September 2024
9/13: Social Health: The Overlooked Pillar of Health
Emily Balon, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT
Kalispell, MT
Emily Balon, MD is a third-year family medicine resident at the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana. She earned her MD at the University of Cincinnati after graduating from Wright State University with a BA in Anthropology. Dating back to her undergraduate studies, she has had an interest in human interconnectedness and how it relates to health.
9/20: Overprotected Isn’t Safe
Chris Caldwell, DO
Providence Spine and Pain Center
Missoula, MT
Dr Caldwell has been part of the Montana Spine and Pain Center in Missoula for 17 years. He has long been an advocate for the biopsychosocial model, having studied psychology and pre-med at Wheaton College prior to his medical studies at the founding school of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO where he also served as teaching fellow in clinical anatomy. He completed a surgical internship prior to his residency training and board certification in Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine & Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, and was awarded Outstanding Resident by the American Osteopathic Association. He left the faculty in the manual medicine department at his alma mater to complete his Anesthesia Pain Medicine fellowship at the University of Iowa under Richard Rosenquist, MD, current Chair of Pain Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
He served as President of the Utah Academy of Pain Medicine during his tenure practicing in Park City, and was selected for the Montana Medical Association's Physician Leadership Program. He has served as the Pain representative to the Neuroscience Leadership Council for Providence St Joseph Health. He is active as a continuing education lecturer to his peers and is on the faculty of the University of Washington and the University of Montana, serving as clinical preceptor to health professions students (medical, PA, pharmacy and PT) and family medicine resident physicians.
As a physician who has treated persistent pain for 20 years, Dr Caldwell has a passion for the patient narrative (and named a daughter Storey because "nothing changes people like the power of narrative"). He is thrilled to have good news in pain treatment (describes himself as "captivated by neuroscience optimism"), but also knows from the trenches how difficult it can be to reach those you are trying to help. He struggles daily with how best to teach "into" each patient's story. Dr Caldwell also has a lifetime goal of one country per birthday, born from his exchange student experience in Belgium. These last two traits are what compelled him to join Lorimer Moseley and David Butler on the inaugural Pain Revolution ride from Melbourne to Adelaide in April 2017.
9/27: Optimizing Care in Adiposity Based Chronic Disease
McKenzie Keeling-Garcia, DO
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT
Kalispell, MT
Kenzie was born in the northwest and grew up working on her family’s commercial fishing boat in rural Alaska. She fell in love with Montana when she came here for college and always hoped to return one day. She attended medical school at Pacific Northwest University in Washington where she realized she loved too many areas of medicine to choose just one! She is especially interested women’s health, obesity/adiposity based medicine, and acute care. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, river floating, traveling, and always taking the back roads. After residency she plans to practice full spectrum frontier medicine
October 2024
10/4: Pediatric Research in Rural Communities; Challenges and Rewards
Paul Smith, DO CPG
University of MT
Missoula, MT
Dr. Smith is presently the Director of the Montana Pediatric Clinical Trials Site at the University of Montana and Professor of Research in the School of Public and Community Health Sciences. He was director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and a pediatric pulmonologist at Community Medical Center from 2010 until his retirement from clinical practice in 2022. Prior to that he was the Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at MetroHealth Hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland Ohio. He received his fellowship training in Critical Care and Pulmonary Medicine at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital also of Cleveland where he was then an attending physician for 20 years. His main areas of research expertise and publications are in the fields of pediatric pulmonology and air pollution.
10/11: Cardiotoxicity: The case for CardioOncology Rehabilitation Exercise (CORE) Following a Cancer Diagnosis
John Quindry, PhD
University of MT
Missoula, MT
Dr John Quindry (“JQ”) is a professor of Integrative Physiology in the School of Integrative Physiology & Athletic Training at the University of Montana. JQ has training in clinical exercise physiology, a doctorate in biomedical sciences, and postdoctoral training in exercise biochemistry and cardioprotection. His research focus centers on the intersection of exercise, cardiovascular pathology, and free radical biology. Funded research avenues (NIH, DOD, disease foundation, etc.) have included preclinical animal models of heart disease, clinical models, and experimental studies. Most recently JQ has refocused his human research facilities to the Cardiopulmonary & Cancer Rehabilitation Lab. JQ is well published with more than 100 publications in journals that index on Pubmed, ~30 reviews and book chapters, and several editions of a highly adopted textbook on Exercise Physiology (McGraw Hill).
10/18: Overprotected or Resilient?
Chris Caldwell, DO
Providence Spine and Pain Center
Missoula, MT
Dr Caldwell has been part of the Montana Spine and Pain Center in Missoula for 17 years. He has long been an advocate for the biopsychosocial model, having studied psychology and pre-med at Wheaton College prior to his medical studies at the founding school of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO where he also served as teaching fellow in clinical anatomy. He completed a surgical internship prior to his residency training and board certification in Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine & Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, and was awarded Outstanding Resident by the American Osteopathic Association. He left the faculty in the manual medicine department at his alma mater to complete his Anesthesia Pain Medicine fellowship at the University of Iowa under Richard Rosenquist, MD, current Chair of Pain Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
He served as President of the Utah Academy of Pain Medicine during his tenure practicing in Park City, and was selected for the Montana Medical Association's Physician Leadership Program. He has served as the Pain representative to the Neuroscience Leadership Council for Providence St Joseph Health. He is active as a continuing education lecturer to his peers and is on the faculty of the University of Washington and the University of Montana, serving as clinical preceptor to health professions students (medical, PA, pharmacy and PT) and family medicine resident physicians.
As a physician who has treated persistent pain for 20 years, Dr Caldwell has a passion for the patient narrative (and named a daughter Storey because "nothing changes people like the power of narrative"). He is thrilled to have good news in pain treatment (describes himself as "captivated by neuroscience optimism"), but also knows from the trenches how difficult it can be to reach those you are trying to help. He struggles daily with how best to teach "into" each patient's story. Dr Caldwell also has a lifetime goal of one country per birthday, born from his exchange student experience in Belgium. These last two traits are what compelled him to join Lorimer Moseley and David Butler on the inaugural Pain Revolution ride from Melbourne to Adelaide in April 2017.
10/25: Syphilis: Montana Epidemiology, Challenges, and Lessons Learned
Kristi Aklestad, RN
Public Health and Human Services, MT Human Rights Network
Helena, MT
Kristi Aklestad is the section supervisor of the Montana STD, HIV, and Viral Hepatitis section at the Department of Public Health and Human Services. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Carroll College, as well as a master’s degree in public health nursing from the University of North Dakota. Kristi has been a public health nurse for just over twenty-years. She loves to spend time with her family, read, hike, and garden when she isn’t working.
November 2024
11/1: Perioperative Medication Mangement
Michael Miller, PharmD
Bryndin Mckenzie, PharmD
St Patrick Hospital
Missoula, MT
Bryndin is currently a first-year pharmacy resident at Providence St. Patrick Hospital. He graduated pharmacy school from Idaho State University in 2024. His career interest lies in pursuing a second-year residency in oncology or emergency medicine.
Michael is a first-year pharmacy resident at Providence St. Patrick Hospital. He graduated pharmacy school from University of Montana, Skaggs School of Pharmacy. He is currently exploring his interests as a hospital pharmacist.
11/8: Creating Partnerships with Communities to Support Indigenous Health and Well-Being
Donald K. Warne, MD MPH
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, Maryland
Donald Warne, MD, MPH, joined the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health as Co-Director on September 1, 2022. He is an acclaimed physician, one of the world’s preeminent scholars in Indigenous health, health education, policy and equity as well as a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Dr. Warne will also serve as Johns Hopkins University’s new Provost Fellow for Indigenous Health Policy.
Warne comes from a long line of traditional healers and medicine men, and is a celebrated researcher of chronic health inequities. He is also an educational leader who created the first Indigenous health-focused Master of Public Health and PhD programs in the U.S. or Canada at the North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota, respectively. Warne previously served at the University of North Dakota as professor of Family and Community Medicine and associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as director of the Indians Into Medicine and Public Health programs at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Warne’s career is informed by rich work and life experiences. He served the Pima Indian population in Arizona as a primary care physician and later worked as a staff clinician with the NIH. He has also served as Health Policy Research director for the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, executive director of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board, and faculty member at the Indian Legal Program of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Warne has received many awards recognizing his research accomplishments, educational leadership, and service work, including the American Public Health Association’s Helen Rodríguez-Trías Award for Social Justice and the Explorer’s Club 50 People Changing the World. Warne received a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University, Doctor of Medicine degree from Stanford University’s School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
11/15: Harm Reduction: Evidence-Based Care for Socially and Medically Marginalized Populations
Lindsay Benes, PhD RN
Montana State University
Missoula MT Campus
Dr. Benes is an associate professor with MSU's College of Nursing and also works as an RN at Open Aid Alliance, a harm reduction organization in Missoula. In her academic role with the University, Dr. Benes' research focuses on innovative care services for people with housing instability and substance use. She is fortunate to be engaged in two National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded projects that investigate system-level strategies to make care more accessible to this population. In her clinical role at Open Aid Alliance (OAA), Dr. Benes offers nursing care to people using the syringe service program (SSP), but mainly she learns from the immense wisdom of OAA's staff and clients.
11/22: Renal and Hepatic Dose Adjustments for Medications
Jason Shooshtari, PharmD
Harrison Braidt, PharmD
St Patrick Hospital
Missoula, MT
Jason Shooshtari is currently a first-year pharmacy resident at Providence St. Patrick Hospital. He graduated from the University of Montana Skaggs School of Pharmacy in 2024. He is currently exploring his interests in inpatient pharmacy and is considering pursuing a second-year residency in cardiology or psychiatric pharmacy.
Harrison Braidt is currently a first-year pharmacy resident at Providence St. Patrick Hospital. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy in 2024. He is currently exploring his interests in inpatient pharmacy and is considering pursuing a second-year residency in a pharmacy specialty.
11/29: HOLIDAY, NO PRESENTATION
December 2024
12/6: Climate Distress & Mental Health: Coping for Practitioners and Patients Alike
Sarah Aronson, MFA LCSW
Missoula, MT
Sarah Aronson, LCSW maintains a climate-aware psychotherapy practice in Missoula as a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance-North America. She has spent two decades working in community-based, inpatient, and outpatient mental health settings, beginning with a methamphetamine detox center in Northwest Washington. Her initial clinical training was in child and adolescent mental health, with a focus on eating disorders. For the past seven years, she has dedicated much of her professional development to understanding climate change and its impact on our psychology, relationships, and behavior. She holds certificates in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Narrative Therapy. Sarah is also a host & producer for Montana Public Radio, home to her most recent project: Grounding: Conversations on Mental Health & Mother Earth.
12/13: Topic: Maternal Mental Health
Conner Rogan, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT
Missoula
12/20: HOLIDAY-NO PRESENTATION
12/27: HOLIDAY-NO PRESENTATION
January 2025
1/3: HOLIDAY--NO PRESENTATION
1/10: Caring for Indigeous Montanans
Grace Behrans
Stephanie Iron Shooter
MT State University
Bozeman, MT
1/17: Pregnancy & Syphilis
Kristi Aklestad, RN
Public Health and Human Services, MT Human Rights Network
Helena, MT
Kristi Aklestad is the section supervisor of the Montana STD, HIV, and Viral Hepatitis section at the Department of Public Health and Human Services. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Carroll College, as well as a master’s degree in public health nursing from the University of North Dakota. Kristi has been a public health nurse for just over twenty-years. She loves to spend time with her family, read, hike, and garden when she isn’t working.
1/24: Community Health Worker Training
Mackenzie Peterson, MSW, MPH
University of MT
Missoula, MT
1/31: The Happiness Project
John Sommers-Flanagan, PhD
University of MT
Missoula, MT
February 2025
2/7: TBA
Ilana Buffenstein, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT
Missoula, MT
2/14: TBA
Leanea Beers, PhD
Summit Independent Living
http://www.summitilc.org
Missoula, MT
2/21: TBA
Emily Young, MD
Family Medicine Residency of Western MT
Missoula, MT
2/28: TBA
Ashley McClammy, FNP-C
Riverstone Health
Billings, MT
March 2025
TBD
April 2025
TBD
May 2025
TBD