Faculty

Casey Martin, MD, Program Director
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: University of Minnesota St. Joseph's Hospital
Practice: After two years in private practice, he returned to St. Joseph's as a faculty member and became program director in 2008.
Medical Interests: Sports medicine, geriatrics, cross-cultural health, and enjoys teaching medical students and residents.
Personal Interests: Entertaining his daughter, Ella, and son, Daniel, cross-training, and guitar.

Jim Van Vooren, MD, Associate Program Director
Medical School: George Washington University
Residency: North Colorado Family Medicine Program
Practice: He enjoyed teaching as a senior resident in Colorado and has stayed in residency education ever since. He began teaching with the University of Minnesota in 1992 and was program director of St. Joseph's Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program from 1999 to 2008.
Medical Interests: Inpatient care, international health, and teaching procedures such as colposcopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, and ultrasound, especially enjoys teaching residents.
Personal Interests: Travel with family, reading, outdoors, and church activities.

Deanna Bass, MD
Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin
Residency: University of Minnesota, Psychiatry
Practice: She has worked for the University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health since 1996 in the areas of consultation, teaching, and providing psychiatric services to clinic patients.
Medical Interests: General adult and cross-cultural psychiatry.
Personal Interests: Travel, activities with kids, and piano.

Kristin Christiansen, MD
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: University of Minnesota St. Joseph's Hospital
Practice: She returned to St. Joseph's as a faculty member in 2004 after five years of private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Medical Interests: Full-spectrum family medicine, especially obstetrics and women's health.
Personal Interests: Travel, including medical missionary work in Africa, time with family, and camping.

Christine Danner, PhD
Education: Doctoral degree from Loyola University, where she focused on child and family issues including domestic violence.
Fellowship: She was the first behavioral science post-doctoral fellow in the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
Medical Interests: Cross-cultural health, integrative care, and trauma resiliancy.
Personal Interests: Spending time with son, Leo, hiking, camping, and bluegrass music.

Christopher Fallert, MD
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: North Memorial Family Medicine Program
Medical Interests: Full spectrum family medicine, teaching residents and students.
Personal Interests: Family, music, sports, church activities

Dwenda Gjerdingen, MD, MS
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: University of Minnesota St. Joseph's Hospital
Fellowship: MS, clinical research
Practice: After practicing in Shoreview, Minnesota, she joined the faculty at St. Joseph's in 1982.
Medical Interests: Teaching residents, clinical research in women's health, and postpartum physical and mental health.
Personal Interests: Piano, spending time with family, and exercising at the YMCA.

Ila Mehra Harris, PharmD
Degree: Received her pharmacy degree at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.
Residency: Medical University of South Carolina
Practice: She was previously a faculty member at Deaconess Family Medicine Residency Program in St. Louis, Missouri, and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. She joined the faculty at St. Joseph's in 1998 and is also a faculty member at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.
Medical Interests: Women's health, preventive health, diabetes, cardiology, and herbal medicine.
Personal Interests: Jogging, biking, skiing, and spending time with her husband and children, Sam and Julia.

David L. Hunter, MD
Medical School: Ohio State University
Residency: University of Minnesota St. John's Hospital
Practice: 28 years in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota
Medical Interests: Chemical dependency and colon cancer screening.
Personal Interests: Reading, golfing, working, singing, and visiting with twin daughters and grandchildren.

Manuel Idrogo, MD
Medical School: University of Washington
Residency: Medical College of Wisconsin
Fellowship: Academic medicine fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin
Practice: He was associate program director at the University of Nevada Family Practice Residency and director of the University Unit and Combined Family Medicine/Psychiatry program at the University of Minnesota prior to joining St. Joseph's faculty.
Medical Interests: National/international diabetes program implentation and public health administration.
Personal Interests: Sports, traveling, and time with family. 

David Power, MD, MPH
Medical School: University College Dublin Medical School
Residency: Dublin, Ireland
Fellowship: Academic Medicine, MPH, University of Minnesota
Practice: Two years as a clinical instructor at Creighton University. Currently, his time is spent seeing patients in clinic, delivering babies, and serving as director of the University of Minnesota Medical School Primary Care Clerkship.
Medical Interests: Patient care, natural family planning, and medical student education.
Personal Interests: Spending time with family, golf, tennis, and music.