Faculty and Program Administration

Alan I. Leibowitz, MD, FACP, Chief Academic Officer in Medical Education at Good Samaritan, was formerly our Program Director since 1989. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Prior to that, he served as Dean for Student Affairs at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa and is currently Professor of Clinical Medicine and Associate Head, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine.

 Cheryl O'Malley, MD, FACP, is Program Director in the department of Internal Medicine. Dr. O’Malley is a native of Phoenix and left only shortly to complete her bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Notre Dame in 1994.  She returned to Arizona to receive her M.D. from the University of Arizona in 1999 and then entered the Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program at Good Samaritan and Phoenix Children’s Hospital.  She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. During her residency, she served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics.   In 2003, she joined the faculty at both Phoenix Children’s and Good Samaritan and currently is our Program Director in Internal Medicine.  She is actively involved with the medical students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix campus, where she is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine. Most days, you will find her attending on the inpatient medicine wards and in both Internal Medicine and Pediatric clinics.  She also sees children at the St. Vincent de Paul clinic.   Her primary focus is inpatient adult medicine, resident education, the American College of Physicians, and faculty development programs.  If you come to her house for journal club or a “craft night” you will see that she loves home improvement shows and spending time with her family.

Mary Ellen Dirlam, MD, PhD, MS, serves as Medical Director of the Internal Medicine Center at Good Samaritan , also serves as an Associate Director of Internal Medicine. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from Arizona State University and her master's degree in Clinical Research Design and Medical Biostatistics from the University of Michigan. She holds a faculty appointment at the University of Arizona as Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine.

Richard Gerkin, MD, MS is a clinical faculty member in the Department of Medicine.  He has a faculty appointment at the University of Arizona as Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine.  He received his master's degree in Clinical Research Design and Medical Biostatistics from the University of Michigan.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Medical Toxicology.  He was formerly the Medical Director of the Phoenix Fire Department Health Center.  He currently teaches evidence-based medicine, participates in journal clubs of most of the residency and fellowship training programs, runs the research rotation for 2^nd year medical residents, and offers support to investigators with study design and statistical analysis.  His research interests include neuroimaging in Alzheimer’s Disease and endothelial dysfunction.  His other interests include karaoke, military strategy, chess, apologetics, spinning and video/music production.   

Donna Holland, MD, is the Program Director of the Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program.  A native Texan, Dr. Holland received her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston in 1992.  She came to Phoenix to complete residency training in the Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program at Good Samaritan, and has never made it back to Texas.  She is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics.  She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University Of Arizona College Of Medicine and directs the Combined Medicine/Pediatrics fourth year clinical rotation for medical students.  She is an Associate Program Director for the Pediatrics Residency Program affiliated with Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Maricopa Medical Center.  She is very involved in resident education, junior faculty development projects, and community outreach.

Harvey Hsu, MD, is a clinical faculty member in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Residency Medical Informatics Department. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine.  Dr. Hsu originally moved to Phoenix in 1974, then went to the University of Washington for his undergraduate years.  After graduating with a degree in Computer Science he attended medical school at St. Louis University.  He completed his residency at Good Samaritan in 1999 and has been a faculty member since.  Current projects involve web site design, palm pilot programming, and Microsoft Access database programming.  The most exciting project he is working on currently is implementing the Electronic Health Record system in the outpatient setting. 

Michelle Huddleston, MD, is an Associate Program Director of the Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. A native of North Carolina, Dr. Huddleston received her bachelor’s degree in Biology at East Carolina University in 1990 and remained at East Carolina to receive her Doctorate of Medicine in 1995. She then traveled to Phoenix, Arizona as a newlywed with her husband, Sam.  Michelle completed residency training in the Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center and Phoenix Children’s Hospital in 1999. She joined the faculty at both Phoenix Children’s and Good Samaritan where she currently directs the Adolescent Program.  Along with Dr. Randy Christensen, she staffs the Crews‘n Health Mobile, a mobile van that provides medical care for homeless adolescents. Her care for the homeless extends to a younger population at the Thomas J. Pappas Elementary School, a school-based medical clinic for homeless youth.  Her primary focus is adolescent healthcare and resident education. Outside of work she enjoys scrapbooking, rubberstamping, cooking and spending time with her family.

Emily Mallin, MD is an Academic Hospitalist in the Department of  Internal Medicine. She was born and raised in Phoenix, but has traveled far and wide in pursuit of her medical education.  Starting in Tucson, she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Arizona.  She then moved to New York where she completed a post-baccalaureate premedical program from Columbia University.  She graduated medical school from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel in 2004, before returning to Phoenix to complete her residency and chief resident year in Internal Medicine at Good Samaritan.  She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and loves that she gets to teach medical students and residents for a living.  Her other loves include travel and languages, skiing, and hearing her daughter laugh.  

Peter P. McKellar, MD, FACP has been an Associate Director of the program since 1977.  He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. His interests are in learning and teaching all areas of clinical medicine.

Jayne Peterson, MD, FACP is Director of the Good Samaritan Internal Medicine Residents' Outpatient Clinic. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology at Arizona State University and medical degree at the University of Arizona. She did her Internal Medicine residency at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, is an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Program and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Arizona. Her passion is to teach ambulatory medicine and to care for the underserved. She feels fortunate to have the perfect job that allows her to develop the ambulatory curriculum for our Internal Medicine residents and work with medical students during their Internal Medicine Outpatient rotations in a clinical setting which cares for the less fortunate.  She volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul Free Clinic. Current projects include participation in the Arizona Diabetes Initiative which is working to improve Diabetes outcomes in our state, Internal Medicine faculty development and teaching residents about the Quality Improvement process.

Gary H. Salzman, MD, serves as Director of Geriatric Education and Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine, and is a Certified Medical Director for Long Term Care and a Certified Clinical Densitometrist. He divides his time between clinical practice, education of residents and fellows, and serving as Medical Director of an Alzheimer's Assisted Living Facility and a Home Health Care agency. His clinical areas of interest include osteoporosis, Alzheimer's Disease and pressure ulcers. He was recently awarded Geriatrician of the Year by the Arizona Geriatrics Society.

Brenda Shinar, MD, is Director of the Preliminary Medicine Residency Program and an Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Program. She received her MD from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in 1997, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Good Samaritan in 2000. She served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine from 2000-2001, and then joined the faculty as an Academic Hospitalist. She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Arizona and is board certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Shinar enjoys reading, playing the violin, and anything to do with Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dogs. She grew up in the Phoenix area and loves living in the southwest where she resides with her husband, Ron, and their dog, Teddy.

Heather Bartz, DO is an Assistant Program Director in Internal Medicine.  Dr. Bartz received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Davis in 1997.  She ventured from Northern California to the Midwest for medical school and graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2002.  Many of her medical school clinical rotations were in Phoenix and she fell in love with Arizona as well as the Med-Peds program.  In 2006, she completed the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program at Banner Good Samaritan/Phoenix Children’s/Maricopa Medical Center.  During her 4^th year of residency she served as Med/Peds Chief Resident and loved being chief so much she served as an out of training chief resident for both the Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Programs..  In July of 2007, she joined the Internal Medicine/Med-Peds faculty at Good Samaritan/Phoenix Children’s Hospital.  You will find her in many places including the adult medicine inpatient wards and the outpatient medicine, pediatric and adolescent clinics.  Outside of work she enjoys sprint distance triathlons, hiking, and spending time with her husband and 2 Jack Russell Terriers.

Sara C. Stimson, MD is an Assistant Program Director in Internal Medicine. Dr. Stimson received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas in 1996. After teaching high school biology and coaching three sports for a brief stent she travelled to Houston to complete her medical school training at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in 2002.  The Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program in Phoenix was the main draw out of Texas and she completed her combined training at the the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Program at Banner Good Samaritan/Phoenix Children's/Maricopa Medical Center in 2006.  Her love for teaching continued as a combined Internal Medicine/Pediatric Chief Resident which she completed in 2007.  She now has joined the Internal Medicine/Med-Peds faculty at Banner Good Samaritan/Phoenix Children's Hospital where she spends time in both the outpatient and inpatient settings and continues to remain dedicated to the growth and development of young physicians and medical students.  Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her partner, 2 dogs and cat, listening to music and hiking.

David Carl Houghton, MD  Dr Houghton grew up in the beach communities of Orange County, California. He graduated from the University of California-Irvine with a BS in biology in 1992 after serving for two years as a missionary in the Spanish-speaking towns of the Rio Grande Valley. He was then commissioned as an officer in the US Public Health Service and attended medical school at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.  After receiving his MD degree in 1996, he completed a Med-Peds residency at Good Sam/Phoenix Children’s, serving as pediatric chief resident from 1999-2000. Since then he has practiced full spectrum primary care for the underserved in the Salt Lake City area, frontier emergency medicine in arctic Alaska, and community hospital medicine/critical care at Phoenix Indian Medical Center.  He served in the National Health Service Corps program for disaster preparedness and is now part of the Air Force Reserve’s aerospace medicine program.  He has served as medical school faculty for the University of Utah and currently teaches at the University of Arizona.  He engages part-time in pediatric urgent care for Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Good Night Pediatrics, as well as inpatient/nursery care at Banner Cardon Children’s Hospital.  In addition to working full-time as an Academic Hospitalist on Good Sam’s inpatient teaching service, he is involved with Banner’s critical care telemedicine program.  He and his wife stay busy raising four teenagers.  He enjoys outdoor activities, photography and video production.

Cori Norgaard, DO

Veterans Affairs Medical Center

VAMC Hospitalist Physicians

Ruth Franks, MD  Ruth Franks, M.D. is an Associate Program Director (APD) of the combined BGSMC and VA Medical Center residency program at the VA Medical Center where she is also a faculty hospitalist.  She is board certified in Internal Medicine.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona in Molecular and Cellular Biology and then attended the University of Arizona for her medical school training which she completed in 2004.  She moved to Phoenix to complete her internal medicine residency in 2007 at BGSMC and the VA.  Her love of teaching residents and students was obvious when she accepted a position to be one of the Junior Faculty/Chief Resident of the same program from 2007-2008.  In July 2008 she accepted a position as a faculty hospitalist and APD for the VA.  She was born and raised in Arizona and has truly found a home here in her work and her play.  She loves distance runs on the Phoenix Mountain Preserve with her young son and husband, entertaining family and friends at her home, skiing (water and snow), and playing softball.

 Christopher Kurtz, M.D.  Christopher Kurtz, M.D. is co-director of the Program at the VA Medical Center. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1995 with a degree in molecular and cellular biology. He received his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1999; while there he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He completed his residency in internal medicine at BGSMC/VA hospital in 2002. When not working hard to educate future physicians he enjoys world travel, eating at one of the many wonderful restaurants in the Phoenix area, and satisfying his inner artist by playing the piano and guitar.

Darren Deering, D.O.  After receiving his Bachelors of Science degree from Truman State University in 1995, Dr. Deering attended the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, Missouri.  Following graduation from K.C.O.M. in 1999, he completed a Traditional Rotating Osteopathic Internship in Long Beach, California.  He then completed a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center & Phoenix Children’s Hospital.   During his last year of residency, he served as a Chief Resident in the combined Med/Peds program.  Dr. Deering’s primary interest is in resident and medical student education and he currently serves as an Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency at the VA Medical Center. In addition to teaching, he enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants and spending time with his family and friends.

Michael Garrett, M.D.  Dr. Garrett went to medical school at the University of Washington in Seattle, and did his medical residency training at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix. He is board certified and recertified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. When he is not reading journals, he is on the golf course struggling to break 100, on his bike (happy he lives in a city as flat as Phoenix), in his workshop wondering why the parts aren’t going together, or in the kitchen trying to perfect another brownie recipe.

Rebecca Hawkins, M.D.  Rebecca Hawkins, M.D. attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and remained there for her residency training. In 1981 she relocated to Phoenix and was a teaching attending at Maricopa Medical Center, where she stayed for two years before joining the teaching staff at the Carl T. Hayden VAMC. She holds a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine position with the University of Arizona. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. In addition to her love of working with medical students and residents, her special interest is in end-of-life care as well as the care of our women veterans. Dr. Hawkins enjoys skiing, scuba diving, exploring our beautiful state, gardening and making jewelry.

Sangita Cherukuri, DO  Sangita Cherukuri, DO is a faculty hospitalist from Cleveland, Ohio. She received her degree in Biology from The Ohio State University in 1999. She then received her DO from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2004. Dr. Cherukuri began her training at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh where she completed her Osteopathic Internship in 2005. She then came to Phoenix to run away from the snow, and completed her Internal Medicine Residency at BGSMC/Phoenix VA in 2008. In addition to teaching residents and medical students, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.

 Paul Duntley, M.D.  Dr. Duntley is a native of New York State. He attended the University of Dallas and then S.U.N.Y. Buffalo for Medical School. He relocated to sunny Arizona for residency and a chief year at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. He then worked for 9 years as a primary care Internist with an emphasis on Geriatrics in Sun City, Arizona. He is board certified in Internal Medicine. He has been at the Phoenix Veterans Hospital for 5 years as a teaching attending with some part-time duties participating in some of the numerous research projects available at the VA. He enjoys woodworking and numerous outdoors activities. He is also a Flight Surgeon in the Air Force Reserves.

James V. Felicetta, MD, is Chief of the Medical Service at the Carl T. Hayden Phoenix VA Medical Center and is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Arizona. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, and Geriatrics. 

Kim Martinez, MD   Dr. Martinez grew up in the Atlanta area, earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech, and graduated from the Medical College of Georgia as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.  He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the combined Good Samaritan/Phoenix VA Program in 1988 and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Clinical experience has included provision of medical services at the Arizona State Hospital; attending in both outpatient (Primary Care Clinics, Immunodeficiency Clinic) and inpatient (ward attending) settings at the Carl Hayden VAMC; and partnership in private practice in Scottsdale with emphasis on HIV medicine. He returned to the VA as a full-time teaching hospitalist in December 2005.  Outside interests include cycling and travel, and, whenever possible, a mixture of the two.

Maricella Moffitt, MD  Dr. Moffitt completed medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in 1986. She completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas in Houston in 1989 and was selected as a chief resident in 1990. She joined the faculty in the Department of Medicine at Maricopa Integrated Health System in June of 1990 and remained there until 2005. She has held many academic and administrative positions including: Clerkship Director, Associated Program Director in Internal Medicine Residency, Co-Program Director Med-Peds Residency, and Director of Medical Education/Academic Affairs. During her tenure at MIHS she was elected president of the Medical Staff and served as a medical staff officer from 1998-2003. She has received numerous teaching and service awards. Currently, she is the Director of the Doctoring Curriculum at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. She hold the Academic rank of Associate Professor of Medicine.  

Tuberculosis and Public Health have always been interests. Dr. Moffitt obtained a Masters in Public Health from the University of Arizona in the Charter Class 1993-1994. As part of an internship project she responded to an RFP from the CDC. She was subsequently funded over one million dollars for a five year project in clinical trials of new methods for the treatment of Tuberculosis, in addition she participated in the CDC’s Tuberculosis Trials Consortium (TBTC.)

Clinically she has practiced and taught Internal Medicine as faculty at Maricopa Integrated Health System and now at the Carl T. Hayden VA in Phoenix. She continued to provide TB care at Maricopa County Public Health Tuberculosis Control which she had done for 16 years leaving in 2006 to join the faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. She also served as the Chief Medical Officer, TB Control and as Deputy State Tuberculosis Control Officer.

M. Keith Piatt, MD, is Associate Chief of Staff for Ambulatory Care at the VA Medical Center and is board-certified in Internal Medicine.

Critical Care Faculty

Robert A. Raschke, MD, MS, Director of Critical Care Services at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.  He holds a faculty appointment at the University of Arizona as Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine. He too, received his master's degree from the University of Michigan in Clinical Research Design and Medical Biostatistics. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Thomas M. Bajo, MD, is Associate Director of Critical Care Services at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center and a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Infectious Disease.

Rebecca Legg, MD, is a staff intensivist. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Gregory Chu, MD, is a staff intensivist. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Jennifer O'Hea, MD, is a staff intensivist. She is board-certified in Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

John Khazin, MD is a staff intensivist.

Ricki Long, MD is a staff intensivist

David Morro, MD is a staff intensivist.

Huw Owen-Reece, MD is a staff intensivist.

Maria P. Rocha, MD, is a staff intensivist at the VA Medical Center. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Clement Singarajah, MD, is Director of Critical Care at the VA Medical Center. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Jr Faculty  2008-2009

Lila Ammouri, MD

Roxanne GarciaOrr, MD

Allison Peckumn, DO

Colleen Smith, MD

Fellowship Directors

Cardiology

Ken Desser, MD - BGSMC 
Robert Halligan, MD -VAMC

Interventional Cardiology

Nathan Laufer, MD - BGSMC
Timothy Byrne, DO - BGSMC

Pulmonary Medicine

David Baratz, MD - BGSMC
Richard Robbins, MD - VAMC

Gastroenterology

Paul Berggreen, MD - BGSMC 
Francisco Ramirez, MD - VAMC 

Geriatrics

Gary Salzman, MD - BGSMC

Endocrinology 

Sylvia Vela, MD - VAMC

Medical Toxicology

Steve Curry, MD - BGSMC