Our Residents

First Year: Class of 2027
Adele

Adebola Adele, MBBS

Medical school: Lagos State University College of Medicine

Medical Interests: Full spectrum family medicine

Personal Interests: I enjoy spending time with family, watching and playing sports like soccer, tennis, and basketball, and playing card and board games.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because, although virtual, the interview was genuinely warm and welcoming, and I connected with every faculty member I encountered. The curriculum description aligns with my medical interests and career goals.

 

Jaquelyn Anderson

Jacquelyn Anderson, DO

Medical school: West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine

Medical Interests: Full spectrum family medicine, prenatal care, mental health, and preventative/lifestyle medicine.

Personal Interests: I enjoy spending time with my husband, son, and our two dogs. We like to hike, be on the lake, and ride motorcycles together.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because of the emphasis on training physicians to practice full spectrum family medicine, including procedures and obstetrical care. I also looked forward to being closer to family!

Johnshoy

Casey Johnshoy, MD

Medical school: University of Minnesota Medical School

Medical Interests: Full spectrum family medicine, obstetrics, and rural medicine

Personal Interests: I enjoy being with my family and spending time outdoors.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because of the sense of community I felt while rotating here and the level of teaching and support from faculty and staff.

 

Kachira

Johncy Kachira, MBBS, MPH

Medical school: Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre

Medical Interests: Full spectrum family medicine, maternal and child health, and rural medicine.

Personal Interests: I enjoy spending time with my family, reading books, and painting. I love to cook and try out different Indian cuisines.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because the program stood out to me in terms of the supportive environment provided to residents to pursue their interests and grow in medicine. The faculty who interviewed me were super engaging, and I could see myself fitting well into the program.

Dustyn Leff

Dustyn Leff, MD, MA

Medical school: University of Minnesota Medical School

Medical Interests: Rural medicine, addiction medicine, behavioral health, and mental health.

Personal Interests: I enjoy board games, reading, fishing, and cooking.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because of its unopposed training and focus areas that I am interested in. I was also fortunate to have a very positive addiction medicine rotation in St. Cloud and was impressed by the level of services and support available to patients in the area.

Zakir

Mehreen Zakir, MBBS

Medical school: Sir Syed College of Medical Sciences for Girls

Medical Interests: Preventative care, pediatrics, mental health, and women’s health.

Personal Interests: I enjoy interior home design, arts and crafts, painting, and fitness.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because of the well-structured curriculum, its rural focus, and its connections to the University of Minnesota.

 

Second Year: Class of 2026
richard dunning

Richard M. Dunning, DO 

Medical school: Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Des Moines, Iowa


Medical interests: Rural medicine, full spectrum family medicine, addiction medicine.


Personal interests: I enjoy spending time on the lake or in the woods camping, hiking, fishing, or hunting with friends and family. I also love trivia and try to use it as an excuse to get together with friends every week.


Why St. Cloud: I was fortunate to experience the training opportunities at St. Cloud Family Medicine Residency during a clinical rotation. During that time, I contributed to the care of patients in the hospital, emergency department, clinic, and through labor and delivery! The residents I met were clearly well-trained, and I knew the program would prepare me for a future in rural medicine. Central Minnesota is also a great destination for water sports, hiking, and just about anything else one would want to do outdoors!

jennifer koski

Jennifer E. Koski, DO

Medical school: West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, Lewisburg, West Virginia

Medical interests: Rural medicine, procedures, community health, special needs care.

Personal interests: I enjoy spending time with my family, hiking, cross-country skiing, being at the lake, and playing sports.

Why St. Cloud: I chose the St. Cloud program due to its unopposed, broad-spectrum training with emphasis on procedures and rural health. The faculty and residents were very welcoming during interview season and the close-knit nature of the program was obvious. Additionally, coming home to Minnesota to be close to family was very important to me.

Madson

Joel A. Madson, MD

Medical school: University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Medical interests: Rural medicine

Personal interests: I enjoy spending time with my family and spending time outdoors.

Why St. Cloud: I chose the St. Cloud program for the excellent faculty, the commitment to rural medicine, and the unopposed training.

Qureshi

Fariha F. Qureshi, MD

Medical school: Ross University School of Medicine, Bridgetown, Barbados

Medical interests: Full spectrum family medicine, OB, Geriatrics, End of Life Care.

Personal interests: My life revolves around my family, husband, children, and dog. I love traveling, mainly to the beach. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is my favorite place to visit with my kids. I like to spend time at home but also want to eat out.

Why St. Cloud: St. Cloud serves the rural areas, and that interests me the most. It is also near Motley, MN, where my home, family, and friends are.

deidra sieck

Deidra E. Sieck, MD

Medical school: Ross University School of Medicine, Bridgetown, Barbados

Medical interests: Full-spectrum family medicine, rural medicine, women’s health, addiction medicine, and Community Health.

Personal interests: I enjoy live theater – I am known by friends as a real musical theater enthusiast! I play the piano and saxophone. I also enjoy cooking and baking, especially my cinnamon rolls and pies. I also like to play golf.

Why St. Cloud: During application and interview season, I was looking for a program that was unopposed and would bring me back to the Midwest. I moved nine times over the course of medical school, which didn’t allow me to enjoy being near my family. During the interview the faculty and residents were down to Earth and very easy to talk to. At the end of the interview, everyone came to the conference room and introduced themselves. No other interview had the entire group so interested that they were all involved on the same interview day. It also seemed like a program that had very rich education that would give me the full spectrum training in order to practice medicine in the rural Midwest.

tarokh

Sara Tarokh, MBBS

Medical school: Fatima Jinnah Medical School, Lahore, Pakistan

Medical interests: Women’s Health, OB.

Personal interests: I enjoy listening to music, reading, biking, playing badminton, and traveling.

Why St. Cloud: I chose St. Cloud because it aligned well with my future academic goals.

Third Year: Class of 2025
Yasmin Abdulaya, MD

Yasmin S. Abdulaya, MD

Medical school: American University of Antigua College of Medicine

Medical interests: Primary care, preventative medicine, and community health.

Personal interests: I enjoy spending time with my family, playing volleyball, badminton, cooking Oromo food, and listening to music.

Why St. Cloud: When I did my family medicine Sub-I rotation at St. Cloud, I automatically fell in love with the program. The faculty, staff, and residents made me feel right at home. Everyone was very welcoming and made me feel like I was part of the team. They challenged me to set goals and helped me to achieve them. I look forward to serving the diverse community of St. Cloud and receiving full-spectrum training.

 

Kristina T. Chien, MD

Kristina T. Chien, MD

Medical school: University of Minnesota Medical School

Medical interests: Refugee health, obstetrics, inpatient medicine, and rural health.

Personal interests: Spending time with family, canoeing, horseback riding, and running.

Why St. Cloud: The combination of exceptional faculty, diverse patient population, and learning environment could not be beat!

Jason G. Hogge, MD

Jason G. Hogge, MD

Medical school: American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine

Medical interests: Full-spectrum family medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, dermatology, sports medicine, and emergency medicine.

Personal interests: Spending time with family outside, mountain biking, skiing, hiking, paddle boarding, and trying new things.

Why St. Cloud: Finding an unopposed program where I could do it all was a must for me. During interview season I noticed that the residents and faculty showed qualities of great physicians that I would be proud to be associated with.

Gregory W. Jacobs, DO

Gregory W. Jacobs, DO

Medical school: Midwestern University – Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine

Medical interests: Mental health and chronic disease management.

Personal interests: I am a classically trained pianist and will frequently turn to this to de-stress and to ground myself. I also love slalom water-skiing at my family's lake cabin in Northern Minnesota, along with all of the many other lake-time activities (kayaking, canoeing, boat rides, swimming, etc.)

Why St. Cloud: I loved the diverse patient population while having a rural medicine focus. I also greatly enjoyed the overall culture of the program on my interview day. Additionally, St. Cloud is geographically close to family, which is something I was not able to enjoy during medical school.

Katrina E. Johnson, MD

Katrina E. Johnson, MD

Medical school: University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Medical interests: Broad-spectrum family medicine with specific interests in rural medicine, preventative care, women's health, sports medicine, geriatrics, behavioral health, and hospital medicine.

Personal interests: Hiking, camping, backpacking, days on the lake, athletics, and spending quality time with family and friends.

Why St. Cloud: I first became interested in medicine through experiences at CentraCare and surrounding facilities in St. Cloud as a high school student. The faculty were always welcoming and enjoyed sharing their knowledge. Throughout my residency interview process, St. Cloud stood out to me as a strong program where faculty enjoyed teaching. I knew I would get a solid foundation of medical knowledge both at the clinic and with several months of hospital training each year in the St. Cloud Hospital, a tertiary care medical center for central Minnesota. I liked that residents have access to consult a wide variety of subspecialists for care of complex patients while maintaining the role of primary provider in the hospital. Everything about the culture of this program made it feel right to come back to St. Cloud for residency. I am excited to join this team of enthusiastic providers in caring for a diverse patient population!

Luke J. McFarland, DO

Luke J. McFarland, DO

Medical school: Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

Medical interests: Full-spectrum family medicine, OMT, and sports medicine.

Personal interests: Board games, video games, a good book, anything involving the outdoors (fishing, hiking, camping, kayaking, hunting), and any sort of competitive sporting activity.

Why St. Cloud: Upon graduating, I wanted to come back to the Midwest to be closer to my family. I knew I wanted to eventually practice full-spectrum family medicine, and St. Cloud provided all I needed to fulfill these requirements. This is due to their unopposed residency, strong focus on procedures, opportunities to practice OMT, and much more. I instantly felt welcomed by the residents and faculty during my interview, which led me to love the program that much more. Minnesota having plenty of outdoor recreational opportunities was a big plus as well.

Graduates

After graduation, where do our residents go and what do they do?

  • 80% practice in Minnesota
  • 50% practice in Central Minnesota
  • More than 50% practice in rural communities of less than 20,000 people
  • 60% include inpatient medicine in their practice
  • 40% practice maternity care

Below are our recent CentraCare St. Cloud Family Medicine Residency Program graduates:

 

                       2024

 Leif W. Olson, MD; Alex J. Shaykevich, DO; Adam J. Sommers, DO; Nicholas A. Cook-Rostie, MD; Megan A. Krotzer, MD; Palistha Amatya, MBBS

St. Cloud

                  2023

 Abdikafar Yusuf, MD; Seth Nelson, MD; Jennifer Tarpenning, MD; Sadia Mohamed, MD; Svetlana Adusheva, MD; Bashir Moallin, MBBS

St. Cloud family medicine graduates 2023

2022

 John Evenocheck, MD; Christopher Mullet, DO; Gamaliel Jesse Ferrer, MD; Prakhya Bhatnagar, MD; Oluwatobi Falade, MBBS; Anthony Hacker, MD

 

St. Cloud family medicine residency graduates 2022

 

 

 

 

2021

Blake Chapman, DO; Tyler Lewandowski, MD; Paola Terán, MD; Michael Symanietz, MD; John Anderson, DO; Eric Christensen, MD

 

2021 St. Cloud family medicine residency program graduates