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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

Anna Balabanova Shannahan

Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Anna Shannahan (nee Balabanova) is currently Associate Director of Education at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Northwestern.​She was born in Russia, continuing to speak fluent Russian, and spent much of her life in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As an athlete and figure skating coach who earned a US Figure Skating Association Gold Medal, she is passionate about diet, exercise, and helping others achieve their health goals. At the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern as a medical student, s...

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, ...

Deborah Smith Clements

Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Medical Education

Dr. Clements joined the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2013 as Chair of Family and Community Medicine and Program Director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. In this role, she sets the priorities and vision for family medicine at Northwestern and oversees the training of residents in three residency programs at multiple sites across the Chicagoland area. She is also responsible for the family medicine undergraduate medical education at Feinberg. Previously, she served as the Program Director for the University of Kansas Medical Center F...

Kiran Joshi

Clinical Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

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

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.

Jeffrey M Panzer

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Family physician at Erie Family Health Center.

Amy L Schroeder

Clinical Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Amy Schroeder specialized in Maternal and Family Care for 15 years at our Erie Humboldt Park location. Her current focus is on geriatric care. She received her BA at Washington University in St. Louis, completed her Premedical degree at University of Illinois at Chicago and received her MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago. She completed her residency at West Suburban Family Practice in Oak Park, IL. She is fluent in English and Spanish. 

Kristin E Abbott

Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Abbott is board certified in Family Medicine and Primary Care Sports Medicine. She sees patients at the Northwestern University Health Service in Evanston, IL and serves as the Medical Director of the clinic. This clinic serves only degree-seeking students at Northwestern University. She received her medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and completed her residency at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and fellowship training in Sports Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Abbott’s clinical interests include sports and exercise medicine, care of the female...

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).

Adiba N Khan

Instructor of Family and Community Medicine

Dr. Adiba Khan graduated from McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Lake Forest. During her residency training, she completed the Northwestern Medical Education Clinical Scholars program and served as chief resident.​ In addition to a strong interest in full spectrum family medicine, Dr. Khan has a special interest in women's health, reproductive health, and medical education.

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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