Pronouns: She/Her
Sylvia Blomstrand grew up in northern Minnesota, eating dirt and walking barefoot (uphill both ways) to school. She spent her childhood outside, swimming in Lake Superior, picking wild blueberries, and generally developing a love for nature. After graduating as a total band geek in high school, she attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in Neuroscience and Gender and Women’s Studies, which combined her passions of community health, social determinants of health, and science. There, she met her wonderful husband, Kyle, when they discovered a mutual love of good food, Pixar movies, and squirt gun fights.
Sylvia attended medical school at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and participated in the Rural Physician Associate Program, which allowed her to immerse herself in rural family medicine. Her interests within medicine include women’s health, LBGTQ+ care, and inpatient medicine. She learned about Cascade’s East from a quick google search for “the best rural family medicine residencies” and is elated to be at Cascade’s East for many reasons, but most of all for the supportive faculty/support staff, wonderful co-residents and community, and exceptional full-spectrum training.
Outside of medicine, Sylvia can be found buying too much cute fabric in quilting shops, cooking delicious food, trail-running, gardening in her raised beds, reading novels, backpacking, and swing dancing.
Phoebe Hughes was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota and shortly thereafter moved to Florida with her family. She attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and fell in love with science and art— she even had 3 hours of art classes her senior year! In college, looking for an experience far different from Florida, she attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts (108 inches of snow her first winter). There, while playing collegiate tennis, she continued to study both biology and the arts, falling in love with medicine and metalsmithing. At the end of college, her reflection on her favorite class, Introduction to Public Health 101, led her to enrollment in a Masters of Public Health degree at the University of Miami. Shortly after coming home to Florida, she discovered the upcoming establishment of Florida’s first needle exchange; she was hooked. She spent the next year splitting her time between studying epidemiology and working to set up and run the syringe exchange program.
With her public health interest peaked, she opted to attend Florida International University, a community based medical school in Miami, where she could maintain community connections made during her MPH. She took on projects working on harm reduction education, mammography services for uninsured women, and gun violence prevention. Her favorite rotation was 8-weeks of Family Medicine, working on a mobile health clinic where she saw and treated uninsured individuals all-across Miami-Dade County. Dedicating her time and efforts to the needs of underserved communities, Family Medicine became the clear choice.
In her spare time, Phoebe enjoys being outside, crafting, and reading. While she still holds a special place in her heart for Florida, she knew the community and experiences of working in a rural community was her true calling. She moved to Klamath Falls with her husband, Mason, and with a new puppy on the way. They are so excited to be part of the Cascades East Family Medicine family!
I was born Gainesville, FL but moved to a small town in northern Wisconsin when I was young. I lived in Wisconsin my whole life until I moved out to Oregon to be a part of the CEFM program. I went to college at the University of Wisconsin-La Cross and attended medical school at the main University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. I have a wife and a daughter and we are expecting another baby in October! My interest in medicine was encouraged by my mom who was a nursing assistant when I was a kid but went back to school to become a nurse. We actually graduated college the same year! Family medicine was an easy fit for me because I am interested in all the different aspects of medicine and I like getting to know patients. I chose the CEFM program because I wanted to return to a small town (though Klamath Falls feels like the big city compared to my home town!) and I wanted to train in full spectrum family medicine. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family and being outside.
Pronouns: she/her
University of Arizona, Tucson
China Rae Newman was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where she grew up drawing, writing, and playing with her younger sister. She is the first physician in her family, and she chose family medicine because of its focus on people, its emphasis on prevention and patient-clinician alliances, and because it calls on doctors to advocate for the wellbeing of their patients and their community. She chose Cascades East because of the robust residency community, culture of advocacy in the community, and the opportunities for full-spectrum training including maternity care.
China Rae holds dual-degrees in biology and English from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and wrote poetry about patient care throughout medical school. She spent much in Tucson volunteering in the community, mostly for Clínica Amistad, free clinic in South Tucson. She is also proud to have taken part in a medical-student run field hospital for people experiencing homelessness at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was inspired to pursue rural medicine during her work with rural family doctors, where she was able to do everything from delivering babies to talking about end-of-life goals to caring for patients both in the clinic and the hospital. She hopes to practice full-spectrum family medicine and work with those same physicians in Safford, Arizona following residency, where she will also be able to fulfill her service commitment for the Arizona Primary Care Scholarship.
In her spare time, China Rae likes to read, write, and create, and enjoys spending time with friends and family while playing games, hiking, baking, or just relaxing. She loves to spend time with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Tumbleweed. She is overjoyed to be a part of the Cascades East family and excited to train in a wonderful community of compassionate colleagues surrounded by the gorgeous nature that Oregon has to offer.
Pronouns: He / him
Oregon Health & Science University
Galen was born on a hippie commune in the woods outside of Cave Junction, Oregon. Early in life his family moved around Southern Oregon and the coast before settling in Ashland, OR where he saw many, many Shakespeare plays at the local festival. Galen studied biochemistry at Southern Oregon University in Ashland and after graduation he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Uganda where he worked as a science teacher at a teaching college. While living in his community in Uganda and seeing the impact of growing up and living without medical care Galen became motivated to pursue medicine. Upon returning to the states he worked for several years as a medical assistant at an FQHC primary care clinic while applying to medical school. A month before getting accepted to medical school he met his future wife Liz. She was up for the adventure and moved with him to the big city (which she couldn’t wait to leave). At OHSU in Portland, Galen compared all of his clinical experiences to his work at the family medicine clinic and felt eager to return to that setting after med school. With a certainty that he wanted to practice family medicine to serve underserved populations Galen completed a longitudinal experience in rural family medicine during his fourth year of medical school at Cascades East. In his free time he loves mountain biking, reading sci-fi, board games (he’ll beat Liz one day) and going on dog walks with Liz. Galen is so grateful for the opportunity to live and learn in his home of Southern Oregon where he plans to practice medicine in the future.
Pronouns: She/her
Oregon Health and Science University
Mikayla was born and raised right here in Klamath Falls, went to Southern Oregon University for undergraduate education and to OHSU for medical school. She married her college sweetheart after graduation. Together they have adopted four dogs: Navi, Kaiser, Koopa and Noctis who are named after some of their favorite video game characters. Mikayla and Sullivan have three children: Maven (5), Nessa (2) and Killian (infant) who were born during MS1, MS4 and PGY2 respectively.
Mikayla and her family love to be outside. They take frequent trips to a nearby track to run and play with their dogs. She also enjoys coaching track and field at a local high school. They are very lucky to have a lot of family in the area and are enjoying the opportunity to raise their girls surrounded by loving relatives.
Mikayla particularly enjoys seeing patients in clinic as well as being in the Family Birthing Center and delivering babies. She loves working with the community to promote medical careers to high school students in Klamath. It is a dream come true for her to return to Klamath and help to fill the need for physicians in rural Oregon.
Pronouns: She/Her
Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina
Colette grew up in northwestern New Jersey (an important distinction, because yes, there is a beautiful part of the state!) with her parents and two younger siblings. She developed her interest in medicine from her mom, a physical therapist, and her love for the outdoors from her dad. She completed her freshman year of college at Middlebury College in Vermont before transferring to Duke for her sophomore year to pursue D1 athletics in cross country and track in addition to the pre-medical opportunities there. The running part did not pan out as she hoped with one injury after another (happy to say she has been healthy since, now having been able to compete in a couple marathons), but her interest in medicine focused on the whole person grew, ultimately leading her to family medicine.
She took a few years off after undergrad to work in prostate cancer research at the Durham Veterans Affairs and become more involved in the Durham community with volunteering at the VA hospice, free Samaritan Health Center, and homeless shelter. During this time, she also met her now husband, KC Bierlich, as well as took her final months prior to medical school to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.
She attended Duke Medical School as a member of the Primary Care Leadership Track and throughout her longitudinal rotations and Centering Pregnancy, confirmed family medicine is where she is meant to be with the longitudinal relationships, social determinants of health lens, community focus, ability to care for children and adults, prenatal and postnatal care, chronic illness management, and the flexibility to incorporate lifestyle medicine, behavioral health, women’s health, substance use disorders treatment, and musculoskeletal/sports medicine into future practice. She is so excited to continue her training and to be a part of a small town mountain community, as she plans to work with a rural population focusing on the underserved. Outside of work, you’ll find her spending time with KC, family, friends, and outdoors – running, hiking, camping, etc.!
Derek is a Klamath Falls native, born and raised right here in the City of Sunshine. He attended Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology/Health Sciences with minors in chemistry and medical sociology. Throughout college he worked at a call center and spent his free time advocating for foster youth as a CASA and volunteering with Klamath Hospice where he found his calling to healthcare. His love for medicine stems from its conjuncture of science and human connection. He taught anatomy labs at OIT for a year before matriculating into medical school at Oregon Health & Science University. While he enjoyed living in Portland, he was eager to return to his rural roots. He spent his final year of medical school in Klamath Falls through the Oregon FIRST program and feels fortunate to continue his training here at Cascades East Family Medicine. In his spare time Derek enjoys playing disc golf, camping, reading, eating spicy food, and spending time with his partner Madison and their three cats Albus, Chewy, and Luna.