Branch Leadership Team
When people are in the position of having to teach others, they're going to take a closer look at how they're practicing. It just creates an environment for optimal, gold-standard health care. And this community deserves that.
Priya W., Class of 2025
Dr. Suzanne Brandenburg grew up in Buffalo, New York. She followed her family to Colorado after college and completed medical school and residency training at the University of Colorado. She became a faculty member right out of residency and has been a clinician educator at the University of Colorado for her entire career. She is currently leading the CU SOM at CSU start-up. She also oversees interprofessional education on the Anschutz Medical Campus and previously served as Director of the Medicine Residency Program and as Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine. She enjoys teaching, mentoring and building programs, and feels privileged to care for patients as a general internist. Outside of medicine, she spends much of her time with family – her husband of over 30 years, her son and his fiancée, her parents and lots of in-laws. She likes to cook, eat, read and travel. |
Dr. Christie Reimer grew up in South Dakota where she graduated from Augustana College and the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. She completed her residency and was a chief resident at the University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita and finished a fellowship in primary care faculty development at Michigan State University. She was on faculty and worked in graduate medical education at KU and then the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine before moving to Colorado in 2008. She has been actively involved in leadership at UCHealth and in the American College of Physicians, and thus values participation of physicians (and students) in leadership roles in our communities on behalf of our patients. She is an ambulatory general internal medicine physician, providing primary care for adults at the UCHealth Snow Mesa Internal Medicine clinic in Fort Collins. She enjoys interacting with students in the classroom and clinical settings and hopes to role model excellence in patient-centered care and promote individualized career exploration and wellbeing for medical students. Her free time is spent with her two children and partner, and she loves good company, good food, good music, and sunshine. |
Dr. Gregory Amberg was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Temple City, California. Subsequently, he resided in Idaho, Nevada, Washington, and Colorado. He completed his BS in Biology (University of California Riverside/Idaho State Univ.), PharmD (Idaho State Univ. College of Pharmacy), PhD (Cell & Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology; Univ. of Nevada Reno), and Postdoctoral Fellowship (Cardiovascular Physiology & Pathophysiology; Univ. of Washington). His involvement in teaching at the CU SOM at CSU Branch Campus stems from a long-standing interest in promoting and integrating the basic biomedical sciences within modern medical education curricula. His teaching areas of interest include Physiology, Pharmacology, Cell & Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Pharmacotherapeutics. His research areas of interest include using electrophysiology and advanced imaging to study localized calcium and oxidant signaling mechanism in smooth muscle cells, neuroendocrine cells, and neurons. Greg’s non-academic interests include listening to music, cooking and baking, woodworking, and spending time in the mountains. |
Ellen grew up in the small town of Socorro, New Mexico. Drawn to the rainy and green Pacific Northwest, she obtained her B.S. in Geological Sciences from the Clark Honors College at University of Oregon, M.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Oregon, and Ph.D. in Science Education from Oregon State University. Ellen enjoys working with educators to identify and implement meaningful learning experiences for students, particularly those in the science, technology, and engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. She is passionate about cultivating welcoming and rewarding learning experiences that build off students’ funds of knowledge and speak to students’ learning interests and professional goals. She considers it a great gift to collaborate with the excellent faculty, staff, and students at CUSOM, Fort Collins Branch at CSU. Ellen also enjoys road biking, kayaking on Horsetooth Reservoir, watching movies at The Lyric, drawing landscapes with oil pastels, tending to her 30+ houseplants, reading Mary Oliver, and hanging out with her partner, Grant, and their two tuxedo cats, Phil Claw-ins and Oswald. |
Health Systems and Community Leadership Trail Director, Fort Collins Branch Clinical: Northern Colorado Hospitalists Dr. Rebecca Bade is a Colorado native and grew up in Fort Collins. She did her undergraduate training at Colorado School of Mines before attending medical school in Baltimore at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Colorado and then was delighted to join the Northern Colorado Hospitalists team in her hometown. Dr. Bade’s professional interests include medical education and curriculum development, clinical reasoning, and hospital quality improvement. In her role as the Health Systems and Community Leadership Trail Director, she hopes to equip students with tools to serve as exemplary leaders throughout the entirety of their medical careers. Outside of work, she loves to spend time with her husband and son, read, and enjoy the beautiful state of Colorado. |
Dr. Karen Chacko attended UC San Diego for both undergraduate and medical school. She moved to Colorado in 1996 for residency in the Primary Care Internal Medicine program at the University of Colorado. She did a chief residency, and then joined faculty to work in academics and specifically to work with learners throughout her career. Karen was the program director for the Primary Care IM residency for over 15 years and the senior associate program director for the categorical IM residency for 10 years. Karen currently holds roles as the Associate Dean of Clinical Outreach as well as the Medical Director of Digital Health for the School of Medicine faculty at the Anschutz Medical Campus in addition to being the Director of Admissions for the CU SOM at CSU Medical Branch Campus. Her greatest joys in her career include caring for her patients and working with learners with a focus on career mentorship and personal development. Most importantly, Karen is the mother to two wonderful teenage girls. She enjoys exercising, with a particular addiction to Peloton most recently, cooking, spending time with family, traveling and card games. |
Jeffrey Chapman, M.D. MMM Compass Guide, Fort Collins Branch
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Dr. Mary Ann De Groote was born on a U.S. Air Force Base in Germany but grew up in Iowa. After Medical School at the University of Iowa, she moved to Colorado for Internship in 1988 and has been here ever since. She completed not only her internship, but residency, Chief Residency, and ID Fellowship at the University of Colorado. She has always loved animals and has had a long-standing interest in Infectious Diseases. One of her first jobs as a teenager was cleaning dog and cat kennels at a local veterinarian’s office, and when they offered her a chance to come out of the slop and help search for hookworm eggs in the fecal flotation test, she was “hooked” on ID. She initially thought that a career as a DVM was the right path, but ultimately veered toward human medicine. She has had a rewarding career as a longtime practicing Infectious Disease physician in the local Denver/Boulder area. She loves microbiology and the challenging and interesting cases. An ID doctor needs to know and understand all of medicine and keep up on the ever-changing medical knowledge base to be effective. Mary Ann has appointments at CU Anschutz and CSU and has really enjoyed being part of the new branch campus and helping it mature into a wonderful place to learn and grow the next generation of physicians. Outside of work, she enjoys biking, hiking, and spending time with her husband and two crazed rescue Labrador retriever mixes (like many Coloradoans)! It is a joy to be part of this amazing program. |
Dr. Marcela Henao received her Medical Degree from the University of Antioquia, Colombia. After finishing medical school, she joined a clinical research group investigating human genetic characteristics that could predispose tuberculosis (TB) disease. After that initial contact with basic research on a devastating global disease, she was determined to pursue a career in the field of research with the goal of preventing diseases. Thus, Dr. Henao obtained a master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences emphasis on Immunology. During that time in Colombia, she met professors from Colorado State University and was invited to CSU as a visiting scientist. She was later awarded a Ph.D. by this institution, where she studied the immune response to pulmonary infectious diseases. Her lab currently focuses on SARS-CoV-2 and TB vaccine research in human and animal models. Dr. Henao's husband is also a researcher at CSU. They have two children and travel to Colombia every year to visit family. |
Dr. Anuja Riles was born and raised in the Bay Area, California. She attended UCLA for her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Education. From there, Dr. Riles went on to the University of Michigan Medical School, where she met her husband. Upon graduation, they moved to Boston where she earned a Master’s in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and completed her residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital. After a brief stint in San Francisco, Dr. Riles and her family moved to Colorado in 2017. Currently, she is a pediatric hospitalist in the Banner Health System. Dr. Riles has always had a strong interest in curriculum development and assessment and medical student mentorship and has been thrilled with the opportunity to be a part of the FC Branch Campus of the University of Colorado. Anuja is the proud mother of her two children, Emma and Leo. Her interests include running, skiing with her family, working hard to earn the title of “foodie”, and rooting for the University of Michigan football team. |
Dr. Rowh grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and finished her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Biochemistry and Chinese Studies. She fell in love with bench research and basic immunology during thesis work on HIV vaccine design at Harvard. She then joined the CDC as an Emerging Infectious Disease (EID) fellow and was deployed to Singapore during the SARS outbreak of 2003. Dr. Rowh trained at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a medical degree and a doctorate in immunology. Dr. Rowh completed her residency at Temple University Hospital in north Philadelphia and is a board-certified emergency physician. Dr. Rowh teaches for the same reason she entered medicine – to improve health inequities in the United States and internationally. She is the director of the Advanced Sciences Curriculum (ASC) during the 3rd year and teaches Global Health and Underserved Populations (GHUP). To attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment, Dr. Rowh is the co-director of the One Health Trail and will be the director of an elective in Applied Epidemiology and Public Health. She has lived and worked on five continents, earning a Master of Public Health from the University of Edinburgh. She teaches Health Systems, Policy and Management at the Colorado School of Public Health at CSU. At home, Dr. Rowh attempts to raise three productive and opinionated members of society, wrangles two rescue mutts, and has spent way too many nights staying up late in conversation with her husband. |
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Dr. Scheel attended the University of Nebraska at Lincoln for his undergraduate degree and then Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine for medical school. He completed residency at Spectrum Health – Lakeland in Emergency Medicine and an ultrasound fellowship at Denver Health. Assisting with point of care ultrasound curriculum is one of his responsibilities at CUSOM at CSU. |
Dr. Shtull-Leber grew up in Ann Arbor, MI, where he also attended the University of Michigan for college, medical school, and for a master's degree in clinical research. He moved to Phoenix with his wife where he completed a residency in emergency medicine at Maricopa Medical Center, and a fellowship in medical education through the University of Arizona - Phoenix. During his training, Tani has also worked to become a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. Dr. Shtull-Leber joined the CUSOM faculty in 2022 as the Clinical Content Director for the Plains year at the Fort Collins branch campus. His primary teaching interests include teaching clinical reasoning using case-based small-group discussions. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling, and spending time with his wife, son, and dog. |
She and her husband have been married for 30 years and have been blessed to see different parts of the world in their younger years while he was in the Army. She likes to brag about their three children, Christian, Kaylyn and Devin, and RAVE about their three grandchildren, Savana, Brixxyn and Will. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, reading and constantly planning fun trips and adventures with her grandkids. |
Dr. Stern was raised in Memphis, TN. In 1997, he graduated from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center and went on to complete his residency in 2001. He is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He worked as an OB/GYN physician for eight years after his residency and then moved to Fort Collins, where he was able to take advantage of all of the things that Colorado has to offer. Dr. Stern believes in providing comprehensive women’s health care that involves patients as the key decision makers in their healthcare choices. He enjoys the diversity of care that he is able to provide women during their lives. During his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and doing lots of outdoor activities. |
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