Gail Pokorney
Gail Pokorney, MD, FACP, is a board-certified general internist and the assistant program director based in Soldotna. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her primary care residency at University of California, San Francisco. She started dreaming about primary care in rural AK after hearing about Soldotna as a medical student, then solidified her interest in rural medicine with an IHS rotation in Gallup, NM while in residency. She came to CPIM after graduating in 2013 to cover a colleague’s one-year sabbatical…and she enjoyed the work and the practice so much that she never left.
During her decade in Soldotna, Dr. Pokorney has embraced the clinical adventures that come with managing a panel of complex primary care patients, interpreting cardiac stress tests, and pulling occasional night shifts on the hospitalist service, all while staying active as a member (and chief emeritus) of the CPH Medical Staff and the AK Chapter of the ACP. She is the site co-director for the IM core clerkship rotation at CPIM and the medical director for CPH’s Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation program. A passionate believer in the value that general internists bring to rural communities, she has been working since 2017 to develop an AK-based IM rural training program and is thrilled that the UW AK IM RRP is at last ready to launch.
Outside the office, Dr. Pokorney enjoys hiking, camping, playing the violin, attending community events, and reading novels (when she can stay awake for it). She and her husband Rob, who co-owns a local IT business, are parents to two high-spirited girls who keep them humble and on their toes.
Megan Roosen-Runge
Megan Roosen-Runge, MD MPH, is a board certified internal medicine physician and is the Soldotna-based rural site director for the UW AK IM Rural Residency Program. Originally from Whidbey Island, Washington, Dr. Roosen-Runge grew up in a rural setting and from an early age romanticized the concept of a small-town physician. She pursued undergraduate training in Biochemistry and Mathematics at the University of Puget Sound, then graduate training in public health at the University of Washington before completing her medical degree at Stanford University. She couples matched at the University of Washington in the categorical IM track (alongside her husband who is now a practicing anesthesiologist).
Initially, Dr. Roosen-Runge envisioned a future in critical care medicine as well as clinical education, until she spent four weeks rotating at the IM elective site in Soldotna during her third year of residency at which point her career trajectory forever changed. Immersion in broad-spectrum rural internal medicine opened her eyes to a different kind of primary care and she was completely enticed. After a wonderful chief residency year, the birth of her first child, and broadening her skill set with new knowledge in echocardiography interpretation and procedural training in endoscopy, she packed up her little family for the Alaskan Frontier.
Megan’s passion both personally and professionally comes from her relationships with people. She’s been known to wear her heart on her sleeve and strives to hold onto that quality as her career evolves. Her position in Soldotna continues to excite her as it encourages her to take a deep dive into the complexities of medical problem-solving that first attracted her to internal medicine.
She is currently the chair of the Central Peninsula Hospital Endoscopy Committee and training to be a regional Wellness Champion for the Alaska Chapter of the ACP.
Outside of her clinical work, she enjoys cooking, hiking, backpacking, skiing, traveling, gardening, spending time with family, puzzling and playing games. Her home life is a vibrant menagerie of joy and exuberance, with a toddler son and daughter, two cats, two dogs, and more than a handful of chickens.
John Bramante
Originally from the east coast, Dr. Bramante came to Alaska after completing IM training and chief residency at UW in 1993. He founded Peninsula Internal Medicine (PIM) with Dr. Bill Kelley at that time, not realizing he was embarking on a decades-long adventure. After 15 years of old school inpatient/outpatient work, PIM became more outpatient focused. Dr. Bramante enjoys managing medically complex patients and performing endoscopy and echocardiography. He also enjoys primary care IM and has many 25+ year patient relationships.
PIM started hosting UW IM residents in 1994 and Dr. Bramante has enjoyed teaching and sharing experiences with countless residents since then. Additionally he helped develop and maintain a grand rounds program at CPH over the years
Dr. Bramante’s family includes his wife Katie and their three grown daughters. They have maintained a kennel of sled dogs for many years and have enjoyed a rich Alaska life, skiing/running sled dogs in the winter and gardening in the summer. In addition, he has nurtured a nearly life-long passion for soccer, whether by playing it himself or coaching local teams, and he continues to enjoy the routine of hitting the squash courts after a day in clinic.
Kristin Mitchell
Dr. Mitchell fell in love with Alaska while earning her medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her residency in Primary Care Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, and came to Soldotna for a brief adventure that has lasted a quarter century.
In addition to her clinical practice at CPIM, Dr. Mitchell teaches third year medical students and is on the admissions committee for Alaska WWAMI School of Medical Education. She serves in leadership roles with the Alaska State Medical Association and The Alaska Chapter of the American College of Physicians.
She is board certified in both internal medicine and sleep medicine, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians for which she serves on national committees. She holds a certificate in Climate Change and Health and is pursuing a Masters Degree in Public Health. She enjoys the careful management of patients with complex medical problems and has special interests in sleep disorders and gender affirming care. She says, “I enjoy getting to know my patients and seeing them through some of the major health issues in their lives. I love the challenge of solving new medical mysteries every day, and of translating the arcane language of medicine into something patients can understand.”
When she is not practicing medicine, Dr. Mitchell enjoys rowing, hiking, traveling, cooking, and skiing with her rescue dogs.
Ken Steinberg
Kenneth Steinberg, M.D., is a board certified physician at the Chest Clinic at Harborview, director of the UW Medicine Residency Program and a UW professor of Medicine and Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.
Dr. Steinberg studies the natural history and epidemiology of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He believes that the secret of the care of the patient is caring for the patient.
Dr. Steinberg earned his M.D. at New York Medical College. He is board certified in both Pulmonary Disease and Internal Medicine. His clinical and research interests include management and care of patients with ARDS, epidemiology, pathophysiology and new treatment of severe respiratory failure and ARDS.
In his free time Dr. Steinberg enjoys family, gardening, boating, skiing, music and theater.
Anna Golob
Dr. Anna L Golob, MD, FACP, is a board-certified internal medicine physician, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and core faculty for the UW AK IM rural residency program. Dr. Golob grew up in rural central Washington state among a family of schoolteachers, where she developed her passion for primary care medicine after observing phenomenal family medicine physicians practicing at a local FQHC. She attended the University of Washington for her undergraduate degree, earning a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology, then stayed on to earn her M.D., graduating with honors, as well as her residency training, graduating from the primary care track and then serving as an ambulatory chief resident.
Combining her passions for primary care and graduate medical education, she then joined the clinician scholar faculty track within the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Washington in 2012. Her clinical practice is based at the VA Puget Sound Seattle Primary Care Clinic, where she has the continued joy and privilege of providing comprehensive primary care for highly complex veterans.
In 2016, Dr. Golob joined the leadership team for the Seattle VA Center of Excellence (CoE) in Primary Care Education as the associate medical director and more recently became the Acting Medical Director in February 2023. In this role, she collaborates with other interprofessional CoE faculty to design and deliver innovative interprofessional primary care training for graduate trainees in five professions including nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and psychologists.
Dr Golob is also the Assistant Program Director for Primary Care for the UW Internal Medicine Residency program since 2019. In this role, she collaborates with residency program colleagues to oversee the primary care track and continuity clinic training experience for UW IM residents.
In addition to interprofessional primary care graduate medical education, Dr. Golob's other academic interests include trainee wellness, women's health, and type 2 diabetes.
Outside of medicine, Dr. Golob loves to spend time enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest through hiking, cross country skiing, stand up paddleboarding, camping, and mountain biking with her partner and three elementary-aged kids.