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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

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. 

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).

Dorothy A Dschida

Lecturer of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Dschida is a faculty physician with the AMITA Saints Mary and Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program. This program is based on Chicago's west side and serves largely Polish and Spanish-speaking patient populations at PrimeCare Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Chicago. She earned her medical degree at Loyola University Chicago- Stritch School of Medicine and her Masters of Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago. She completed her family medicine residency training at McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency Humboldt Park. As a faculty member, ...

Kiran Joshi

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Interests include quality improvement, global health, community based participatory research.

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...

John L Gatta

Clinical Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Gatta is a data scientist that specializes in the application of predictive models within the healthcare and education sectors. Dr. Gatta is an Associate Professor and past Director of Research for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Northwestern University, where he develops and directs graduate coursework in predictive analytics and machine learning. Dr. Gatta's work has been recognized in both the education and healthcare sectors. He has been the recipient of local and national awards such as educator of the year from Northwestern University’s Clinical and Translational S...

Adam W Bennett

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

I practice primary care sports medicine, a newer field geared towards the non-surgical management of musculoskeletal complaints. Currently a team physician for the Chicago Bears (NFL) and US Soccer Men's National Team.

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...

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...

Jeffrey M Panzer

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Family physician at Erie Family Health Center.

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.

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Health Equity

Our vision is to make Northwestern, our communities, all communities, our lives and the world a better place — with everyone having the chance and responsibility for reaching their own pinnacle of health

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