Faculty

Bio

Dr. Pukite received her medical degree in 2000 from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Pukite joined our faculy after completing her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Minnesota in 2006. In addition, Dr. Pukite has a masters in science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1993.

Dr. Pukite specializes in general obstetrics and gynecology, including prenatal care, gynecological surgery, colposcopy, LEEP, office hysteroscopy, young women's health, contraceptive counseling and women's health issues.

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interests:
Benign gynecology; General obstetrics; Prenatal care; Gynecologic surgery; LEEP; Coloposcopy; Office hysteroscopy; Endometrial ablation sterilization; Contraceptive counseling; Women's reproductive rights; Essure procedures

Bio

Jessika Ralph, MD, MS joined the Department of OB/GYN in 2019. After receiving her MD, Dr. Ralph went on to complete her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals. Dr. Ralph also completed an MS in Clinical Investigation and a fellowship in Family Planning from Northwestern University. She is a professional member of the Society of Family Planning and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Bio

Dr. Rauk received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He also completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at that institution. He then went on to complete a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at Magee-Women's Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota, Dr. Rauk was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Rauk specializes in high-risk obstetric complications with special interests in preterm labor, infectious disease, and the care of pregnant women with disabilities.

Dr. Rauk is the Department's Vice Chair of Quality and Safety and the Lead Physician for the Zero Birth Injury Initiative in the M Health Fairview system.

Clinical Summary

Clinical interests:
Preterm labor; Infectious disease; Disabilities; Medical complications of pregnancy

Bio

I am deeply committed to the care of women with cancer, and I believe in involving patients and their families throughout the treatment process. I strive to use minimally invasive approaches to surgical interventions whenever possible, in order to promote reduced recovery times and minimization of complications. I also have a strong commitment to outcomes-based clinical research, encouraging patient involvement in clinical trials when feasible, to improve the care we provide all women.

Clinical Summary

Schedule an Appointment:
Burnsville - M Health Fairview Cancer Center, Appointments: 952-460-4074
Edina – M Health Fairview Cancer Center, Southdale, Appointments: 952-836-3645


Clinical Interests:
Minimally Invasive and robotic surgery, endometrial cancer, surgical outcomes, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, vulvar cancer

Bio

Dr. Sabol completed her MD at the University of Illinois at Chicago in addition to a focused curriculum on urban medicine and health disparities. She then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University and her fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. In both residency and fellowship, Dr. Sabol championed multiple quality improvement initiatives including the successful launch of a home blood pressure monitoring system, reducing hospital readmissions for women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Research Summary

Dr. Sabol's research interests are directed towards improving maternal health outcomes for women through the implementation of evidence based practices. Specifically, she is interested in how multidisciplinary teams can create systems to make care safer for women and their babies.

Clinical Summary

Dr. Sabol's clinical interests are in hypertensive and cardiovascular disorders of pregnancy

Bio

Deanna Teoh, MD, MS, FACS, FACOG, is a gynecologic oncologist in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College (2000) with a Bachelor's degree in music. She received her M.D. degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin (2004). She completed residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of California San Francisco (2008) and then subsequently completed a subspecialty fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at Duke University (2010). Dr. Teoh joined the Gynecologic Oncology faculty of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health at the University of Minnesota in 2011.

Dr. Teoh is a diplomate of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Gynceology, and is board-certified in both gynecologic oncology as well as obstetrics and gynecology. Clinically, she specializes in the management of gynecologic cancers, and has a special interest in minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Teoh also has several research interests in this field. Her expertise has led to invitations to serve on several national research and education committees. Dr. Teoh's research interests focus on improving surgical outcomes, optimizing cervical cancer screening and increasing HPV vaccination, and improving healthcare communication with the public through social media. Dr. Teoh currently has a clinical trial open through the MHealth Gynecologic Cancer Clinic evaluating the use of a negative pressure wound therapy device to decrease wound complications following open surgery. Her research is funded through several peer-reviewed grants, including including the prestigious NIH Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) career development award.

Make An Appointment

Clinical Summary

Schedule an Appointment:
Minneapolis - M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic, Appointments: 612-676-4200

Clinical Interests:
Gynecologic Malignancies; Minimally Invasive surgical techniques; Clinical Trials

Clinical Summary

Clinical interests:
Gynecology; Obstetrics; Prenatal care; Gynecologic surgery; Women's reproductive rights; HPV; Aging Women

Bio

Dr. Rachel Vogel is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health.

Dr. Vogel received her Master's degree in Biostatistics and finished her Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2016 at the University of Minnesota. She was a biostatistics research fellow with the Masonic Cancer Center from 2008-2016 before transitioning to a faculty position in the Medical School.  

Dr. Vogel is dedicated to research in women's cancer and is currently the Masonic Cancer Center's Women's Health Research Scholar. She is interested in outcomes research and cancer survivorship. She is closely involved in the design of observational and clinical studies within the Department and serves as a statistical consultant and mentor to the faculty, fellows and residents.

Research Summary

Dr. Vogel is dedicated to improving the lives of cancer survivors. As the number of cancer survivors increases, the long-term effects of the disease and treatment have become a substantial public health concern. Dr. Vogel and her team focus on understanding the short and long-term physical, emotional and social effects of cancer, and on developing interventions to mitigate the effects. They specifically focus on designing, implementing and analyzing studies to test preclinical and clinical cancer research hypotheses. Dr. Vogel as successfully received funding from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program, American Cancer Society and Melanoma Research Alliance. For more details, please see Dr. Vogel's research website: https://z.umn.edu/vogel-lab.

Bio

Dr. Wernimont received her MD and PhD as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. For her PhD, she studied basic mechanisms of T cell activation. Afterwards, she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Iowa, as part of their Physician Scientist Training Program. Dr. Wernimont joined the University of Minnesota in 2020 and her research is currently funded through the NIH Reproductive Scientist Development Program. In addition to caring for patients with complicated pregnancies, she has a strong research interest in improving care delivery for pregnant patients with diabetes and fetal growth abnormalities.

Research Summary

Dr. Wernimont’s research interests are directed towards improving outcomes for people with pregnancies complicated by diabetes and obesity. In her clinical research, she has worked to develop
and identify better ways to deliver care for patients with diabetes in pregnancy. Towards this end, she recently created the University of Minnesota Obstetric Measures (UMOMs) database that includes over
70,000 patients and 100,000 deliveries from the MHealth/Fairview System. She has used this database to examine timing of delivery in pregnancies complicated by diabetes and how providers define “poor
glucose control.” She is currently leading a multi-department effort to establish a biorepository for systematic collection of maternal, placental, and neonatal samples to support translational research across the perinatal spectrum at the University of Minnesota to link with clinical data within the UMOMs database. The resulting biorepository is termed UMOM:GOPHER (University of Minnesota Obstetric Measures--Gestational Outcomes and Pediatric HEalth Repository). In her basic science, Dr. Wernimont studies how the maternal nutritional-metabolic environment impacts placental development, function and long-term health outcomes. Using both human placental specimens and trophoblast cell lines, Dr. Wernimont combines cutting edge metabolomics and transcriptomics to define the mechanisms by which changes in nutrient availability impact trophoblast differentiation. The long term goal of this work is to develop novel strategies to improve pregnancy health and childhood outcomes in pregnancies complicated by diabetes.

Clinical Summary

Clinical interests:
Diabetes and obesity in pregnancy; Fetal Growth Abnormalities

Bio

Dr. Winterhoff received his medical degree and his Dr. Med. in Molecular Oncology from the Christian Albrecht's University in Kiel, Germany. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a research fellowship in Cancer Genomics and a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the Mayo Clinic.

Research Summary

Dr. Winterhoff's research interests are ovarian and endometrial cancer and the clinical application of cancer genomics. His active research interests are as follows:

1. Use of cancer genomics to identify ovarian cancer patients most benefiting from antiangiogenic treatment with bevacizumab.
2. Use of cancer genomics to identify endometrial cancer patients at high risk for lymph node metastasis and recurrence.
3. Use of cancer genomics for early detection of cancer.

Clinical Summary

Schedule an Appointment: 
Minneapolis - M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic, Appointments: 612-676-4200 
Maplewood - M Health Fairview Clinic, Appointments: 651-232-7800

Clinical Interests:
Cancer genomics; robotic surgery; individualized medicine

Bio

Dr. Wise completed medical school at Baylor College of Medicine and her Ob/Gyn residency at the University of Minnesota. She then completed a research fellowship including a master’s in clinical research and worked as a general Ob/Gyn at the University of North Carolina. She strives to meet patients where they are, ensure that they have a thorough understanding of their health, and create tailored plans together to move toward their goals.

Research Summary

Dr. Wise’s research has a focus on barriers to prevention and early diagnosis and treatment of gynecologic cancers and how to target these barriers to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes.

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interests:
contraceptive care, high risk obstetrics including substance use disorders in pregnancy, menopause care, gynecologic surgery, gynecologic cancer prevention and detection