Kevin Murray, MD

Program Director

Dr. Murray joined Tacoma Family Medicine as our new Program Director on November 1, 2000. He comes to us with a wealth of experience in rural practice and administration as a previous residency faculty member in two of the UW Network programs. Dr. Murray received his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine, completed his family practice residency training with our program in 1981, and has now returned to Tacoma Family Medicine. Dr. Murray has a sincere commitment to caring for the underserved in our community and to providing the best training possible for our residents. He is the liaison for the geriatric, nursing home and practice management curriculum.

Rebecca Benko, MD

I grew up in a small rural community in eastern Michigan where my physician role model was a general practitioner who did everything from delivering babies to taking care of the elderly to setting broken bones. Out of this experience I developed a deep respect for family medicine and the need for physicians in rural areas. I subsequently went to medical school at Michigan State University and completed my training in Family Practice at Tacoma Family Medicine in 1996. I joined Tacoma Family Medicine in 2002 after 6 years of practice in Newport, WA, a small rural city on the Idaho border where I practiced “full spectrum” family medicine with a total of 5 docs in town and 6 physician assistants. My medical interests include rural medicine, women’s health care, and procedural skills (including C-sections). During my free time I enjoy biking, swimming, running and spending time with my family. I am the liaison for obstetrics, colposcopy, procedural skills and the surgical curriculum. 

Michal Brennan, DO

Associate Director

I was born and raised in “Colorful Colorado”. I received my osteopathic medical degree from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery in Iowa after completing a Master’s Degree in Colorado. I completed eight years in the U.S. Army, stationed in Washington. The first three years were spent in residency training, the remainder on the faculty of a large family medicine residency as the Chief of the Family Practice Clinic. My military experience was varied and included a Tropical Medicine course in Panama, a six month stretch in Honduras doing tropical medicine, and a trip to the former Soviet Union in support of the Intermediate Nuclear Range Missile Treaty (INF) among others. I completed the Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of Washington. My interests lie in community family practice with an emphasis on procedural training and musculo-skeletal medicine to include Osteopathic manipulative procedures. My wife Nancy is in education and continues to “educate” me. We have a teenage daughter and a twenty year old son who is in the U.S. Navy. I am the liaison for the informatics, dermatology, didactics, adult ER, urology and ophthalmology curriculum.

Paula Constance, ARNP

Growing up in rural Iowa helped me develop an appreciation for the simple life and keeping hold of what is overtly important to our existence here on earth.

I believe in hard work, honesty, helping others and loving your family. Some times it's hard to keep the balance and we are here to help you keep yours. After all its not a race but a lifetime. I have been a part of the MultiCare Family for the past 25 years, living here since 1984. My training began with undergraduate BSN degree from Iowa,and then moved on to becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner from the U of North Dakota. Coldest place in the Midwest in the winter! I have a Masters from U of Neb, Lincoln in Education and a Masters in Management from Troy University, Alabama. Love that life long learning :)

My areas of interest while at TFM have been women's health, acute care, derm, ortho, and OB. ( hum... not much else left!) I love meeting and working with the residents, they are the energy that keeps us running.

Tom Egnew, Ed.D.

I have been with TFM as the Behavioral Scientist since 1979, after holding a similar position at Madigan Army Medical Center. I hold a Master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and have practice experience in individual and marital counseling, grief counseling, parent education, family violence education, hypnotherapy and guided imagery. My doctoral dissertation at Seattle University involved a qualitative study of the definition and mechanisms of healing and the preparation of allopathic physicians to be healers. I have been involved in published research regarding the training for and implementation of end-of-life care. I believe that physicians are healers, but that medical education does little to prepare trainees to assume this mantle. This is an oversight that can lead to cynicism and burnout in practitioners. My hope is to help trainees learn a practice of medicine that is not only exceedingly technically competent, but also feeds the soul of both patient and physician. My wife Joan is a family physician and our daughter, Halley, and son, Hieu, are the lights of our lives. I am the liaison for the behavioral science/counseling and ambulatory medicine curriculum.  

Alan Gill, MD

Associate Director TFM, Fellowship Director

I joined the TFM faculty in September 2000. I was drawn by our mission of preparing family physicians to care for rural and urban underserved patients. I spent the previous six years as faculty at a rural training site for the University of Missouri-Columbia. Prior to that, I was on the Blackfoot Reservation in northern Montana for four years with the Indian Health Service. I attended medical school at the University of Michigan and residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I have a strong interest in rural health care and in the role of family physicians in meeting the unique demands of small towns. I enjoy full spectrum family practice with special interest in obstetrics, geriatrics, and developmental disability issues. My family and I love the outdoors, which we enjoy through camping and backpacking. I am the liaison for the cardiology, fellowship, and rural medicine curriculum.

Janelle Guirguis-Blake, MD

I have come to TFM from Washington DC where I served as the Chief Medical Officer and Program Director for the US Preventive Services Task Force and faculty member at Georgetown Medical School. My research interests are in health policy, evidence-based medicine, and prevention while my clinical interests are in women’s health and urban underserved medicine.

I completed my undergraduate degree at Brown University, attended medical school in the Dartmouth-Brown combined medical program, trained in the family medicine residency program at UC Davis School of Medicine, and completed a health policy fellowship at Georgetown.

Bill Kriegsman, MD

I have a strong rural background, having worked as a paramedic and registered nurse in Ketchikan, Alaska for six years. My wife and son have spent their entire lives living in rural communities.  We presently live in the suburbs of Oakville with a population of about 400 people. Outside of work, my wife and I run a beef ranch with about 100 cattle and various other farm critters.

After graduating from the University of Washington School of Medicine, I completed the Tacoma Family Medicine residency and stayed on as a full-time faculty member in the residency and rural family medicine fellowship.  At TFM, I am the curriculum liaison for the in-patient Internal Medicine rotation and Night Float.  I have interests in obstetrics, including surgical and high-risk obstetrics. In addition to my work in the residency, I serve in the Medical Corps of the US Army Reserve and have been deployed overseas to Landstuhl Germany, Vicenza Italy, and most recently to Baghdad, Iraq.

Mary Jo Ludwig, MD

I graduated from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1991 and completed my training at the Valley Medical Center Family Medicine Residency in Renton, Washington. I have taught family medicine residents since 1994 and joined the Tacoma Family Medicine faculty in 2007. I love the vitality of the educational environment, especially the enthusiasm and the intellectual curiosity that residents bring to the practice of medicine. I am renewed by the therapeutic relationships we establish with our patients.

Although my curricular focus is geriatrics, I love the full spectrum of family medicine and have special interests in medical ethics, women’s health, preventive health, and family dynamics. My extracurricular activities include biking, reading, genealogy, and gardening. My husband and I have two grown children.

Nataie Nunes, MD

I joined the faculty at TFM in 2009 after many years of practice at a local community health center. As a native Tacoman, I find it very rewarding to practice medicine in a way that serves to educate future family physicians and while working to decrease local health disparities. After graduating from Georgetown University Medical School in 1995, I did my residency training at Seattle Indian Health Board (affiliated with Providence Medical Center, now known as Swedish at Cherry Hill). This experience cemented my desire to work with underserved populations and to continue to practice full spectrum family medicine. Outside of work I enjoy music, theater, books, travel, film and spending time with my husband, two children and extended family.

Lauri Powers, MD

I grew up in Lynnfield, Massachusetts and attended Wheaton College then graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School. I moved from Chicago to Tacoma and joined TFM in the Fall of 2003. My medical special medical interests include women’s health issues. In my free time I enjoy biking, hiking, canoeing, kayaking and Celtic music. I am the liaison for the gynecology, night float, pharmacy, urban, women’s health and internal medicine curriculum.

Susan Rowe, R.Ph

I have been with Tacoma Family Medicine for five years. Prior to Family Medicine, I worked eight years as the pharmacist in the Critical Care Units at MultiCare Medical Center. I graduated from the University of Washington in 1980 and completed a general residency in hospital pharmacy at Harris Hospital Methodist in Fort Worth, Texas. I graduated again in 2001 with my Pharm.D. degree. I teach practical pharmacology during resident precepting and run an anti-coagulation clinic. Anti-coagulation, congestive heart failure, and smoking cessation are areas of interest and expertise for me. My interests outside of work include my husband, two daughters, community volunteer work, basketball and all sports, walking, hiking, and gourmet cooking. I am the liaison for the pharmacy curriculum.

John VanBuskirk, DO

I came to TFM as a second year resident in 1987, after practicing for four years at the Puyallup Tribal Health Clinic. My experiences there reinforced my interest in providing care for the underserved in our society. After completing residency in 1989, I was pleased to join the TFM faculty. I then completed the Faculty Development Fellowship at the University of Washington. I enjoy working with residents to find effective ways to care for disenfranchised people in our community.

Kerry Watrin, MD

This is my third tour of duty at TFM, one residency and two faculty stints, the latest beginning in 1990. Terrie, my wife, and I had served in Tanzania from 1986 to 1990. Since returning to the States we have settled into a 60+ year old log cabin, cultivated a garden, and adopted a beautiful curly-haired girl named Lauren and a smiley boy named Nathan. It is paradise to sit with Terrie and the kids and listen to the evening wind blow through the evergreens. I feel called to be a teacher of family medicine, and invite your feedback on how to improve.

If I can walk with you in anything, it will be to slow down the moment to a point where you live content in the healing interaction, energized by its special magic, and truly feel a gratitude for the opportunity to be a healer.

My special interests include adult learning styles, transition cycles, practical use of the EHR in prevention and chronic disease management, obstetrics and international health. I am the liaison for , Family Practice, NICU, Obstetrics, and Occupational Medicine.

Monica Abbi, MD

Christina Hitchcock, MD

Medical Director for OB Access Clinic

I am originally from Los Angeles, CA. I did my undergraduate work at University of California Riverside, and received B.S. in Biochemistry. I then continued on at UC Riverside and received my Masters in Biochemistry. I attended medical school at Chicago Medical school, and completed by OB/Gyn residency at Kern Medical Center, Bakersfield, CA. I have one child, Brandon, who is 18 months. I enjoy camping, fishing, RVing, outdoor sports, and little "fix-it" projects at the home front.

Mary Ann Lee, MD

I am a board-certified physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. A graduate of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, I completed my internship and residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. In 1987, after twenty-five years in Texas, I relocated to Tacoma with my family. On my arrival in Tacoma, I opened and grew a thriving private medical practice in obstetrics and gynecology. In July of 2002 I closed my private practice to join MOGA. Not only has this transition allowed me to work closely with fellow professionals I admire and respect, it has also allowed me to assist in the training of today's residents, a long time goal of mine. I thoroughly enjoy gynecological surgery and have a profound love of providing obstetrical care. Delivering a baby always brings a smile to my face - even at three in the morning!

A mother myself, during my free hours I cherish spending time with my family including the cold nose members, my dogs. Some of my favorite activities are bicycling, skiing, playing games, attending a good movie or live theatrical performance, and simply relaxing with a book during quiet moments. In addition, I am always looking for new and exciting recipes for one of my other passions - cooking.

Esther Park-Hwang, MD

I graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1993 and completed OB/GYN training at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I served on the faculty at Chicago prior to joining TFM in 1998.I have been involved in both the OB/GYN and Family Medicine Residency programs at Chicago in general gynecology and obstetrics. My special interests include menopause and osteoporosis.

Richard Schroeder, MD

MultiCare OB/GYN & Assoc. Medical Director

I joined the faculty of TFM in May, 1996 following 19 years of practice in Willmar, MN with the OB/Gyn Department of the Affiliated Community Health Network. Our group provided gynecologic and high-risk obstetrical consultation for 100+ family practice and other primary care physicians in west central and southwest Minnesota. I am ACOG certified, graduated from Baylor College of Medicine, and completed my OB/Gyn residency at Baylor College of Medicine. I was involved with resident teaching while at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Oakland, CA and worked daily with primary care/family practice doctors in Willmar, MN. My wife Kristen and I are enjoying the beauties of the Northwest.

Linda Tarbell,ARNP

Family Nurse Practioner

I graduated from the Frontier School of Midwifery & Family Nursing in Kentucky followed by a Masters program at Case Western Reserve University. After working in Southern California as a Family Nurse Practitioner & then starting a Nurse Midwifery program at a country hospital – I had the opportunity to travel and work in Niger, West Africa for 1 year. Since then I have settled here in Western WA. I am passionate about adoption & am learning the ins and outs of gardening (slowly).

Omma Vaidya, MD

I’m originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I received my undergraduate degree at Northwestern University in molecular biology. Afterwards, I attended medical school at Michigan State University and completed my residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL.

I’m interested in all aspects of both Obstetrics and Gynecology including high and low risk obstetrics, the evaluation and treatment of women who have abnormal pap smears, evaluation and treatment of urinary incontinence, and minimally invasive surgery including robotic-assisted gynecological surgery.