Practitioners

Margaret Allen worked in rural communities for a year in Chiapas, Mexico before graduating from Stanford¹s Primary Care Associate Program in 1992. She worked with homeless programs in San Jose, and local community clinics before joining the staff of RFHC in 2003. During a sabbatical in England in 2001-2, she studied Social Policy, lectured, and worked as Clinical Research Fellow for the National Health Service. She is a volunteer teacher at Stanford¹s Primary Care Associate Program and the Arbor Free Clinic.

After receiving a Master's as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Maia worked in Urgent Care at San Francisco General. She is also experienced in community-based bilingual health care, including serving as an FNP in the Women's Clinic at Mission Neighborhood Health Center in San Francisco and in the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at Contra Costs Regional Medical Center, Martinez, CA.

Brad completed the Physician Assistant Program at Duke University Medical Center in 2003 and graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a BS in Biochemistry in 1996.  He served with the Peace Corps for two years in Ecuador. For five years prior to coming to RFHC he was a Physician Assistant at the Family HealthCare Network in Orosi, California.

Lisa Lestishock joined our pediatric team in 2002. Her first encounter with community medicine was as a public health nurse in the barrio of Guatemala City. She completed nurses training at Villanova University and Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing at University of California, San Francisco. Lisa splits her time between Ravenswood Family Health Center and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, where she works on their mobile clinic and specializes in the care of high-risk and homeless adolescents.

A registered nurse since 1981, completed Masters in Nurse Midwifery at Georgetown University in 1990. Practiced as a certified nurse midwife with the Harvard Community Health Plan until coming to Packard Children's Hospital in 1997 where she provides nurse midwifery care to patients of the hospital and Ravenswood Family Health Center.

Rebecca is a graduate of Yale University School of Medicine Physician Associate program and is a Board Certified Physician Assistant in Primary Care and Surgery. She has 20+ years experience in gynecology and in adolescent medicine and primary care. Rebecca began her career on the orthopedic surgery staff at the Lahey Clinic near Boston, and was a long-time staff member of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate where she was Lead Clinician and Trainer.

Gabriela received a BA in Social Welfare in 1995 from UC Berkeley. After graduation, she worked as a social worker with dual diagnosed in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. She then decided to pursue a degree in Medical Microbiology in 1999 to prepare for a nursing career. In 2004 she graduated from the University of San Francisco's Nurse Practitioner's Master's program. Prior to joining RFHC, she worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner for a rural community health center in Bakersfield, CA.

Ivonne completed the Physician Assistant program at Duke University Medical Center in 2001 and graduated from University of California in San Diego with a double major in Biology and a BA in Literature in 1995.  Prior to joining RFHC, Ivonne worked as a Physician Assistant at the County’s Willow Clinic and most recently at Family HealthCare Network in Visalia, California.

Linda Walsh is a registered nurse and holds a Masters in Public Health/Certificate in Nurse-Midwifery from Johns Hopkins University. Currently she is an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing. She is the author of Midwidery-Community-based care during the childbearing year, W.B. Saunders, Inc. and has contributed articles to many books and journals on nurse-midwifery. She has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including a five-year grant from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation grant for the Guatemala Maternal-Child Health Project. She is on the staff of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (part-time) as well as Ravenswood Family Health Center.

Amy joined the staff of RFHC in December 2001 and has provided primary care services to adult patients since the day the clinic opened. She received her Master's in Public Health from UCLA and then worked for six years as a research assistant at UCSF Center for Reproductive Health Policy. She completed her second Masters degree in the UCSF Family Nurse Practitioner program in 2000. After graduation she spent 7 months working in Ecuador in both rural and urban settings.