the most vulnerable adults in society, and teaching all levels of learners how to attain that goal.

Emily Morgan, MD

Dr. Emily Morgan was raised in Spokane, WA. She attended the University of Oregon and earned a B.S. in General Science, with minors in Biology and Anthropology. After graduating from college, Emily moved to Portland and began four years of molecular genetics research at Shriners Hospital for Children. She then attended OHSU medical school and stayed on to complete her internal medicine residency, followed by a fellowship in geriatrics. She joined the Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Department at OHSU as a geriatric primary care and consult physician in 2015. In addition to her outpatient work, she became medical director of Mirabella Portland’s skilled and long term care facility in 2017, and heads the OHSU Internal Medicine skilled and long term care team, which expanded to include a second facility in 2018. Outside of medicine, Emily spends as much time as possible with her family, and enjoys running, hiking, and gardening.  

Leah Kalin, MD

 Dr. Kalin is an assistant professor of internal medicine and geriatrics. She completed her internal medicine residency and then geriatric medicine fellowship at OHSU in 2019. She currently serves as a geriatrics primary care provider in the OHSU geriatrics and internal medicine clinic at OHSU and as medical director for a local post-acute and long-term care facility. Her clinical interests include dementia, delirium, polypharmacy, fall prevention, advance care planning, and avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations for her frail older adult patients. Dr. Kalin works closely with medical students, interns, and residents in her practice and enjoys imparting the ways of geriatric medicine on learners. She is an avid reader, skier, and dog mother.

Laura Byerly, MD

Dr. Byerly is a clinician educator and geriatrician at OHSU. Dr. Byerly received her medical degree from OHSU, completed internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed geriatric medicine and health professions education fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco VA Medical Center. As part of OHSU’s geriatrics section, she provides both primary care for older adults within the Internal Medicine Clinic, as well as skilled and longitudinal care in OHSU’s affiliated post-acute and long-term care facilities. Dr. Byerly’s education scholarship roles focus on the curriculum development and evaluation of novel geriatric educational strategies for all levels of learners and she leads the “Teaching to Teach” curriculum within the fellowship program. She also interfaces with fellows through her teaching roles in the OHSU UME and GME communities where our fellows teach medical students and internal medicine residents about geriatric care principles.

Katie Drago, MD

Dr. Katie Drago is originally from California and graduated from the University of Arkansas in 2011 with her medical degree. She completed residency in Internal Medicine in 2014 and fellowship in Geriatric Medicine in 2015 at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr Drago joined the OHSU Division of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics in 2015 to develop and run the Inpatient Geriatrics Program, consultative geriatrics care for hospitalized older adults in partnership with medical and surgical providers. The inpatient program has been highlighted in JAGS in October 2018 for providing higher quality care for acutely ill older adults at a lower cost.  Dr Drago’s academic interest is in systems improvement focused on the care of hospitalized older adults. She has worked to improve the care for adults with delirium, standardize safe prescribing practices and enhance the care of older adults with acute fragility fractures. This work has also been expanded to other hospitals and health systems in Oregon. Dr Drago works with Dr White-Chu and clinic preceptors to run the geriatrics fellowship’s Population Health Management and Improvement Science curriculum.

Michael LaMantia, MD, MPH, AGSF, FACP

Dr. LaMantia is Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at the Portland VA Health Care System.  He is a board-certified internist and geriatrician as well as a Fellow of the American Geriatrics Society.  As a clinician-investigator with a special interest in the care of persons with cognitive impairment, his research has been supported over the years by a variety of sponsors, including the NIH and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  Dr. LaMantia’s research has been published in top journals in the field, including the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Health Affairs, the Annals of Emergency Medicine, Academic Emergency Medicine, and the Annals of Internal Medicine, among others.  His clinical work has focused on the care of vulnerable older adults, particularly those affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.  Dr. LaMantia received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and his MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He completed his residency and geriatrics fellowship as well as post-doctoral fellowship in aging at the University of North Carolina.   Prior to moving to the Pacific Northwest, he served as the inaugural Holly and Bob Miller Chair in Memory and Aging and Division Chief of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Vermont.    

Rima Jallad, MD

Dr. Rima Jallad has been a Geriatric staff member at the VA and Assistant Professor of Medicine  at OHSU since 1997. She received her Doctor of Medicine from University of Damascus, College of Medicine, followed by Internal Medicine training at West Suburban Hospital, Rush Medical College. She completed her geriatrics fellowship at OHSU in 1997. Dr. Jallad is board certified in Geriatrics as well as Hospice & Palliative Medicine. She has been the Medical Director of the Hospice Palliative Care Unit at CLC since 2000. She is married and has two wonderful children. She enjoys cooking and travelling.

E. Foy White-Chu, MD, CWSP, AGSF

Dr. White-Chu is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) and former geriatric medicine fellowship program director (2014-2022). She is also the medical director of the Wound Healing Program at the Portland VA Health Care System (VAPHCS). She graduated from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center - Harvard Geriatrics fellowship program in 2009 with a specialization in chronic wound healing and clinician education. She provides consultative care for complex wounds for veterans at VAPHCS and serves as the Chair of the Prevention of Amputations of Veterans Everywhere committee.  She is a Health and Aging Policy Fellow (2022-2023) and is working to improve policy implementation at the intersection of health-related social needs and geriatric medicine.  She is a Fellow of the American Geriatrics Society and serves on the education committee for the Wound Healing Society. Dr. White-Chu strives to simplify the complexity of chronic wound care in older adults for frontline providers in hopes that all older adults can receive timely, appropriate treatments.

Julien Chirouze, DO

Dr. Chirouze was born and raised in France, in the quaint region of the Loire Valley. He came to the United States in his twenties. After working for the American Red Cross for a few years in Washington, D.C, Dr. Chirouze went to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and then completed his internal medicine residency and geriatric medicine fellowship at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Dr Chirouze elected to become a geriatrician because he believes older patients have the best stories, and they teach him something about life every day! He currently works at Kaiser in as part of their continuing care team. 

Chelsea Tieszen, MD

Dr. Tieszen completed her internal medicine residency and geriatric medicine fellowship at OHSU. Since finishing training in 2017, she has worked as a primary care clinician for a predominantly homebound group of older adults in the Portland metro area. She currently works as a primary care provider for Providence Elderplace in Gresham where she enjoys closely collaborating with an interdisciplinary team in delivering comprehensive and person-centered primary, palliative, and end-of-life care to patients enrolled in PACE. She enjoys introducing residents and fellows to the PACE model of care. She has a particular interest in caring for patients with dementia, and by extension supporting their families and caregivers. Outside of work, she looks forward to time spent practicing yoga, expanding her indoor and outdoor plant collection, and traveling.

Maggie George, MD

 Dr. George was raised in Austin, TX.  She graduated from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with a B.A. in History, concentration, Medieval History.  She graduated from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 2002.  She completed her internal medicine residency at OHSU in 2005 and Geriatric Medicine fellowship at OHSU in 2006.  Since 2006 she has worked at Legacy Good Samaritan as a part of the inpatient Geriatrics program, a 7 day a week service that includes a dedicated hip fracture service and inpatient consultation service.  Dr. George likes to joke with her IM residents and Geriatrics fellows that after 7 days of working in the hospital, she is really glad to have a week off to be home with her kids… and after 7 days at home with her kids, she is really glad to be back working in the hospital – it’s a work/life balance!