JASMINE ABRAHAM, MD - FIRST HILL                                                                         
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

 Hailing from the land of “dontcha knows” and “uffdas” I have adopted a Minnesota accent even though I still hold strong to my California roots. My journey in the field of medicine is long and winding with many detours. I became passionate about creating sustainable pathways towards healthier communities by working with the strengths communities already have.

I completed my medical degree at the University of Minnesota and was selected to be part of a longitudinal clerkship during my third year of medical school. It was during this experience that I knew family medicine was where I needed to be to create change in my community. I am excited to work and learn along with the amazing faculty, staff and residents at Swedish First Hill.

AKOSUAH AGYEI, MD - BALLARD                                                                         
SUNY SYRACUSE PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

Born in the vibrant city of Accra, Ghana and raised within the culture of an extended family, I have finally accepted the possibility of meeting a relative anywhere in the world. Growing up, I became very interested in the sciences and patient care. So, during my teenage years, my family allowed me to immigrate to New York were I graduated from high school, pursued an undergraduate education and started medical school.

Medical education was an extraordinary life experience, where I interned at Refugee Clinic in Syracuse, NY. Here, I learned to treat patients from all walks of life while performing advocacy and community service - an experience I had been yearning for after I immigrated. With the aforementioned experience, I realized that caring for the family as a holistic unit was my calling. As a result, I maintained my focus by working as a coordinator at Shifa Clinic (a free clinic) in Charlotte, NC. This experience was not only scholastic but also allowed me to further orient my perspective in becoming a Family Medicine physician myself.

I am particularly interested in preventive medicine, community health and advocacy. Hence, my attraction to Swedish Family. In my free time, I enjoy traveling, exploring neighborhoods and different cultures, watching movies, listening to music, dancing and trying new food. For quite some time now, I have been waiting for a reason to visit the west coast and I am very excited to explore Seattle and definitely meet relatives I am yet to know.

CASEY BABCOCK, MD - FIRST HILL                                                                         
TULANE UNIVERSITY PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

I was born right here at Swedish First Hill and raised by four incredible women in both Capitol Hill and Rainier Valley. My playtime as a child was spent in a backyard urban garden, where I learned to love the taste of fresh food and the importance of sustainable farming. In 2010, I graduated from Garfield High School [go Bulldogs, boo Beavers (sorry Heather ;)] and left my home for the first time, just as two of my parents moved to Tieton, WA, to start a farm and pursue their dreams.

At Occidental College, in sunny Los Angeles, I majored in Kinesiology, and my love for science and nature blossomed into a passion for health and human physiology. After college, I returned for two years and tried to acclimate to the rapidly growing city around me. In between scribing for two gastroenterologists and selling my family’s cheese (at the time new, now award winning -- sorry, I’m a proud daughter) at local Seattle farmers markets, I volunteered for Community Lunch on Capitol Hill.

I then left our mountains and sound once again to attend Medical School at Tulane University in New Orleans, where the barriers to care, medication, transportation, food, and housing are some of the tallest mountains you’ll find. During my time at Tulane I continued my work with housing insecure members of my community, volunteering in our student-run clinics, many that were partnered with the homeless shelters and in-house substance use rehabilitation programs across the city. Along with providing primary care and TB testing, I led an HIV and Hepatitis C testing, counseling, and referral program called Acacia Nola. Volunteering at these clinics over the years and rotating in hospitals in urban and rural Louisiana fueled my passion for preventative medicine, and for furthering equitable health practices and access.

I am finally returning to Seattle again, this time equipped with the value - instilled in me by my four mothers, my family’s farm, and my education - of hard work and the value of doing a hard thing right. There is no place for shortcuts when it comes to providing quality, comprehensive, and contextualized care. It comes from the heart. I am committed to being a partner in my patients’ health, while also lifting up their voices and fighting for their rights. When I first worked alongside the Swedish Family Medicine team and observed their comparable dedication to treating the whole person and addressing social determinants of health, it felt like home. I could not be more excited to join the Swedish First Hill family.

-- I share all these pieces of myself and my life in hopes that you relate to something. I’m eager to connect with you about it when you visit, especially in this time when so much of society's connection has been lost. And just for good measure, here are a couple more of my personal interests:

Within family medicine, and areas I hope to further explore during my 3 years at First Hill, my interests include women’s health, obstetrics, LGBTQ health, Hepatitis C and HIV care, and addiction medicine.

In my free time, I love to be outdoors, whether that’s exercising (running, yoga, and spin are my favorites), playing a sport (preferably volleyball or tennis), hiking in the gorgeous old growth Washington forests, playing with baby goats on my parents’ farm, or soaking up the sun on Lake Washington (with sunscreen of course!). When the Seattle rain comes, and it always does, I love to spend my time in the kitchen preparing farm fresh meals, or snuggled up with a good book.

MEAGHAN FOSTER, MD - BALLARD UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

Like everyone else in New England, I grew up “outside of Boston”, splitting my time between Groton and Dunstable, two small farming communities in Massachusetts, nestled along the New Hampshire border.

For as long as I can remember, I dreamed about becoming a doctor. Periodically this dream would be interrupted by fantasies of becoming a National Geographic photojournalist, kindergarten teacher, or social worker. A common thread across these seemingly disparate career paths was a passion for understanding health and human behavior. This eventually inspired me to pursue a degree in Neuroscience at Bucknell University, where I focused on the neurobiological reward systems in prairie voles (think a smaller, meaner mouse).

After undergrad, I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital, helping to conduct a clinical trial exploring the efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplants for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Fun Fact: You wouldn’t believe how much p**p gets shipped via FedEx, for research of course!).

While enticed by the potential impact clinical research can have on the medical field, my work felt disconnected from the original reason I fell in love with medicine - meaningful and enduring relationships with patients and their communities.

Persuading my partner to put with up New England winters for a little longer, I moved from Boston to Worcester, MA to attend the University of Massachusetts for medical school. While at UMass, I joined the Rural Scholars Program which reconnected me with my small-town upbringing through longitudinal experiences working with farmers in Barre, MA, clinical rotations in rural communities throughout the state, and exposure to the poignant convergence of rural health and substance use disorders.

I chose family medicine because it ties together cherished aspects of all three careers I had once daydreamed about as a kid - community advocacy, education and mentorship, and longitudinal, multi-dimensional care.

I fell in love with the residents at Swedish First Hill (and ALL of their dogs), as well as the palpable commitment to community engagement, broad procedural training, and integrated care model at Ballard. I am thrilled to be making the cross-country move to the Pacific Northwest, learning and working alongside wonderfully compassionate physicians devoted to providing comprehensive care to their patients and communities.

Like most family physicians, my clinical interests are broad, but I am especially interested in rural medicine and issues surrounding barriers to care, substance use disorders, community advocacy, and reproductive rights.

Outside of clinic you can find me hiking with my partner Nick and corgi Ellie (30lbs of fluff and attitude), pretending to have a green thumb, sweating to Robin Arzon classes on the Peloton app, concocting cringe-worthy puns, and finding the best food, coffee, and breweries Seattle has to offer.

HALEY PARSLEY, MD - FIRST HILL                                                                      
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY PRONOUNS THEY/THEM/THEIRS

If someone were to visualize my “home”, it would be an eclectic, rainbow-clad quilt. I was born in Alabama, grew up in the South and in Colorado, and somehow ended up in Florida for post-secondary education. An everchanging landscape, my childhood instilled in me that the world was much larger than my suburban backyard, and I was determined to tackle it all.

At the age of 13, I flew with my parents to China to adopt my baby brother Tai, who, as someone with disabilities, had waited 2 years to be adopted. The orphanage representatives refused to have us at the facility due to its condition and instead brought Tai diaperless with a small bag of all his belongings. We would later go back to adopt my two youngest brothers, similar to Tai’s situation. Advocating for my brothers, I became acutely aware of how poverty, disability, and race affect how people exist in this world, and that I possessed an incredible amount of privilege. I also knew that had my brothers been without medical care in China, they would be poorly functioning or perhaps not at all. It was then I determined that I would become a physician and wield my privilege to help those less fortunate.

I went to college at the University of South Florida and completed a degree in Integrative Animal Biology and Spanish. I grew my deep appreciation for language and culture, while fostering my nerdy ambitions in biology and evolution. One summer I studied abroad in Argentina. Another, I took to the Rocky Mountains, working as a camp counselor with people with disabilities.

I attended medical school at Florida State University College of Medicine. There I deepened my roots in advocacy and primary care. I acted as a medical translator for patients abroad in Nicaragua and those working as migrant farmworkers in South Florida. Coming to terms with my own identity as a queer individual, my passion for LGBTQ inclusive spaces and medical education took a fervent hold. The hetero- and cis-normative culture of medicine pained me, as I watched it seed distrust and grief in my community. The more I worked with the above communities, the more I realized the importance of prevention, education, and advocacy in ensuring a patient’s best foot forward to achieve a healthy, fulfilled life. And, alas, primary care came knocking at my door.

I am incredibly humbled and amazed to take care of the Seattle community alongside the First Hill family, a program that pivots its medical education around the themes of social justice, community involvement, and advocacy. My clinical interests are LGBTQ health, addiction medicine, comprehensive reproductive healthcare, and HIV medicine.

Outside of clinic, I can be found at parks with my partner and our pets, listening to music, hiking beautiful terrain, or nursing a boba at the nearest tea bar. As both a queer haven and a gorgeous outdoorsy place, I am proud to call Seattle my home.

JOANNA POCETA, MD - FIRST HILL                                                                      
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

I grew up eating burritos on the beach in Encinitas, California, and despite many years on the East Coast my vocabulary still veers heavily toward Southern California surfer slang.

I went to college at Brown University in Rhode Island, where I volunteered as a case manager for low-income families at a pediatric hospital, facilitated a community sexual health seminar, and hosted a show on the campus radio station. I ended up majoring in Philosophy, and though I loved the rigor of working through a challenging text, I knew I needed a career that was rooted firmly in the world around me and could be immediately and concretely applied to the inequities I was seeing daily.

I stayed in Providence after college to work with one of my public health mentors developing community programs throughout the country to reduce racial disparities in the HIV and HCV care cascades. I had my first experiences in community organizing through longitudinal work in Jackson, Mississippi, helping to mobilize faith-based organizations in the effort to decrease HIV-related stigma. I found community work unbelievably energizing, and was inspired by the leadership of the activists and organizers that were so crucial in these efforts. When I decided to apply to medical school, I did so with the goal of becoming a physician with a strong community presence that would facilitate access to care for the most marginalized.

After a year in San Francisco working as an HIV clinical research assistant and volunteering with a syringe access program, I moved to Washington, D.C. to start medical school at George Washington University. In medical school I was involved in family planning education and advocacy through Medical Students for Choice and continued working as an HIV test counselor in the city. Despite my school not having a department of Family Medicine, I met several family physicians in D.C. who were doing the kind of community-engaged work with underserved communities that I aspired to. They became my mentors as I worked alongside them at shelters and correctional facilities around D.C. and continued to learn how geography, racism and structural inequity impact health outcomes.

I wanted the broadest training possible in Family Medicine so that I will be able to provide healthcare to anyone, anywhere. I’m so excited to have found this kind of full-spectrum training at Swedish First Hill and to become a part of this group of physician-leaders here dedicated to social justice, advocacy and community. I hope to develop my interests in family planning and reproductive justice, obstetrics, addiction medicine and HIV/HCV care throughout my time here.

Having experiences outside of medicine has always been important to me – I’ve loved working at restaurants from fine dining spots to Dairy Queen, and at an independent bookstore during an angsty year off from undergrad. Before medical school I spent two months riding my bike through Colombia and have done several shorter bike tours since – my secret dream is to be a family doctor traveling the country on two wheels with my medicine bag in tow. I’m stoked for the outdoor opportunities in the Pacific Northwest and can’t wait to load my camping gear onto my bike for a night or two of sleeping outside whenever I can! I also love SCUBA diving, speaking Spanish, doing karaoke, reading fiction, finding the best dive bars and engaging in an excessive amount of pop culture analysis and reminiscence with my best friends from high school on an absurdly active group text thread.

AMIR REZAYAT, MD - DFM                                                                         
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRONOUNS HE/HIM/HIS

I was born in San Diego, CA but quickly moved at the age of 1 to spend the remainder of my young adult life in the Midwestern oasis that is Cincinnati, OH. Both my upbringing and my current appetite were shaped heavily by my Iranian father’s love for Persian cuisine and my Kentuckian mother’s mastery of down-home southern cooking. After spending my preschool through high school years exclusively in the Queen City, I decided to explore a new part of the country and headed south to attend Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

For the next four years at college, I spent my time marveling at the unfamiliar beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains while cultivating a strong passion for the laboratory sciences. I graduated with a degree in Biology and headed back to Ohio the following year to work in a clinical / translational cystic fibrosis research lab at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. While the benchtop lab research managed to scratch my scientific itch, I found that it was the patient-facing interactions that I had come to value most. My passion had pivoted, and I decided to leave Cincinnati behind once more to pursue direct service in the Pacific Northwest.

I moved to Seattle, WA in 2013 to serve as an AmeriCorps corpsmember with City Year Seattle / King County. Our corps tutored and mentored young students at-risk of not graduating high school, and I quickly came to realize the vast inequities faced by disadvantaged communities, particularly those in Seattle’s south end. I learned of the incredible importance of academia in these settings, as well as the innumerable barriers to delivering effective education. It was also during my service year that I developed a love for the Washington outdoors. At the conclusion of my service year, it became clear that a career in medicine would blend my excitement for the biological sciences with my passion for direct service. But at that point, I had not touched a pipette in months, so I spent the next 2 years working in a microbiology research lab at the University of Washington.

I stayed in Seattle to attend medical school at the University of Washington and found myself immediately drawn to primary care. I enrolled in UW’s Underserved Pathway and sought every opportunity to continue to serve the south end; I was soon participating in projects promoting culturally-appropriate medical management, working alongside King County physician advocacy groups, and expanding initiatives aimed at diversifying the medical student body. I gravitated to the Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency because of their unwavering commitment to underserved healthcare and their dedication to community outreach and advocacy.

Outside of medicine, I spend a majority of my time hiking and camping, exploring the expansive and expensive Seattle food scene, and raising my two kitty sons, Benny and Boo. I am beyond excited to remain in Seattle and for the opportunity to work alongside the incredible residents and faculty at Swedish First Hill!

CATHERINE “LENA” SON, MD - DFM                                                                           
ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

I was born on the outskirts of Vancouver, British Columbia, but did the majority of my learning, growing, and mistake-making in Portland, Oregon. Eighteen years of Pacific Northwest living left me dreaming about the California sunshine and led me to Santa Clara University, where I studied public health. When I had the unexpected chance to work in the medical clinics of the Santa Clara County jail, I took it, not knowing that my time in jail would become a turning point for me in how I viewed the injustices of incarceration, the importance of social determinants of health, and the belief that health care is a fundamental human right.

After Santa Clara, I headed back up the West Coast to spend some time working with the Korean immigrant community in Portland and helping to lead a breast cancer screening outreach program. I then made my way to Saint Louis University for medical school, where I was able to continue working with incarcerated populations both through research identifying women’s pregnancy intentions as well as a juvenile detention center tutoring program. On the clinical side, I knew from early on that Family Medicine, with its exposure to nearly all the fields that had piqued my interest, ability to see a variety of populations and build long-term relationships with patients, and emphasis on community and advocacy, was where I belonged.

I am incredibly excited to return to this corner of the continent but especially thrilled to be at Swedish First Hill and join a program that is passionate about so many of the things that have shaped my life and career. My particular interests include health care for undocumented immigrants and incarcerated populations, culturally-responsive care, and the role of trauma in health outcomes.

In my free time, you can most likely find me feeding peanut butter and apples to my dog Cheddar, attempting to improve my cocktail-making skills, scoping out my local cheese counter, dreaming about snowboarding and boating, or re-watching Parks and Recreation.

MOLLY THAYER, MD - FIRST HILL                                                                                                                                  UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

I was born and raised in Arlington, MA, just outside of Boston. I always assumed I’d go far for college but discovered a vibrant energy at Northeastern University, right in my backyard. I also never assumed I would go into medicine, but my trajectory changed after a freshman biology class and reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, about the physician philanthropist Paul Farmer.

I moved to Colorado immediately after graduating college in order to check the “get out of my comfort zone” box. The plan was always to return to Boston for medical school and put down roots. I was unprepared for the reality, which was that I would fall in love with the mountains and the outdoors. I loved the challenge of learning new sports and discovering the joy of a healthy work life balance. Life as I knew it was forever changed. I stayed in Denver for medical school where I further discovered a love for rural medicine and continued to grow my passion for public health and primary care.

My experiences working with underserved populations during undergrad and medical school revealed an inequity in medicine that didn’t seem to benefit patients or providers. These observations drove me to research racial disparities and health systems science, as well as earn my MBA in Health Administration, all in efforts to better understand the intricacies of our complex healthcare system. I chose Family Medicine as a specialty because I loved the idea of having a broad knowledge and skill base, but it also ladders up to my interests in primary care innovation and reform. I was drawn to First Hill because of its incredibly supportive environment, filled with residents and faculty who were focused on social justice and addressing systemic inequities in healthcare.

In my spare time, you can find me hanging out with my partner, Cam, an EM resident at UW, climbing mountains, skiing down them, biking, hiking, backpacking and everything else in the mountains. I’m so excited to be in the PNW where I can be near family and explore a new outdoor, food and coffee scene!

ALICE WEI, MD - DFM                                                                                                                                         UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRONOUNS SHE/HER/HERS

I was born in Shandong, China. I grew up listening to stories about my relatives who were “barefoot doctors,” rural health workers (named after those who waded barefoot through rice paddies to reach patients) providing preventative and basic medical care to their villages. I learned early on what community-rooted primary care could look like. At age 4, I stepped into a big, winged machine that transported me to Wisconsin, a place I have since called home. As a Chinese-American immigrant kid in the Midwest, I grew familiar with the nurture of many welcoming communities but also the challenges of feeling like an outsider to a dominant culture. Those experiences centrally inform my pursuit to practice community medicine as a tool for inclusivity and social justice.

I attended college at UW-Madison. I learned the necessity for systems and community-level change as well as the value of using first-hand experiences, like practicing medicine, to shape and color them. Some formative experiences included working for an initiative addressing Wisconsin’s unacceptable African American infant mortality rates, local community organizing to support global health justice efforts, and researching gun violence in Chicago. My travels also took me to teach English in China and learn at a community health center in Uganda.

I attended the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health for a dual MD, MPH. Through the urban medicine and public health training program (TRIUMPH), I learned in Milwaukee, the city where my own family first immigrated to. I felt a strong connection to immigrant and refugee patients and worked on a research project evaluating TB screening of refugee children. I also spent 3 years working to launch community-based Centering (group prenatal and well-baby healthcare visits) as a partnership between an FM residency program and a community center located in a neighborhood facing stark maternal/child health disparities. I hope to cultivate more cross-sectoral collaborations like this in the future. Ever evolving, my interests include immigrant/refugee health, women’s and reproductive health, and integrative medicine.

Many of my hobbies revolve around food, like leisurely browsing grocery stores and markets, experimenting with recipes, and trying new restaurants with my partner. You can also find me keeping up with favorite comedians/comedies or exploring new places. I am so excited to join the Swedish First Hill family and to call Seattle my new home.