meet the

Exceptional Clinicians in our Community

“There are many things I am proud of during my time at this health clinic – I am proud that I helped to create a pain template which is a way to take a thoughtful pain history for patients and document it so that future clinicians are able to see.”

Arc Shares Clinician

“I’ve really appreciated how easy it’s been to work with all of you, and how supported I’ve felt. It seems that you’ve been building a great organization.”

Arc Link Clinician

Amélie Wagner

M.D, CFPC

Amina Chaudhry

MD, MPH, MBA

Carol Stewart

DNP, MS, MSN, CNP, FNP-BC

Chiara Marin

PA-C

Clairalyn Baucom

MD, MPH

Jeana James

Jennifer Christy

Kathleen Towns

PA-C

Leah Buthorne

MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, NP-C

Lisa Koers

Michael Heisler

MD, MPH

Natasha Khawaja

Navneet Bhullar

MD, MSc, DTM&H

Rebekah Pairsh

RN, MSN, CNM, FNP-BC

Rebekah Rollston

MD, MPH

Stephanie Curtis

DNP, CNMW

Heather Swanson

DNP, CNM, FNP, PMHNP, IBCLC

Tom Chew

Alyssa Hicks

FNP

“At Arc Health, we believe good health is achievable for even the most vulnerable populations in our world. Our mission is to attain health equity through the recruitment and retention of human resources for health in underserved populations.”

– Dr. Phuoc Le / Co-Founder

Amélie Wagner

M.D, CFPC

Dr. Amélie Wagner is a Family Medicine Physician. She earned her M.D. from the University of Montreal and completed her residency at McGill University in Canada. She enjoys working with diverse patient populations and underserved communities. She is experienced in providing comprehensive care for both children and adults with a special interest in community medicine, pediatrics, and mental health. She also has extensive volunteering experience with Doctors of the World’s medical clinic for uninsured migrants and mobile health clinic. During the pandemic, she supported several long-term care facilities and a COVID-19 hospital. Dr. Wagner is a dedicated physician committed to providing excellent patient-centered care.

Amina Chaudhry

MD, MPH, MBA

Dr. Amina Chaudhry (she/her) is a board-certified internist with over 20 years of clinical and community health experience. Dr. Chaudhry completed her residency at New York University and a general internal medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, where her research focused on the integration of addiction treatment into HIV primary care. In recent years, she has developed a focus on digital health and ways it can be used to expand access to high quality care and enhance the care experience. Dr. Chaudhry divides her time between Quito, Ecuador, where she has lived with her family for the last 5 years and the United States, where she continues to return to practice and provide care. In her free time, when not running around with their three dogs, she enjoys hiking and exploring the mountains around Quito.

Carol Stewart

DNP, MS, MSN, CNP, FNP-BC

Dr. Stewart is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with a doctorate from the University of Mary and a Master of Science in Nursing in Adult-Geriatric and Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Mount Marty College. Dr. Stewart has over 20 years of nursing experience across various health centers in South Dakota. Dr. Stewart hopes to provide high-level, evidence-based care to benefit a diverse population while gaining additional knowledge and understanding to help further clients and students enhance professional growth.

Chiara Marin

PA-C

Chiara Marin is a Physician Assistant with experience working in urgent care, community health, and family practice settings. She has worked with diverse patient populations, particularly with large Spanish-speaking service areas. After completing her Master of Health Science degree with a PA Certificate in 2013, Chiara has worked for various health centers as a PA. Chiara is fluent in Spanish and Italian. In addition, she has experience in effective interaction with diverse patient populations and educating and counseling patients on preventative care, medical conditions, and treatments.

Clairalyn Baucom

MD, MPH

Dr. Clairalyn Baucom is a board-certified pediatrician with a passion for global health and a heart for underserved populations. She has served refugees in Greece, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria with various NGO organizations, including Medecins San Frontiers (aka Doctors Without Borders), Medair, and Medical Teams International. Most recently she worked in the Northern Marianas Islands, where she spearheaded a process improvement project on screening patients for TB. She received her medical degree from the University of TN, Health Sciences Center in Memphis TN. She completed her pediatric residency at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth VA. In the US Air Force, she fell in love with traveling when she was stationed in Okinawa Japan and later in the UK near Cambridge. She decided to pursue global health as a career, earning an MPH in Global Health from the University of Washington Seattle. When she is not working she enjoys traveling, reading, hiking, and photography.

Jeana James

Jeana James is a registered nurse who has enthusiastically joined the Arc Health team. With over 35 years of experience she has experience in many areas of nursing from pediatrics, ICU to nurse manager. She graduated with her bachelors degree in nursing from the University of Nebraska. Currently, Jeana has been traveling the country as a House Supervisor. When not working she enjoys traveling, reading and most especially her grandchildren. She is looking forward to her future adventures with Arc Health!

Jennifer Christy

Jennifer Christy is a board-certified pediatrician from southeast Michigan. She completed her pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, MI, including a year as chief resident. She worked the next 6 years in Ketchikan, AK. While there she continued in medical staff leadership, serving on multiple committees and becoming chief of staff for 2 years. She was also active in teaching neonatal resuscitation (NRP) to medical staff from the local hospital and surrounding islands. Jennifer enjoyed learning about the local native cultures in Ketchikan and has continued to seek out native teachings since moving to Arizona. In both urban and rural settings, Jennifer has seen the importance of access to both quality healthcare and family support for children’s health. She is passionate about giving each of her patients the best care as close to home as possible and is excited to join the team at Arc Health to continue this work.

Kathleen Towns

Leah Buthorne

MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, NP-C

Ms. Buthorne is nationally board certified by both the ANCC and the AANP and received her Master of Science in Nursing from Washburn University. Since earning her certifications as a Nurse Practitioner in 2013, she has worked primarily in Family Practice and Acute/Urgent Care. Before becoming a Nurse Practitioner, she worked as a Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit, Interventional Radiology, and , as well as teaching at her Alma Mater. Leah and her husband Neil have been privileged to travel extensively, but have called Topeka “home” since 2000. The couple are “empty-nesters” and enjoy travel, spending time outdoors, and volunteering in the community.

Lisa Koers

Lisa Koers, MD, is a board-certified family doctor from Indiana. She earned her medical degree from Indiana University and trained in full-spectrum Family Medicine at the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Residency in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Dr. Koers has worked in several community health centers and owned a direct primary care practice in Indianapolis, where she has learned to provide the gold standard of care while optimizing the limited resources available to her patients. She has also completed training in Integrative Medicine, including certification in Medical Acupuncture, and is currently pursuing certification in Functional Medicine. She particularly enjoys working with medically underserved populations to address their health concerns through lifestyle change.

Michael Heisler

MD, MPH

Dr. Heisler has been Professor of Medicine at the University of South Dakota since returning home to South Dakota in February 2009. From January 2015 though December 2016 he held a joint appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Heisler’s most recent appointment prior to returning to South Dakota was Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta and Director of the Emory Division of Hospital Medicine. During his time as Director of Hospital Medicine at Emory, he led the effort to create the Hospital Medicine Clinical Outcomes Research Group.

Dr. Heisler completed his medical degree at George Washington University in 1979 and a residency in Internal Medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University in 1982. During 1985/86 Dr. Heisler completed a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at George Washington University . He received a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University in 1990. From 1991 through 1998 Dr. Heisler held adjunct academic appointments at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health with his primary appointment at the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, a UN sponsored international health group affiliated with the Carter Center in Atlanta. From 1994 through 1998 Dr. Heisler was Director of Programs at the Task Force and played a major role in developing the World Bank funded global river blindness control program. Dr. Heisler has traveled and worked extensively in Africa and Latin America and together with his wife Jean, also a physician, has lived for two extended periods in Kenya.

Dr. Heisler has a long list of publications including a chapter in the Williams Textbook of Hospital Medicine and has received various awards including the Sorin Award from the University of Notre Dame in 1990. He has served on a number of international and national advisory committees and is the Immediate Past-Chair of the Board of Andean Health and Development, an organization committed to improving the quality of rural health in Ecuador.

Dr. Heisler and his wife, Dr. Jean Heisler, have two grown children. He and Jean live on 40 acres north of Sioux Falls where they built a passive solar home and returned the land to native prairie.

Natasha Khawaja

Dr. Natasha Khawaja received her B.B.A in Marketing and International Business from The George Washington University. After four years in the financial sector, she changed careers and completed her medical education at the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine. While working in rural communities in Southwestern Virginia and Appalachia, Dr. Khawaja developed her commitment and passion for under-served populations. She completed her training in Family Medicine at a Teaching Health Center program in Washington DC, with an emphasis on social determinants of health. Her clinical interests include street medicine, adolescent health, and health equity.

Navneet Bhullar

MD, MSc, DTM&H

Dr. Bhullar is a board-certified Internist whose recent work is as a hospitalist at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bhullar has dedicated her life to global health work. As a field physician for Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) from 2007 to 2014, she served communities in Thailand at a Hmong refugee camp, in Uganda, in Papua, Indonesia she was a medical coordinator of mass drug administration to eradicate lymphatic filariasis, in Uzbekistan she was part of a treatment team of drug-resistant TB, and in Sierra Leone she worked during the Ebola epidemic. From June 2012 to June 2013, she served as a Member on the Board of Directors for Medicine sans Frontieres-USA.

Rebekah Pairsh

RN, MSN, CNM, FNP-BC

Rebekah is a clinical professional with over 16 years of industry healthcare experience as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Certified Nurse Midwife, and Registered Nurse. She has experience working in diverse backgrounds such as public teaching hospitals, private hospitals, retail health, insurance education, and non-profit urgent care facilities.

Her maternity background includes working at Parkland hospital, the largest public hospital system in the country. As a Certified Nurse Midwife, Rebekah managed and delivered almost 800 babies. She also trained medical students and residents and was a preceptor for CNM students.

Rebekah was the first nurse practitioner to practice telemedicine for MinuteClinic in the state of Texas. She has a strong passion for providing care to patients and loves to help patients understand what their diagnosis is, how it affects their lives, and how to properly care for any medical issues they may have.

Rebekah Rollston

MD, MPH

Rebekah L. Rollston, MD, MPH, is a Family Medicine Physician, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Medical School Primary Care Review. She earned her Medical Degree from East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, Master of Public Health (MPH) from The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, and completed her residency at Tufts University & Cambridge Health Alliance. Her professional interests focus on social determinants of health & health equity, gender-based violence, sexual & reproductive health, addiction medicine, rural health, homelessness & supportive housing, and immigrant health. Rebekah serves as an inpatient physician at the Indian Health Service (IHS) Rosebud Hospital.

Stephanie Curtis

DNP, CNMW

Stephanie Curtis earned her doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Florida in 2017 while specializing in nurse-midwifery. She has worked at the oldest freestanding birth center in the state of Georgia (est. 1987) since beginning her career. Prior to becoming a midwife, Stephanie worked as a nurse in mother/baby and labor & delivery. She aspires to become an educator and has guest lectured on topics in obstetrics and gynecology for baccalaureate nursing and physician assistant programs. Most recently, she worked as an adjunct clinical instructor for a practical nursing program. Currently, she is excited to continue her work as a clinician via Arc Health supporting women and their families.

Heather Swanson

DNP, CNM, FNP, PMHNP, IBCLC

Dr. Swanson has been an Advance Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and Lactation Consultant for over 20 years, lives in the midwest, and is committed to rural health care. Her doctorate in nursing practice is from Frontier Nursing University. Her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Family Nurse Practitioner post masters were completed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her MSN with speciality in Nurse-Midwifery is from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Swanson and recently completed her psychiatric mental health NP work with Liberty University. She has been involved with nursing education since 2007, and her clinical work has primarily been with rural and underserved populations. Heather is looking forward to continuing clinical work in rural areas with Native Arc.

Tom Chew

Tom Chew is a board- certified family physician. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University and his family medicine residency training at Providence Hospital, both in the Detroit area. He has followed his passion of global health work and improving access to the medically underserved for most of the last 30 years (alongside his wife, Ruth, also a physician). He first worked as an Air Force physician in Turkey, and then for many years in Kyrgyzstan, training national physicians and establishing family medicine training centers around the country. He is now living and working in northern Iraq, helping to establish a primary care clinic inside a refugee camp as well as teaching family medicine residents.

Alyssa Hicks

FNP

Alyssa Hicks is an AANP certified Family Nurse Practicioner. She recieved her Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University in 2020. She became a Registered Nurse in 2014 and has worked in rural hospital settings. She has experience in a variety of settings including: medical/surgical, obstetrics, postpartum, and ER departments. In 2017, she starting working in primary care. Alyssa grew up in the rural midwest and is from a ranch family. She connects to her roots, raising black Angus cattle and American Quarter Horses. She is excited to provide compassionate care to patients and their families in rural and underserved areas.