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Training future generations of family physicians.

Why Choose Family Medicine?

Family medicine physicians provide comprehensive, continuous healthcare to all members of the family throughout the course of their lives. By building relationships based on communication and respect, these physicians gain a deeper understanding of the whole person, including the range of physical, emotional and socioeconomic factors that influence a person’s health status.

The Department of Family & Community Medicine integrates biological, clinical and behavioral sciences to train our physicians to provide outstanding levels of patient-centered and culturally appropriate care.

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Education

Faculty Spotlight

Jeffrey M Panzer

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Family physician at Erie Family Health Center.

Frances C Baxley

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Frances Baxley currently specializes in family medicine. She completed her medical education at Harvard Medical School and completed her residency training at University of California, San Francisco. She has written a publication for the Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine Journal and for the PRIMER journal of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. She serves on the Board of Directors for the HealthCare Foundation of Northern Lake County. She is also fluent in Spanish. 

Anuj Kumar Shah

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Anuj Shah is an Integrative Family Physician, based out of Heartland Health Center’s Lakeview Clinic. Dr. Shah graduated from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency at the Greater Lawrence Family Medicine Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He continued onto a family medicine fellowship at MacNeal Family Medicine Residency, and received his Masters in Public Health at UIC. For almost 10 years, he worked as a family physician and educator at Erie Family Health Center in Humboldt Park. Dr. Shah developed his passion for holistic care through the University of Arizona Int...

Noman Shahid

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Shahid is board certified in family medicine and palliative medicine. He completed his residency at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and fellowship training at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Shahid’s clinical interests include: caring for seriously ill patients, hospital medicine, addiction medicine, and primary care. He believes in a life of service, and strives to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to his patients. He is thrilled to share his love of teaching, learning, and building long lasting patient relationships at Northwestern.

Alisha T Thomas

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Thomas is board certified in Family Medicine. She sees patients of all ages at PCC Austin Family Health Center on the west side of the city. She received her medical degree from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern and completed her residency training, including a chief resident year, at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, IL. Dr. Thomas enjoys providing full-spectrum inpatient and outpatient family medicine care, including prenatal, intrapartum and postpartum management, to her patients. She is delighted to have the opportunity to teach and mentor learners at various leve...

Katherine Wright

Research Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Wright's research examines the effectiveness of health and education policy measures while considering the mediating and moderating factors that influence population metrics. Within this context, she has also developed new methodological approaches to account for missing data, and has extensively analyzed large scale data such as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Rosanne D Vasiloff

Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Vasiloff has been on staff at Northwestern Medicine since 2015. She is board certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine. She sees patients ages 12 and up at Northwestern Medicine- Lakeview. She received her medical degree from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her residency at Hinsdale Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident. 

Santina J G Wheat

Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Wheat is the Program Director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Erie Humboldt Park. This program is a Teaching Health Center Program that serves a largely Spanish speaking patient population at Erie Family Health Center a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago.  She earned her medical degree at University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine and her Masters of Public Health at University of Illinois School of Public Health. She completed a family medicine residency at McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Humboldt Park. She currently primarily provides fu...

Michael K Rakotz

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Rakotz oversees efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease for the American Medical Association. A practicing family physician for more than 20 years, Dr. Rakotz recently served as the Director of Population Health and Virtual Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group. In 2014, his office was one of 30 sites in the U.S.to earn the designation as a Million Hearts® Hypertension Control Champion. In addition to his position in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, he is a Fellow for the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology (HIT).

Robert J Kasper

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Robert Kasper completed his residency in Family Medicine at Hinsdale Hospital in 2019. He is a 2016 graduate of Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University, and a graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Benedictine University in 2011. Throughout his education, he has participated in various small-scale research projects in the fields of analytical chemistry, genomics, and obstetrics/neonatal care. He has a broad variety of personal and academic interests, including providing excellent low-risk obstetric care, expanding the understanding and appr...

Our Community

Our multiple affiliated care sites offer unique training experiences and comprehensive patient care.

Starzl Academy

Former trainee - Luisa Morales Nebreda, MD

Physician-Scientist Training & Resources

We offer a wide range of resources, mentorship opportunities and training to help our residents excel as physician-scientists. Explore all of the resources and hear from housestaff who are making research a major part of their career development plans.

VISIT THE STARZL ACADEMY SITE

Diversity & Inclusion

We are committed to and inspired by a diverse and inclusive work environment. The Department of Family & Community Medicine seeks to attract inquisitive, motivated residents, faculty and staff and is committed to providing them with every opportunity for success.

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