St. John's Faculty

Bio

Dr. Kathryn Brown has been a member of the St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency core faculty since 2015. She received her medical training at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities campus and completed her family medicine training in 2014 at the St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program. In the field of family medicine, Dr. Brown is motivated by developing and sustaining collaborative relationships with patients in the clinical setting, working with families, providing obstetric care, and enhancing the patient experience as they interface with medicine. Dr. Brown's research interests include: improving the patient experience in clinical care and management of chronic pain and safe opiate prescribing. In her personal life, Dr. Brown enjoys time with her family, cooking, time spent outdoors, and ceramics.

Research Summary

Improving the patient experience in clinical care; management of chronic pain; safe opiate prescribing

Clinical Summary

Specialties: Family Medicine/Primary Care

Bio

Jennifer Budd, DO, has been faculty in the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency since 2016. She is the current medical director at Phalen Village Clinic. She practiced full-spectrum family medicine for 10 years in North St. Paul, MN. During that time she was also a family medicine community preceptor at the University of Minnesota Physicians Bethesda Family Medicine Clinic. Her current interests and projects include a medication reconciliation process in the ambulatory setting, standard approach to pediatric obesity, and developing the OMM curriculum for our residency program with an emphasis on treatments used in the office setting.

Clinical Summary

Women's and children's health; osteopathic principles and practice; quality improvement; chronic disease management

Bio

Kirby Clark, MD, is faculty in the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency and Director of the Rural and Metropolitan Physician Associate Programs. He also serves as a master tutor for several Medical School courses; instructor for two department courses – Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO®) and Family Medicine Ultrasound; and co-director for the department Leadership and Finance course. His medical interests include pediatrics, office procedures, inpatient medicine, practice management, and education. 

Bio

Diana Cowdrey, MD, CAQSM, is faculty with the University of Minnesota Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship and St John's Family Medicine Residency. She practices both family medicine and primary care sports medicine. Her clinical interests include preventative care, overuse injuries, and ultrasound guided procedures.

Clinical Summary

Sports medicine and family medicine

Bio

James Hougas III, MD, FAAFP, joined the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency in 2017. Before this, he served on active duty with the United States Air Force for five years after residency. His assignments included outpatient practice at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, residency faculty and full spectrum Family Medicine at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and deployment to Afghanistan, Qatar, and elsewhere. He is interested in infectious diseases, antimicrobial stewardship, trauma care and systems, office based procedures, physician leadership, and colonoscopy. He is also an instructor in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) and Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO).

Clinical Summary

Infectious diseases; antimicrobial stewardship; trauma care; office-based procedures; physician leadership; and colonoscopy

Bio

Karen Jankowski, MD, is a family physician with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health who provides comprehensive, outpatient clinical care at the Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC) in Minneapolis, MN. At CUHCC, Dr. Jankowski has engaged in the transformation to interprofessional team-based care and has promoted this care model on a national level as a key element to reduce barriers for patients from diverse and marginalized backgrounds. She also enjoys teaching medical students and an elective in global-local medicine for residents.

Research Summary

Women’s health, pediatrics, community medicine, office procedures

Clinical Summary

Full-spectrum, community-based, outpatient care and procedures; health equity and culturally appropriate care; interprofessional care teams; travel medicine; medical education

Bio

Rahul Kapur, MD is Director of the Program in Sports Medicine for the DFMCH. He previously served as the Director of Education Programs in Sports Medicine for the Department from 2019-2022. He is also core faculty for the St John's Family Medicine Residency and the UMN Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship.

He came to the Twin Cities from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA where he served as Fellowship Director for the Penn Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship from 2010-2018. He served as Chief Medical Physician for Penn Athletics from 2007-2018.

He currently serves as a team physician for the Minnesota Twins and St. Paul Saints, and was a team physician for the USA Lacrosse Women's Senior Team from 2017-2022. He also served as Co-Medical Director for the Twin Cities Marathon in 2022.

Research Summary

Sports Medicine physician burnout and wellness

Teaching Summary

Dr Kapur is actively engaged in teaching of medical students, residents, and sports medicine fellows. At the medical student level, his teaching includes the Essentials of Clinical Medicine Course (ECM) for 1st year students and the Fundamentals of Clinical Thinking (FCT) for both 1st and 2nd year medical students. He also leads the Musculoskeletal Workshop for 3rd year students on their Family Medicine Clerkship. At the residency level, he serves as core faculty for the St. John's Family Medicine Residency Program and directs their musculoskeletal education. He also serves as core faculty for the UMN Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship.

Service Summary

Team Physician, Johnson High School, 2018-present; St Paul MN

Co-medical director, Twin Cities Marathon - 2022

Clinical Summary

Dr Kapur sees primary care patients at Phalen Village Clinic and sees sports medicine patients at the Clinics and Surgery Center.

Bio

Anne Keenan, MD, is faculty in the University of Minnesota St. John's Family Medicine Residency. She is a graduate of the St. John's program and joined as faculty in 2017 after having loved her experience at St. John's Hospital and Phalen Village Family Medicine Clinic. Her interests include obstetric care, pediatrics, and healthy lifestyle promotion.

Teaching Summary

Faculty in the Rural Physician Associate Program as well as the Metro Physician Associate Program.

Clinical Summary

Maternal and child health, healthy lifestyle promotion, family medicine/primary care

Bio

Dr. Leonardsmith (she/they) loves working together with patients to meet their goals for health. Some of her interests include caring for gender expansive youth, pregnancy care for all kinds of folks, and sexual health. She loves going outside in all weather, believes in cultural humility, speaks Spanish, and is passionate about using tools as a physician to work for a just world.

Clinical Summary

Clinical interests: gender care, teaching, pregnancy, MOUD, LGBTQ

Treatments and special programs: gender health medical services, IUD insertion, post-partum care, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)

Bio

Katherine Montag Schafer, PharmD, BCACP, CDCES, is an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. She is a faculty member with the St. John's Family Medicine Residency Program and practices at Phalen Village Family Medicine Clinic. She is a 2013 graduate from North Dakota State University College of Pharmacy and completed PGY1 and PGY2 training at Hennepin County Medical Center, specializing in ambulatory care pharmacy practice, in 2015.

Bio

Timothy Ronneberg, MD, is the associate program director of the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency. Prior to this role, he was an assistant professor where he served as a hospitalist and helped coordinate inpatient adult medicine and obstetrics training. He has been with the St. John's program since 2004.

Clinical Summary

Inpatient adult medicine, obstetrics

Bio

Ben Rosenstein, MD, MA, completed his family medicine training at the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program. Following residency, he pursued his interests in the care for older adults and completed a Geriatrics Medicine Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He has deep interest in primary and specialty care of older adults in multiple settings as well as health and aging policy initiatives.

Clinical Summary

Primary care geriatrics, dementia, delirium prevention, advanced care planning, and end-of-life care.

Bio

Angela Smithson, MD, MPH, is the director of the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency. Previously, she taught and practiced at the University of Minnesota North Memorial Family Medicine Residency and served as medical director of Family Health Services Minnesota, P.A. In 2010, she joined St. John's faculty and became its program director in 2015.

Service Summary

Team-based clinical care, chronic disease management, women's health, preventive medicine

Clinical Summary

Full spectrum of family medicine - including obstetrics, women's health including colposcopy, chronic disease team management

Bio

April Wilhelm, MD, MPH, is a faculty physician and clinician-researcher at the University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital Family Medicine Residency and the Program for Health Disparities Research. Prior to joining the faculty, she completed an interdisciplinary fellowship in child and adolescent primary care research at the University of Minnesota. Her research program centers on promoting healthy behaviors among adolescents in refugee and immigrant communities and child and adolescent tobacco prevention and control.

Research Summary

Adolescent tobacco prevention; refugee/immigrant health; health equity, social determinants of health

Service Summary

Adolescent health, refugee/immigrant health, adolescent tobacco prevention

Clinical Summary

Reproductive health; adolescent health; healthy lifestyle promotion; chronic disease management

Bio

Dr. Zak-Hunter is the Director of Behavioral Health at St. John's Family Medicine Residency/Phalen Village Clinic. She completed her doctoral internship at St. John's in 2011. She provides integrated behavioral healthcare, teaches and oversees the family medicine residents' curriculum related to mental/behavioral/social health, physician office-based counseling and communication skills, and well-being/resilience. She supervises the behavioral health/medical family therapy pre-doctoral internship at St. John's. She is co-founder and chair of the Medical Family Therapy Consortium, a national group of professionals addressing workforce development, advocacy, training, and education for family therapists in healthcare settings. Her interests include integrated behavioral healthcare, medical family therapy, family centered healthcare, primary care approaches to trauma and adverse life experiences, and provider well-being.

Research Summary

Provider and resident personal and relational wellbeing, family-centered care, primary care approaches to adverse experience and trauma, adult eating disorders.

Clinical Summary

Integrated behavioral healthcare, medical family therapy, family-centered healthcare, impact of disease on personal and family functioning.