2024 Summer CME

Sara Oberhelman-Eaton, MD, CLC, NABBLM-C, FAAFP

Assistant Professor of Family Medicine; MCASOM FM Core Clerkship Director, Mayo Clinic

Ellise Braveheart, DNP, FNP-C

Family Nurse Practitioner, Center for American Indian Resources, Fond du Lac Reservation Human Services Division

Braveheart is a family nurse practitioner at the Center for American Indian Resources (CAIR) clinic located in Duluth, Minnesota. Before becoming a primary care provider, Braveheart has worked with the American Indian/Alaskan Native population for the past eight years with Indian Health Services, Phoenix Indian Medical Center, and then in Tribal health care with Fond du Lac Human Services Division located in Cloquet, Minnesota. Braveheart graduated from The College of Saint Scholastica with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as a family nurse practitioner in May of 2022. Braveheart is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and practices traditional cultural and spiritual beliefs as accustomed to the Ojibway culture. As a Native American woman in health care, Braveheart has worked extensively within the American Indian/Alaskan Native community to help patients with their medical needs and meet them where they’re ready to engage.

Chris Davis, FNP

Clinic Coordinator, Center for American Indian Resources, Fond du Lac Reservation Human Services Division

Davis is an enrolled member at the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where she serves as a family nurse practitioner and Health Services Associate Director for their Human Services Division. She began her career with her tribe over 30 years ago as a receptionist and Community Health Representative and has transitioned into many expanded nursing roles and management positions as her nursing education goals were achieved. She is passionate about the health care provided to her community and a strong advocate for patients and their access to health care. Her role as an administrator helps to develop guidelines to help combat the health disparities and social determinants of health we see in our patients to improve their health outcomes.

Ryan Dunkley, MD

Family Physician, Center for American Indian Resources, Fond du Lac Reservation Human Services Division

Dunkley grew up in Hinckley, Minnesota, near District III of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, where his father is a member. He completed undergraduate studies at Saint John’s University and Medical School at the University of Minnesota, starting at the Duluth campus, and his residency training at Cascades East Family Medicine Residency in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Since graduating in 2023, Dunkley has been working as a primary care provider at the Center for American Indian Resources in Duluth, where he sees patients in clinic. His group also rounds on their patients when they are admitted to Saint Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, as well as Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet.

Mary J. Owen, MD, Tlingit

Associate Dean of Native American Health; Director, Center of American Indian and Minority Health; Associate Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, University of Minnesota Medical School

Owen is a member of the Auk Kwaan Tribe of the Tlingit people. On graduation from the University of Minnesota Medical School and Family Practice Residency Program, she returned home to work for her tribal community in Juneau, Alaska. In 2014, after eleven years of full-scope family medicine, she returned to the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth as the Director of the Center of American Indian and Minority Health (CAIMH). She is the Associate Dean of Native American Health for the medical school and she continues to provide clinical care at the Center of American Indian Resources in Duluth. She is the immediate past president of the Association of American Indian Physicians.

Jeremiah Eisenschenk, MD

Division Chair, Hospital Specialties; Director Weight Management, Essentia Health

Eisenschenk is a graduate of University of Minnesota Medical School and St. John’s Family Medicine Residency. He is board certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine and practices both for Essentia Health – Brainerd, where he is also Division Chair of Hospital Medicine at St. Joe’s Hospital. He is the co-founder of Essentia Health – Brainerd Weight Management Department and Lakes Area Low-Carb Conference, the first low-carb conference in Minnesota. He was recognized as a “Top Doc” in Family Medicine by Minnesota Monthly Magazine in 2019 and quoted by DietDoctor.com on his clinical approach to low-carb medicine. He is a guest lecturer at University of Minnesota Medical School.

Jane Pederson, MD, MS

Chief Medical Quality Officer, Stratis Health

Serving as the Chief Medical Quality Officer at Stratis Health has allowed Pederson to work toward the goal of transforming health care and our communities into places where everyone will be treated with respect and without bias due to age. Pederson believes no one should regret waking up a day older. Pederson went to medical school and did her residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota. Her Master of Science is also from the University of Minnesota in Health Services Research and Policy. In 2018-19, Pederson was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, working with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). She currently co-chairs the public policy committee for the Minnesota Board on Aging.

Sandy Turbes, MD, CMD

Physician; Certified Nursing Home Medical Director, Genevive

Turbes is a family physician who cares for older adults in skilled nursing and assisted living settings with Genevive, and is a certified medical director for three skilled nursing facilities in Minnesota. She is active in MAGIC, the Minnesota Association of Geriatrics-Inspired Clinicians—Minnesota’s chapter of two national geriatrics associations: AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-term Care Medicine and the American Geriatrics Society. She currently serves as secretary/treasurer on the MAGIC board of directors and edits MAGIC’s quarterly clinical newsletter. She also serves on Minnesota’s Long COVID Guiding Council, convened by MDH and Stratis Health.