Pronouns: She / Her

UT Southwestern  in Dallas, Texas

Jordan grew up in Ventura County, California, where she spent most of her time outdoors developing a deep appreciation for science and the natural world around her. When she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 12, she learned firsthand how science is helpful, but patient education, resources, and empowerment make some of the biggest differences in health outcomes. After moving to Texas and becoming a diabetes camp counselor in high school, she realized she loved working with others to inform and empower them to preserve and promote their health, and that being a physician was probably the job for her.

While on a medical volunteer trip to Tanzania as an undergraduate at the University of Southern California*, she realized the inherent complexities of actually providing the type of care she idealized to low-resource settings. Realizing that this was where her career was going to take her, and wanting to grow her low-resource community medicine toolbox, she completed an MPH with a focus in Global Health while in medical school at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas**.

Though Jordan has always been a family doctor at heart, it took her a long time to realize this. Eventually it dawned on her that this was the only specialty that adapted its scope to fit its patient population, rather than its patient population to fit its scope -- if she wanted to do the most good for her future patients, especially in austere environments, there was really no question about what she was going to be. And there was no question about where she would go! She started looking for residency programs that would not only train her to her maximum capacity but also valued her interests in low-resource medicine, reproductive health, community/public health, education and advocacy, and culinary medicine, and basically stopped looking when she found this website.

She was thrilled when she showed up for her interview and felt instantly at home. She and her partner Matt (and their three cats) are so excited to be in Klamath Falls, and back on the West Coast for good***. They look forward to all the trail running, hiking, camping, backpacking, kayaking, biking, and more that the area has to offer, as well as the opportunity to pick up new hobbies (like skiing and salmon fishing)! They’re also super excited to start a garden, get better at homebrewing, raise chickens, get a dog, and generally work toward living a life from which they don’t need a vacation (though they also love to travel and will probably still take them!).

*She thought she made it back home to the West Coast for
good!

**She, in fact, did not.

***Third time’s the charm! She’s here to stay!

University of California, San Diego

Joel loved growing up as the middle child of three in Charlottesville, Virginia for the first 22 years of his life. He was homeschooled until 9th grade, thus history lessons and other biology lessons were usually taught on battle fields, historical landmarks, and in the forest. Attending college at the University of Virginia, he became very interested in the intersection of community reconciliation and economic development. After college he moved to Seattle to work with Americorps and Habitat for Humanity for two years. There he worked on a construction site with volunteers building affordable homes while learning to mountaineer during his free time. After this, he traveled to Latin America where he met his wife, Maggie (a 4th year medical student at the time), during his first attempt to learn Spanish. Inspired by physicians he worked with in Latin America, he returned to school in La Crosse, Wisconsin to finish his pre-medical classes. They married in 2013 after Maggie started her family medicine residency in Ventura, California.

Joel attended medical school at the University of California San Diego as part of the inaugural year of their Global Health Academic Medical Tract. Highlights included time working in the UCSD Free Clinic System and Tijuana Wound Clinic, as well as a summer research project in rural Ecuador studying the effects of pesticides on adolescents.

Their family has now grown to include a vibrant daughter named Anna Rose and a golden retriever named Cali. They are looking forward becoming part of the Klamath Falls community, learning to garden in a colder environment, and teaching Anna to explore the outdoors while skiing, biking, and hiking.

UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas

Maggie was moved around the country as a "telecom brat" (remember when Sprint and two-way pagers were a thing?), living in New York State, Connecticut, Georgia, and Texas. She attended college in Western Massachusetts and studied International Relations. After several years trying her hand at multiple jobs (living on a boat, working in New York and Washington DC, helping on a farm in Minnesota) and several years working in bookstores, she decided that a real career was needed and attended medical school in her home town of Dallas, Texas. She moved to Klamath Falls with a handsome husband, three cats (only one of them hopelessly overweight), and a pickup truck full of books. Her mother and father, both from small towns, inspired an interest in rural medicine and she is excited to learn about the Klamath Falls community and all it has to offer. Her passions include public/community health, patient-centered healthcare, and women's health. Outside of the clinic, she is desperately trying to keep her garden alive and slowly replacing parts on her ancient rusty pickup truck. She plans on buying furniture someday (probably).

University of Washington

Aaron is from an Air Force family so he doesn’t have a hometown. He grew up in New Mexico, Alaska, Montana, Texas, Florida and Wyoming. Aaron spent his formative years raising farm animals, playing hockey and baseball. He got his undergraduate degree at Black Hills State University in South Dakota and completed his Ph.D at Washington State University. Throughout college and graduate school, Aaron was enlisted in the Air National Guard and completed multiple tours of duty, including Operation Iraqi Freedom. After spending half a decade teaching at Pacific University and Portland Community College, Aaron transitioned back to school to earn his MD through the University of Washington and did a special tract focusing on rural family medicine. An avid lover of animals, good reads, electronics, and gardening; Aaron is eager to find his home in Klamath Falls.

Western University of Health Sciences

Charlie was born in New York, but raised in Reno, Nevada, where he learned his love for sports and the outdoors. Hiking, camping, snowboarding, and hunting were his favorite childhood memories. While he didn’t know it then, they would help shape his future path to medicine.

He attended the University of Nevada where he majored in Biochemistry. He met his wife, Mikaela, after getting her number at a football game during their freshman year. She might not agree with this version of this story and instead argue that she made the first move and got his number. Anyways, the rest was history. During college he had the opportunity to work in the OR as an operating room assistant and it cemented the fact that medicine was where he belonged. Charlie took his passion for medicine to Western U-COMP NW in Lebanon, OR and embarked on the next portion of his medical journey. In Lebanon, Charlie sparked a passion for rural medicine helping to create Lebanon’s Rural Health Fair, volunteering at local elementary schools and the Boys and Girls Club and performing local high school sports physicals.

In his free time, Charlie continues to enjoy all things outdoors on his family ranch in Eastern Oregon with Mikaela, their dog, Libby, and new son, Chase. Charlie feels honored to join the Cascades East family and continue his medical journey in Klamath Falls.

Oregon Health and Sciences University

Nick grew up on a cattle ranch in northeast Oregon in the small town of Imbler where his graduating class was sixteen. Through this experience of growing up rural he developed a passion to serve the small towns of Oregon. After graduating from high school he took a year off from college and traveled over 30,000 miles around the state of Oregon as a Future Farmers of America State Officer. He then attended Oregon State University where he received a degree in Bioresource Research. At OSU he conducted research in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis which opened his eyes to the fusion of basic science and the clinical world. During his college summers he fought wildland fire where he enjoyed, and still misses to this day, swinging a Pulaski, running a chain saw, and working in the outdoors. After college Nick attended medical school at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. While there he found a group of people who shared his values of compassion, curiosity, and broad scope competence – family doctors. He was fortunate to spend six months with the talented and idyllic small town family doctors in Oregon’s Wallowa County which cemented his love for broad scope family medicine. In his free time he enjoys mountain climbing, mountain biking, skiing, running, backpacking, traveling, and spending time with his son Harrison and wife Alex.

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans

If medicine is a calling, someone used a landline to call this girl up. Since the wee age of 5, Eleanor knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up: she wanted to be a doctor. She dedicated herself to the pursuit of this goal. Now this road has brought her over 2000 miles from the land of The Bayou and Voodoo where her journey first began.

She is an alumni of Baton Rouge Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, LA (English translation: Stick Red). BRMHS is the perennial 2nd best high school in the state with notable alumni like Bobby Jindal. From there she attended undergrad at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS where she spent most of her time in the library (a building her husband, also Millsaps alumni, still denies the existence of). She met the love of her life at a coffee shop (this is definitely true, it was definitely not at a fraternity party) during her second year and adopted Fitzwilliam Desmond Wiggins from a local dog shelter a year later. She graduated from Millsaps College with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry.

After undergrad she moved back to the bayou, and after a year off, she started Medical school at LSUHSC in Shreveport, LA. She adopted her second dog Darcy Wiggins, a mischievous beagle, during her first year of med school. During medical school, Eleanor was an active board member of AMWA, and she was instrumental in starting a puberty workshops for underprivileged girls. Her passion has always been to provide health education to those who need it most. Her free time is filled with crafting, refinishing furniture, and blogging her reviews of young adult novels.

(Written by Mr. Wiggins on behalf of his lovely wife, Dr. Wiggins)

University of Washington

Jennifer was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and has loved spending time in nature since she was young. She opted for a warmer climate in college and studied Biochemistry at the University of San Diego – with a minor in English, because she loves to read and write whenever she can. After college she traveled to a small village in Kenya with the US Peace Corps to teach at a school for the Deaf for two years. After returning to the US, she worked for the State of Alaska, addressing tobacco-related public health concerns across the state. She decided to attend medical school after realizing that her favorite aspects of her prior work were the relationships she built and problem solving with a team to work toward health goals (and both are key components of work as a physician). She attended the University of Washington and participated in the WWAMI program, which means that she was able to complete many of her clinical rotations in states that don’t have their own medical schools and have an abundance rural communities. Her rural rotations were her favorites and the comprehensive, humanistic approach of Family Medicine is where she found her calling. She is thrilled to be in Klamath Falls at the Cascades East Residency, with a group of passionate and dedicated people and endless outdoor opportunities. Jennifer moved here with her fiancé Chris and their cat Arthur, and they are excited to become part of the community.