Ben Brown, M.D., ABIHM
Director, Integrative Medicine Fellowship

Dr. Brown graduated from UCSF medical school in 1992 and from the family medicine residency program in Santa Rosa in 1995. While in medical school he founded and directed an international non-profit (planet care/ghap www.ghap.org) to help serve the refugees along the Thai-Burma border and has done more then 20 medical missions to the area.

Following residency, he worked as a rural family doctor in Point Reyes, CA, where in addition to doing full spectrum family medicine, he started a community wellness program. During these 6 years he also worked with Dean Ornish MD and the Program for Reversing Heart Disease as one of the lead doctors on the life-style educational retreats.

In 2001 he took a sabbatical year to study Ayurveda, became board certified in Holistic Medicine, wrote articles on wellness, cultural medicine, life-style change and began to translate the vast information in the many healing and wisdom traditions into a principle- based system of care.

In 2002, he became the Medical Director for Southwest Community Health Center and then Chief Medical Officer as they grew from one to five clinics and grew their patient visits by more then 500% in 5 years. He was a founding member of the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Consortium. He became part of the residency faculty in 2007 and is the director of global medicine and integrative medicine.

His passions in medicine are health care for the underserved, principle based medicine (taking the best for this client from the variety of integrative options), global medicine, resident wellness, delivery system design, supporting and creating positive transformational change, and Simple Wellness: easy ways to help people find fulfillment, change behavior and maintain health or become healthy. His passions outside medicine are almost anything outdoors: Biking, Hiking, Skiing, Mountain Retreats; Laughing with his daughter Shayla, Juggling, Woodcarving, Writing, Photography, Music, Cartooning, and living in the now.

Wendy Kohatsu, M.D.
Director, Integrative Medicine Fellowship

Wendy Kohatsu, M.D. received her medical degree from UCLA in 1994, and completed her residency in family and community medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital. She graduated as one of the inaugural fellows in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, under the direction of Dr. Andrew Weil in 1999.

She has served on the faculty at East Tennessee State University, working with a rural, underserved community, and then as Co-Director for the Integrative Family Medicine Fellowship at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Kohatsu’s interests are the integration of primary care with nutrition, lifestyle enhancement, mind-body therapies, and complementary and alternative therapies such as botanical and manual medicine. She is the editor and author of the book Complementary and Alternative Medicine Secrets, published in 2002.

Dr Kohatsu also received her professional culinary degree from the Oregon Culinary Institute in 2008 and teaches healthy cooking classes at local wellness centers, national conferences, and in the humble space of her home kitchen for friends. Dr. Kohatsu’s dream is to create an interactive TEACHING KITCHEN to cook with, educate, and inspire people to not only eat healthier, but to use food as medicine, and savor life.

She is thrilled to serve as Director of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency program in Santa Rosa, CA.

Walt Mills, M.D.
Associate Residency Program Director

Walt Mills, M.D. is a meditation instructor and was certified as an Ayurvedic affiliate physician in 1989 and board certified in Holistic Integrative Medicine in 2008 . He co-founded the Northern California Center for Well Being in 1996, has consulted for Integrative Medicine Centers, is academic faculty for the American Association of Integrative Holistic Medicine, and Director for Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the Santa Rosa Kaiser Medical Center. Walt loves his family. His passion for the residency is rooted in the vision that family medicine, incorporating integrative holistic medicine and the medical home, is transforming itself to be the centerpiece for 21st century medicine.

Sunjya K. Schweig, M.D.

Sunjya K. Schweig, MD, is a Bay Area native. Born and raised in Point Reyes, he attended UC Berkeley for his undergraduate work in medical anthropology and then spent a year in Ecuador working with both western physicians and indigenous healers.

Dr. Schweig was a leader in alternative medicine education and research at The University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He graduated medical school with honors and then completed his family medicine residency at the UCSF Santa Rosa Family Practice Residency Program.

During his time at the Residency Program, Dr Schweig always dreamed of building more integrative medicine opportunities. As part of this goal he joined the Residency as Faculty and in 2008 helped found the Integrative Medicine Fellowship and Consultation Clinic. In addition, Dr Schweig sees patients in his Petaluma, CA, private practice specializing in Integrative Medicine.

Dr Schweig lives in Sonoma County with his wife and their two young children. They all prize healthy organic gluten free eating, music, and just being together in beautiful natural settings.

Current Fellow

Connie Earl, D.O.
Fellow, Integrative Medicine

Connie Earl, D.O. received her DO degree from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed her residency training in Family Medicine at Santa Rosa in 2010. Connie has worked as a doula, providing labor support and childbirth education to mothers and families; she organized national workshops on leadership, activism in medicine and integrative health care; and believes in the power of community. Connie's professional passions include holism, reproductive health care, traditional healing modalities, natural childbirth and pregnancy, and addressing health care disparities. To balance her overachiever tendencies, she loves playing outdoors with her brilliant husband and son, card games and crosswords, cooking, big dinner parties, playing her conga drums poorly and sleeping in with her cat.

Past Fellows

Fasih A. Hameed, M.D., ABIHM
Fellow, Integrative Medicine 2008-2009

Fasih was the first fellow and was instrumental in getting the integrative clinic started. He is currently Director of Integrative Services, Petaluma Health Center, Petaluma, CA and continues to precept in integrative clinic.

Fasih was born and raised in New Jersey, but always knew he was headed West. After completing medical school in New Orleans, Fasih followed his heart to Santa Rosa, where he helped create the Integrative Medicine Fellowship program. He then stayed on as the first IM4U fellow, where he focused on acupuncture, herbal and nutritional medicine, osteopathic manipulation, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. Keeping with the mission of the Fellowship, upon graduation, Fasih was recruited to the Petaluma Health Center, a local FQHC, to create new programs in Integrative Medicine and Wellness for their underserved population. He has since established a new acupuncture clinic, group acupuncture clinic, Integrative Medicine consultation clinic, integrative chronic pain group, planted a demonstration garden and is engaged in the process of designing a new Petaluma community wellness center. True to the Integrative model, he also has a full-scope family practice, including inpatient obstetrics and medicine. Fasih still enjoys teaching at the residency, on occasion, and is active within the national movement of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved.

Onna Lo M.D.
Fellow, Integrative Medicine 2009-2010

Onna was instrumental in pioneering life-style group visits during her fellowship. She is now working with Asian Health Services in Oakland CA, serving underserved Asian immigrant communities in the East Bay, providing primary care with integrative medicine, acupuncture, manual medicine and implementing group visit models in her clinic which was her focused project while at Santa Rosa. On her free time, she is also teaching prenatal yoga.

Future Fellows

Rachel Friedman M.D.