SJGH Faculty & Staff

ELYAS PARSA, DO
Family medicine department chair

Dr. Parsa completed his undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois and his medical training at Midwestern University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lombard, Illinois. He completed his residency in the Family Medicine Advocate Christ Medical Center/UIC, Oak Lawn, Illinois. His areas of interest are chronic disease management, practice improvement, emergency care, narrative medicine, gender affirming care, and procedures including bedside ultrasound. Dr. Parsa is certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians. Outside of medicine he enjoys the outdoors including soccer, snowboarding and fishing the more than 1000 miles of American Delta waterways close by. 

Lauren Brown-Berchtold, MD
program director, OB Fellowship Director

Dr. Lauren Brown-Berchtold is the program director of the San Joaquin General Hospital Family Medicine Residency, where she also practices surgical obstetrics and teaches with the associated FM-OB fellowship. She graduated from Keck School of Medicine at USC in Los Angeles, then moved to Fort Worth, Texas for residency training in Family Medicine and an integrated fellowship in Maternal-Child Health at John Peter Smith Hospital. Lauren is particularly committed to promoting physician wellbeing and maternal health while teaching the next generations of physicians. She loves to read, create miniature buildings, cross-stitch, and explore life with her husband and very active toddler!

Robert assibey, MD
associate program director

Dr. Assibey graduated from medical school at Ross University, in Dominica, West Indies. He completed his Family Medicine Residency in our institution. He is board Certified by ABFM - American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Assibey currently serves on the CAFP Board as the New Physician Director and San Joaquin Chapter Executive Board. His professional interests include preventative medicine, advocacy, chronic disease management, geriatrics, medication assisted treatment, gender affirming care and procedures. He enjoys academic medicine and working with aspiring medical students.

Anna Hernandez, C-TAGME
Program Coordinator

Anna Hernandez serves as the Residency Program Coordinator for Family Medicine. She has been with San Joaquin General Hospital since 2001, beginning in Nursing Administration and later joining Family Medicine in 2015. Anna is certified by the National Board for Certification for Training Administrators of Graduate Medical Education Programs (TAGME). She is a member of the Association of Family Medicine Administration and currently serves on the membership and marketing committee representing California. The gratifying component of her job is knowing that she has played an integral part in each resident’s growth and development throughout their training and has supported them personally and professionally. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family creating arts and crafts, traveling, exploring trails and gardening.

Maggie guerrero

Department Secretary

ANDREW SMITH, PHD
CLINICAL FACULTY, BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Dr. Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist, and his clinical teaching focuses on Behavioral Medicine and Physician Wellness. He has been with San Joaquin General Hospital since 2010. Dr. Smith graduated from California School of Professional Psychology in Alameda, California. He completed his postdoctoral training at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Rosa, California. Dr. Smith has held various positions since this time, including as Associate/Training Director of the University of the Pacific Counseling Center and as a co-facilitator of Chemical Dependency Recovery services at Discovery Counseling Center in Danville, California. His main interests are in Motivation Interviewing, Addiction Medicine, Mindfulness-based treatment

BHanu Wunnava, MD
CLINICAL FACULTY

After finishing medical school in India,  Dr. Wunnava did his residency in Family Medicine at Louisiana State University, LSUHSC, in Shreveport, Louisiana (2004-2007).  He joined as an Assistant Professor in Family Medicine department in LSUHSC after his residency and provided full spectrum family medicine teaching.  He is board Certified by ABFM - American Board of Family Medicine. His areas of interest are infectious disease prevention, control, and pharmacology.  Healthy lifestyle, weight management, diabetes, and arthritis are some other areas of interest.  Dr. Wunnava enjoys a variety of sports and writing books on positive energy and the philosophy of life in his free time.  

Estefania way, MD
Clinical Faculty

Dr. Way graduated from medical school at Universidad Cientifica del Sur, in Peru. She completed her Family Medicine Residency in our institution. She is a board certified by ABFM - American Board of Family Medicine. Her professional interest include HIV treatment and management, preventative medicine, chronic disease management, and medication assisted treatment.

Sabhrup biring, MD
Clinical Faculty

Dr. Biring graduated from Acharya Sri Chander college of Medical Sciences and Research in India. She completed her family medicine residency in our institution. After completing her residency she completed FM-OB fellowship at SJGH. Her areas of interest include Primary care, Women’s health, mental health and outpatient procedures including gynecological procedures. She also loves to teach! Outside medicine she likes cooking, dancing to Bollywood music and is a full time mom of 3 kids including twins!

Jinnie Chang, MD
Clinical Faculty

Dr. Jinnie Chang completed her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and medical school at UC San Diego.  She completed her family medicine residency at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center.  Her clinical interests include inpatient medicine, procedures, POCUS, and medical ethics.

Ramiro Zuniga, MD, MBA, FAAFP
Community Preceptor

Ramiro Zúñiga is the Vice President, Medical Director for Medi-Cal at Health Net. In this role, Dr. Zúñiga has leadership and oversight responsibilities for the contractual, compliance, and regulatory requirements for the Medi-Cal line of business. He also provides strategic and operational direction for quality, utilization management, and administrative/clinical policies, procedures, and programs. Prior to joining Health Net, Dr. Zúñiga was Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Residency Program Director, and a member of the Board of Trustees at San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockton.

Ramiro is a Volunteer Clinical Professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Latino Medical Association (SaLMA), co-leads the Northern California Chapter and serves in the Corporate Advisory Board of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Archstone Foundation.

Ramiro earned his M.D. from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in Bogotá, Colombia and completed his Family Medicine Residency at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center in Chicago. He received an MBA degree from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. He is board certified in family medicine and licensed in California, where he has practiced in underserved settings for over 25 years.

ERIC CHAPA, MD
COMMUNITY PRECEPTOR

 Dr Chapa graduated from medical school from University of California, Irvine. He completed residency at San Joaquin General Hospital in 1979. He was in private practice for over 40 years. He specialized in obstetrics, minor surgeries and ER medicine. Dr. Chapa worked for 18 years in the emergency room. He continues to keep his skills fresh as a surgical assistant within the community he grew up in. He also serves as a community preceptor in our continuity clinics. His professional interests include dive medicine. His hobbies include scuba diving, technical diving, an amateur radio.

Maureen Abaray, NP
Geriatric medicine

Maureen Abaray, FNP: Maureen was a pivotal team member of the Geriatrics Clinic at SJGH previously and has also been employed by the Health Plan of San Joaquin engaging in home visits for patients with chronic disease. She is a Certified Diabetes Educator. Her expertise in community resources stems from her residence in Stockton and Lodi for over 30 years. Maureen has language fluency in Spanish in integral to improving the quality of care our residency provides.