Leadership
Julie Venci, MD
Program Director
Continuity Clinic Faculty
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Primary Care Physician Denver Health
Dr. Venci completed her undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also had the opportunity to study abroad in Santiago, Chile, and become fluent in Spanish. She later returned home to Chicago to attend medical school and pursue a Med-Peds residency training. In 2010, Dr. Venci completed her Chief year as a resident at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and moved to Denver to become a Primary Care Clinician at Denver Health. She has been an integral player in the Med-Peds program at the University of Colorado since its inception in 2013. She has served as the Clinic Director, Associate Program Director, and Program Director.
Dr. Venci created our first Combined Med-Peds Continuity Clinic, which the residents often cite as one of the program's major strengths. She completed a Teaching Scholars Program at the University of Colorado to focus on curriculum development. Her interests include medical education, public health, community engagement, and advocacy. She is a co-PI on a CDC grant to improve LTBI screening and treatment in primary care. She is the creator and director of a Public Health elective for residents and continuously seeks ways to expose residents to public health practices.
Along with her administrative roles, Dr. Venci is a primary care clinician at Denver Heath. She continues to be a preceptor in the Med-Peds continuity clinic and is actively involved in creating new and innovative curricula for the residency program. She helped design the Med-Peds ambulatory rotation, created our longitudinal curriculum – Colorado REACH (Race, Equity, Advocacy, and Community Health), and is active in community building partnerships with organizations like Re:Vision and Denver Urban Gardens. She has partnered with Re:Vision to build a Community Garden program and curriculum for kids living in SW Denver and the first Produce Rx project at Denver Health.
Dr. Venci's unwavering commitment to the Med-Peds training program, its residents, and the community is evident in her 100% investment. She is dedicated to ensuring that each resident achieves their career goals and becomes a leader and change maker in the field of Medicine.
Congratulations to Dr. Venci! She has been been selected as a recipient of the 2025 CUSOM GME Program Director Excellence Award!
Carolina Gutierrez, MD
Associate Program Director
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Primary Care Physician Denver Health
Dr. Carolina Gutierrez is an attending physician at Denver Health practicing primary
care for adults and children. She was born and raised in Peru and then immigrated to Texas. She completed her undergraduate education at Texas Women's University and her medical school training at the University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine.
She left Texas and moved to Colorado to complete a combined residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado where she was involved in the program's efforts in recruitment, advocacy and diversity and inclusion. She graduated
the summer of 2020 and is board certified in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and practices Primary Care at Denver Health providing care for an underserved population.
As faculty, she serves as Associate Program Director for the residency program
and is involved in education, curriculum development and serves as mentor and faculty sponsor for ongoing advocacy, and DEI efforts. She loves salsa dancing, yoga, the great outdoors, and spending time with her family.
Aaron Manning, MD
Associate Program Director
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Med-Peds Hospitalist, UCHealth University of Colorado, Children's Hospital of Colorado
Dr. Manning grew up in the small town of Columbia, North Carolina and earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He decided to exchange the Appalachian Mountains for the Rockies in 2014, and joined the very first Med-Peds residency class at the University of Colorado. Aaron became hooked on the Colorado lifestyle during residency, and decided to stay in Denver after graduating. He now works as a Med-Peds Hospitalist, splitting his time between Children’s Hospital Colorado and UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.
Aaron has been a part of the CU Med-Peds Core Faculty since graduating from the program, and joined the leadership team in 2020 as an APD. His academic interests include Point-of-Care Ultrasound, curriculum design, and coaching/mentorship.
In his free time, Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife, Hadley, and four children, Madeline, Jack, Savannah and Will. Like most Coloradans, he enjoys hiking and camping in the summer and skiing as well as snowboarding in the winter. He’s also an avid basketball fan (with a few Denver recreational league championships he can brag about) and a Tar Heel sports diehard.
Nick Breitnauer, MD Resident Clinic Director 
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics
Primary Care Physician Denver Health
Dr. Breitnauer has lived a geographically anchored life. Growing up in rural western Colorado, he completed his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Colorado at Boulder and then Anschutz campuses, respectively. The timely creation of a new Med-Peds residency at CU seemed almost too good to be true given the beauty of the state and the quality of the internal medicine and pediatric residency programs. He joined Denver Health in the fall of 2018 and works as a primary care provider at the Southwest Federico Pena Family Health Center.
Clinical duties also include working with residents in continuity clinic, 6 weeks per year as an inpatient attending on the Denver Health pediatric wards, and serving as the medical director for the GLOBAL Adult Down Syndrome Clinic at Denver Health . Professional interests include quality improvement and transition of care especially for patients with intellectual developmental disability.
Nick enjoys all things Colorado, especially skiing, camping, and the Denver Broncos. All other free time is spent with his wife, Brooke, and his children, Max and Casey.
Akemi Iwanabe
Program Coordinator
Akemi grew up and worked in Japan. While working for an American company in Yokohama, she had an opportunity to work for their global project and was transferred to the US office in Lakewood CO. She met her husband, step-son, and became a Broncos fan! When the company closed their Asian market and downsized, she went back to school and graduated summa cum laude earning her B.S. in Management from Metro State University.
Akemi joined the Division of General Internal Medicine and worked for the Primary Care Internal Medicine Program as a coordinator. After 10 years, she had an opportunity to move to the Internal Medicine–Pediatric Residency Program. She enjoys working with the med-peds residents and continuing to be a part of the residency education within the Med/Peds family!