Our Faculty

Jamila Benn, MD

Associate Program Director

University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Residency: Scottsdale Health Care, Heuser Family Medicine Residency, Scottsdale, Arizona
Fellowship: Fellowship: Maternal and Child Health Surgical Fellowship, Oak Park, Illinois, Oak Park, Illinois

Board Certified

Family Medicine 2006, 2016- current
Lifestyle Medicine 2017-current

Credentials

STFM Resident Faculty Fundamentals Certificate 2019
COLA Lab Director Certificate 2011
PCC Maternal and Child Health Surgical Obstetrics Fellowship-2006- 2007

Personal Information

Dr. Jamila Benn graduated from the University of Oklahoma, College of Medicine in 2003. She went on to complete a Family Medicine Residency in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her career then took her to Oak Park, Illinois where she completed a fellowship in Women’s Health and Surgical Obstetrics. Having spent seven years in the US Virgin Islands working at a community health center as a staff physician and then medical director, she returned to the mainland of the United States and worked at various community health centers in a locums capacity. One of her assignments brought her to Maui. Not wanting to leave the islands, she came to Hilo and joined the faculty. Her practice interests include helping her patients optimize their lifestyle to maintain health. This has led her to additional board certification in Lifestyle Medicine. Apart from work, Dr. Benn enjoys being outdoors, traveling, running, sewing, and knitting.

Christine Chan, MD

Medical Director, EHHC 1190 Primary Care Clinic

Dr. Chan was born and raised on O’ahu and graduated from the University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine. Her residency took her to Tucson, AZ, where she received additional training in Integrative Medicine. She loves caring for the breadth of Family Medicine in the outpatient clinic as well as serving as an attending on the inpatient service. Her clinical and educational interests include preventative medicine, practice improvement, interprofessional collaboration, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She is so grateful for this opportunity to cultivate these interests and give back to the community that raised her by supporting residents in their grown as future leaders.

Melissa Robey, MD, FAAFP, NABBLM-C, IBCLC

Residency Faculty

Dr. Robey was born in Kansas and moved to Florida with her family while in high school. She completed undergraduate and medical school at the University of Florida before her journey led to the Pacific Northwest for residency training. She practiced full spectrum family medicine in Portland, Oregon for several years before relocating to a small community in northern Minnesota where she served as the Chief of Obstetrics at a rural critical access hospital.
After spending as much time as she could in the Hawaiian Islands, Dr. Robey developed a yearning to be surrounded by the aloha spirit and serve the diverse population in Hawai`i. In 2022, she came to Hilo to help train future generations of family physicians in full spectrum care from birth to death. Dr. Robey is passionate about caring for growing families and finds great joy in welcoming new babies. She has special training in surgical obstetrics and breastfeeding medicine. Her approach is wholistic and patient centered with an emphasis on nourishing foods, regular movement and mindfulness practice.
Away from the hospital, you may find her with her husband and two young children playing at the park, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling or otherwise enjoying the beach. She loves to garden and cook fresh foods. She looks forward to finding her Hawai`i Island `ohana and growing strong roots in the community.

Doug Rose, MD, M.B.A.

Residency Faculty

Dr. Rose was born and raised in Pennsylvania. He attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College (now known as Sidney Kimmel Medical College). Residency saw him move to New Hampshire. He joined a then brand new program and is a member of the first three year class of the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency. After residency, he stayed at Dartmouth and was a faculty member at the same program for four years. He then moved to Tennessee to join the faculty at the East Tennessee State University Family Medicine Residency in Kingsport where he stayed for the next fourteen years. For ten years in Tennessee, he served as the medical director of the residency clinic. In this role, he succeeded in receiving certification as a Patient-Centered Medical Home for the clinic (and the other two residency clinics as well). For three years he coordinated clinical efforts across all three of the department’s residency clinics in the role of Director of Clinical Operations for the Department of Family Medicine.

In order to better be equipped to understand and work within the business realm, he obtained his Master of Business Administration in 2015. He has received multiple awards for his teaching from medical students and residents. He has presented numerous local, regional, national and international lectures on topics ranging from information mastery, diabetes care, and clinical improvements. Dr. Rose is married and has three children. He enjoys spending time with his family, good (and even bad) science fiction, movies, comic books and a round of golf.

Svetlana Shchedrina, MD

Residency Faculty

Svetlana Shchedrina, MD, graduated from Russian State Medical University (Moscow) in 1996. She moved to Hawaii with her family in 2011. She completed Hawaii Family Medicine Residency in 2017 as a member of the inaugural class. Since graduating, Svetlana Shchedrina served the people of Hilo as an urgent care physician and hospital medicine attending physician for HIFMR. Dr Shchedrina now serves as a family physician in the East Hawaii Health Clinic 1285 Primary Care Suite, and gives generously of her time to precept residents in the clinic and as inpatient attending.

Laurie Hopman, MD

Residency Faculty

Dr Hopman grew up in Chicago but even as a little girl she aspired to be a country doctor. After college she moved to Albuquerque and attended medical school there and chose her residency in Family Medicine at a program known for training doctors for rural practice. In 1989, she moved to Honoka`a, Hawai`i where she initially worked at a sugar plantation infirmary and subsequently opened a solo practice there for 5 years. She moved to Hilo to work at John A. Burns School of Medicine, teaching medical students and residents for 5 years, before again resuming private practice in Hilo. : In addition to Family Medicine, Dr Hopman worked with Hospice of Hilo for several years and is also Board certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Mark A. Knox, MD

Residency Faculty

Dr. Knox came to Hilo as one of the founding faculty of this residency. Seeing the success of this program is one of his proudest professional accomplishments. After over thirty years teaching residents and medical students, Dr. Knox feels that his main goal as a medical educator is to provide a learning environment that is challenging but that remains non-threatening and humanistic.

The opportunity to support the personal and professional growth of residents as they metamorphose from rookies to Family Physicians ready to begin their careers is a privilege and provides his inspiration as a teacher. Improving his ability to teach well has been the focus of his professional development.

The great challenge in medicine is to balance your profession with the rest of your life. I am married and have two grown children. I have been a student of the martial arts and tai chi for almost thirty years. Like medicine, martial arts are rich and complex and provide unlimited possibilities for study and growth. My other hobby and significant social outlet is playing the bagpipes. No other kind of music will put you in touch with so many other eccentric people and test the limits of your family’s tolerance. As much as I like practicing medicine, the opportunity to teach residents is what gets me out of bed each morning.

Anna Maisu, MD

Residency Faculty

Dr. Maisu grew up in Vista, CA, and graduated from American University of Integrative Sciences located in St. Maarten. Prior to medical school, she lived in O’ahu while working at Tripler Army Medical Center as a medical technologist. Residency brought her to the Big Island where she completed her family medicine training at Hawai`i Island Family Medicine Residency program. She now serves as Chief Academic Officer to Hilo Benioff Medical Center and practices a blend of primary care and urgent care at East Hawai`i Health Center- Kea`au. Her clinical interests include chronic disease management, patient education, and quality improvement. During her free time she is a soccer mom, plant collector and loves to sing karaoke!

Tod Sugihara, DO

Residency Faculty

Dr. Sugihara was born and raised in Hilo. He is a graduate of Hilo High School. He left to attend college at the University of California at San Diego. He attended medical school in Kirksville Missouri followed by residency in Phoenix, Arizona. After residency Dr. Sugihara taught residents at the Phoenix Baptist Family Medicine Residency Program for 10 years. He than worked at Adelante Healthcare before moving back to Hilo. He is happy to be back home serving the community in which he grew up.

Jennifer Junnila Walker, MD, MPH, FAAFP

East Hawaii Acute and RHC Medical Director

Dr. Jennifer J. Walker earned her MD degree and completed a family medicine residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She completed a fellowship in Faculty Development and earned her Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Washington. She is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. In addition, she a certified Lifestyle Medicine physician and Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

Dr. Walker joined the residency faculty in 2016 following her retirement as a Colonel in the US Army. Her military career allowed her to serve in a variety of practice environments, from family clinics to community hospitals to world-class tertiary care centers at military bases in the US and Europe. Immediately prior to joining the HIFMR faculty, Dr. Walker served as the Director of Graduate Medical Education at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, NC. Dr. Walker fell in love with Hawaii while serving as the Chief of the Medical Staff for the large outpatient healthcare facility at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, followed by Chief of Clinical Operations at US Pacific Command at Fort Shafter. She has served in demanding leadership positions at military medical facilities while deployed to the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and her military awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. Dr. Walker has been inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit and has received the Uniformed Services Academy of Family Physicians President’s Award.

Dr. Walker has lectured extensively on medical and military topics at regional, national, and international military and civilian conferences. She has conducted and published original medical research, has authored or co-authored numerable scientific journal articles and book chapters, and has served as chair of several professional development and continuing education seminars.