SARAH BABINEAU, M.D.                                                               
Faculty Physician - First Hill Pronouns: (She, Her, Hers)

Sarah, a daughter and granddaughter of family physicians, was born and raised in New England. She went to college and medical school at Brown University before making the big leap across the country to Seattle. Sarah completed her residency and a geriatrics fellowship at Swedish Family Medicine First Hill before entering the “real world” for a while where she worked as a family doctor at Swedish Physicians on Queen Anne and a geriatrician at Providence Elderplace.

Sarah is very happy to be back at the residency as faculty since May 2009. In addition she has continued her work as home visit geriatrician at Elderplace. Her interests include geriatrics, palliative medicine, behavioral health, and women’s health. When she’s not at work she enjoys spending time with her daughter, Eva, and with friends, dancing ballet, picking apples, and eating ice cream.

Joe Breuner, M.D.                                                                     
Faculty Physician - DFM Pronouns: (He, Him, His)

Joe is a grandson of a family physician and doctor for the Pendleton Roundup. He majored in Government at Harvard and went to medical school in sunny San Diego.

After residency at the University of Washington in Seattle, he spent a year caring for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.  Upon his return, he chose a career as a community clinic provider at the 45th St Clinic and served as medical director until 1999. He came to Swedish Family Medicine to teach in 2000 and really enjoys practicing and teaching medicine. He sees patients at Downtown Family Medicine, a small clinic caring for the underserved in downtown Seattle. His clinical interests are ultrasound, addiction medicine, and procedural training.

He completed fellowships in Faculty Development and Genetics in Primary Care.

In 2003, he started the obstetrics fellowship, which provides advanced training in operative obstetrics to family physicians. The fellowship has ninety graduates and roughly 80% are currently doing cesarean sections in diverse practice locations all across the country. In 2021 he handed off the ob fellowship to Claire Thomson and it thrives under her leadership.

He was the initial prescriber for Downtown Family Medicine’s low barrier buprenorphine program. This began in 2017 and has grown to a program serving more than 50 clients a week. In recent years, we have added Hep C treatment with over 200 patients treated. New directions include group visits for substance using moms, treating hep b in pregnancy and injectable buprenorphine.

He has four kids, who range in age from 23 to 30. He remains gratified that they continue to join him for adventures. His interests are backpacking, music, kayaking, cycling, and scuba diving. He hopes to get the chance to meet you!

Ben Davis, M.D.                                                                   
Faculty Physician - First Hill                                                                                                                                                         & Program Director                                                                                                                                                First Hill                                                                                                                                                  Pronouns:                                                                                                                                                     (He, Him, His)                                       

Curricular Responsibilities: Refugee Health, Narrative Medicine, Anti-racism

Ben spent his childhood being seasoned by the Last Frontier in Alaska. After his dreams of playing in the NBA were dashed in the second grade, he moved on to a slightly more realistic and much more fulfilling goal of becoming a Family Physician. He moved from Alaska down to Seattle in 2003 where he attended the University of Washington for his undergraduate and medical school work. Ben completed his medical training at Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency in 2015 at the DFM site and as a resident Program Lead.

In the fall of 2015, Ben joined as faculty at Swedish First Hill. His clinical and curricular interests include narrative medicine and refugee and asylee health. He is a firm believer that medicine should be fun and that the best learning environment is one where people can feel comfortably vulnerable. Outside of the clinical settings, Ben enjoys sports, card/board/video games, cooking (but not cleaning), and singing/playing in the residency band "Plan B".

Minoo D’Cruz, M.D. Faculty Physician - First Hill Pronouns: (She, Her, Hers)

Minoo grew up in the sunny Middle East and relished her upbringing as a "third culture kid" at an international school where she learned many lessons embracing different perspectives and ways of life. She completed her undergraduate, medical school and Family Medicine residency as chief resident at Brown University. Along the way, following clinical experiences in rural Nepal and Kenya, she developed a passion for full-spectrum family medicine and maternal child health. After residency, she completed the Advanced OB Fellowship here at Swedish First Hill Family Medicine before practicing as a community FMOB in Edmonds, WA for two years.

She is thrilled to return to Swedish First Hill Family Medicine as faculty this year helping support the OB, reproductive health and maternal child health curriculum, motivated by the pursuit of just and equitable care for under resourced communities.

Outside of work, Minoo enjoys traveling with her husband and two boys, embracing new cuisines and warm summer days.

Laura Diamond, M.D. Faculty Physician - First Hill & Associate Director of Operations - First Hill Pronouns: (She, Her, Hers)

Laura Diamond was born and raised in Florida. She first visited the state of Washington during medical school and was immediately drawn in by the natural beauty and Pacific Northwest culture. She received her medical degree from Florida State University College of Medicine and moved to Seattle, WA to complete her residency training at Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency.

After graduation she worked at an FQHC and Critical Access Hospital in Kodiak, AK. Her interests in broad scope practice and medical education then led her to Port Angeles, WA where she worked at a rural FQHC affiliated with the University of Washington and Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency.

She was thrilled at the opportunity to return “home” to Swedish First Hill in 2018 and now serves as the clinic medical director. Laura values providing comprehensive care to individuals across their lifespan. Her interests include women’s health, mental health, addiction medicine, dermoscopy, practice management and health equity. Outside of medicine you will find Laura cooking, running, or exploring the outdoors with friends and family.

Mark Johnson, M.D.                                                                   
Faculty Physician - Ballard                                                                                                                                                          & Residency Site Director                                                                                                                                                 Pronouns:                                                                                                                                                                             (He, Him, His)

On a barstool somewhere in Wisconsin an old dairy farmer turned to Mark and said, "no wonder you ain't happy son.  You moved to Chicago and you work in a company that makes fake cheese!" Those profound words spurred Mark's departure from a career developing fat substitutes at Kraft Foods to a year of service with AmeriCorps and the Medically Underserved of Utah.

While running a childhood immunization program in rural Utah, Mark enjoyed the challenge of discussing vaccines with Navajo elders, undocumented farm workers and the occasional dad passing through the grocery store with a shotgun.  After finishing AmeriCorps, Mark enrolled at the Medical College of Wisconsin and discovered family medicine.

He graduated from the Swedish Family Medicine residency in 2004 and shortly thereafter began working with Doctors Without Borders setting up malaria, HIV, TB clinics in Myanmar.  Mark began as faculty in 2007. He is now the residency site director for the Ballard Community Health clinic. His clinical interests are tropical medicine, political advocacy, cross-cultural communication, and sports medicine.  Away from the hospital, he enjoys cycling, skiing, kayaking, and soccer as ways to compensate for his over-indulgence of unprocessed, hand-made cheese.

Peter Kuhn, M.D.                                                                     
Faculty Physician - First Hill Pronouns: (He, Him, His)

Peter was raised outside of Chicago before traveling north to Milwaukee for his undergraduate studies in Biomedical Sciences at Marquette University. He then indulged in four more years of fried cheese curds while attending medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin. As a Midwesterner, he was lured by the not-so-flat PNW and moved west to complete his training at Swedish First Hill Family Medicine. He was privileged to join the faculty in October 2019 and is grateful for this opportunity to help train our passionate residents.

His curricular roles include faculty lead on the inpatient service (FMS) and HIV Area of Concentration. His specific clinical interests include comprehensive LGBTQ+ health including gender affirming care and HIV prevention and treatment in the primary care setting. When not at work, Peter enjoys a night of karaoke, attending concerts/theatrical performances/drag shows, relaxing at a local coffee shop, and venturing out to the nearby mountains for a revitalizing hike.

Viet Nguyen, M.D. Faculty Physician - First Hill Pronouns: (She, Her, Hers)

Viet grew up in a Vietnamese restaurant in central California where her first jobs were in industrial kitchens. She went to college as a first generation college student at the University of California, Riverside. After helping her underinsured and linguistically marginalized family navigate the medical system, she pivoted from an interest in community organizing to pursue a career in medicine.

Despite being a California native, she decided to move to the East Coast, where she attended Harvard Medical School, weathered the snowpocalpyse and survived the green line. She returned to her family's tropical roots with a year-long Fulbright research stint in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Residency brought her to the University of Washington at Harborview Medical Center and the Pacific Northwest, where she learned to hike, bike, and ski. She served for 1 year at an FQHC with full spectrum family medicine and is grateful for the opportunity to pursue more resident teaching and to learn alongside our wonderful residents. Her clinical interests include health equity/anti-racism, improving patient-centered communication, and integrative medical care.

Her interests outside of medicine include being outdoors, cooking large amounts of food on short notice with creative use of ingredients, and listening to podcasts."

Carrie Rubenstein, M.D. Faculty Physician - First Hill & Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Director Pronouns: (She, Her, Hers)

Directing the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and being part of the Swedish Family Medicine - First Hill faculty gives me the opportunity to work with wonderful people in a city that I love. I enjoy caring for patients of all ages, but have a particular affinity for older adults. I am excited to share this passion as we train our family medicine residents and geriatric medicine fellows. In light of our rapidly aging population, understanding best practices in geriatric care is essential knowledge for the family physician. I grew up in New Jersey and went to college at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). I returned to my home state for medical school at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School - Rutgers University. There I was inspired and mentored by Dr. Jeff Brenner, a Swedish - First Hill graduate. Jeff has spent his remarkable career redesigning clinical care models to deliver better care at lower cost while serving under-resourced populations. Dr. Brenner advised me that there was no better place to train than Seattle if I wanted to become a family physician. Thus I ventured west. I did my residency here at Swedish-First Hill and stayed on to complete the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship. I practiced for eight years at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, a community health center in Seattle’s Central District, as a full-spectrum family physician. I embraced the opportunity to start a new residency clinic site in partnership with the Swedish - Cherry Hill Residency. I ran the clinic site for five years, working both as a physician at Carolyn Downs and as faculty at Swedish - Cherry Hill. I directed Swedish-Cherry Hill’s geriatrics curriculum and ran a geriatric assessment clinic. I am energized by working with residents and fellows and was delighted to return to Swedish-First Hill as the director of Swedish Geriatric Medicine Fellowship in 2014. Outside of work, I keep busy running, biking, and adventuring with my daughter Zelda and my husband Justin. We stay active outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, always looking for our next adventure.

Samuel Rennebohm, Ph.D                                                                                                                             Faculty Behavioral Health Scientist                                                                                                                           Pronouns:                                                                                                                         (He, Him, His)

Sam was born here at Swedish and grew up just a few miles from the hospital. He completed his undergraduate degree in Ethnic Studies at Columbia University and a Masters of Divinity at the Graduate Theological Union. After divinity school, Sam balanced a number of ministry roles, including grief and bereavement counseling, faith-based community organizing, and mentoring young adult service corps volunteers. While theology and spirituality provided some answers for Sam, they ultimately raised many more questions. Clinical psychology seemed to provide a disciplinary structure well suited for exploring those questions.

Sam completed his doctoral training in the School of Psychology, Family, and Community at Seattle Pacific University. As part of his doctoral training, Sam spent a year at the First Hill Residency as a Behavioral Health Practicum Student. He completed his Doctoral Internship at the VA Puget Sound-American Lake, with rotations in Primary Care Mental Health, PTSD treatment, and Couple/Family Therapy. He then completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Seattle VA in Couple and Family Health.

At the Residency Program, Sam serves as faculty lead for the Behavioral Health and Wellness curriculums. His clinical and scholarly interests include population based approaches to mental health, contextual behavioral science, brief acceptance and commitment interventions, and behavioral health consultation for families and romantic partners.

Outside of work, Sam likes to spend time with his partner and two children and their extended family, develop new routes for bike commuting, and follow Seattle municipal politics.

Kendall Shibuya, D.O. Faculty Physician – Ballard Pronouns: (She, Her,Hers)

Kendall grew up in the Seattle area and is grateful to continue living in the beautiful PNW. Besides a year living abroad in Japan, she has not strayed far from the Cascade Mountains, completing her undergraduate training at Whitman College, medical school training at Western University of Health Sciences COMP-Northwest, and residency at Swedish First Hill Family Medicine.

She joined the faculty at Swedish First Hill in October 2021 and sees patients at the Ballard Clinic site. She is honored to stay with this amazing residency program and work to develop osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) training opportunities for both MD and DO residents and establish a lifestyle medicine curriculum. In addition to OMT and lifestyle medicine, her clinical interests include maternal and child health, musculoskeletal medicine, preventative care, and chronic disease management. Her curricular roles include faculty lead for the Sports Medicine curriculum. Outside of medicine, Kendall likes to stay active with her husband and two boys, learn new skills in the garden and kitchen, and adventure in the mountains as often as possible.

John Stevens, M.D.                                                                                             Faculty Physician - Ballard & Associate Director of Curriculum                                                               Pronouns:                                                                                                                   (He, Him, His)

Dr. Stevens grew up (mostly) in the Pacific Northwest and is thrilled to continue to call it home. After completing undergraduate studies at Gonzaga University and a year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, he returned to Seattle to attend the University of Washington School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Swedish Family Medicine First Hill’s Downtown Public Health clinic site to pursue a passion for serving some of our most vulnerable community members.

After residency he briefly worked for a community health center network in Seattle before returning to Swedish in 2014 to join the faculty of the First Hill program. His clinical interests include addiction medicine, mental health care, preventative care, and chronic disease management. He loves sharing in the narrative of his patients both young and old.

His non-medical passions include spending time with his wife and 3 kids, performing improv comedy and playing games of all varieties. 

Claire Thomson, M.D.                                                                                                                                      Faculty Physician - First Hill & Advanced Obstetrics Fellowship Director                                                                                                                       Pronouns:                                                                                                                                 (She, Her, Hers)

Claire Thomson grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she stayed for her Undergraduate degree, Medical School and MPH in Health Care and Prevention, all completed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A mere eleven years later, she left Chapel Hill and headed north to Providence, Rhode Island to complete her residency at Brown Family Medicine. She so loved her time at Brown that she stayed on to complete her fellowship in Global and Maternal Child Health and Faculty Development, teaching and learning full-scope family medicine in Rhode Island and in Webuye, Kenya.

 She joined Swedish First Hill in January 2019, and is thrilled to be part of such a dedicated and fun community of family med docs. She started as the Advanced Obstetrics Fellowship Director in 2021. Her clinical interests include perinatal care and full-scope reproductive health; research interests include birth equity and FMOB mentorship. When not at work, she can be found chasing her toddler Kai, cooking with her husband Rob, hiking, reading novels, and paddleboarding.