Branch Leadership
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
| Suzanne Brandenburg, MD, FACP 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. |
| Christie Reimer, MD 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. |
 | Maurice "Scotty" Scott, MD Assistant Professor - Department of Medicine - Palliative Care Dr. Maurice "Scotty" Scott was born and raised in Denver, CO. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College where he studied Anthropology. He went on to pursue a medical degree from UCLA before returning for Family Medicine residency at St. Joseph Hospital, the same place where he was born! Following residency, he completed a Palliative Medicine fellowship at the University of Chicago. He has been back in Denver for the last 10 years and practices clinical palliative care at the University of Colorado AMC. Over this time, he has also actively participated in medical education by way of overseeing core curriculum delivery, serving as a COMPASS Guide, and now as one of the Assistant Deans of Student Affairs. In his spare time, Dr. Scott likes to exercise, spend time with family and friends and read non-fiction spiritual and biographical books. |
| Karen Chacko, MD 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. |
| Ellen Aster, PhD 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. |
