Education
Faculty
Janice Anderson, MD
Janice Anderson, MD, is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and Shadyside Hospital Family Practice Residency. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and certified by the American Board of Family Practice. After residency training, Dr. Anderson spent 5 years in rural West Virginia under the National Health Service Scholarship Program. She is currently coordinating the obstetrics curriculum for the Family Practice Residency Program. She is National Course Advisor for the annual Pittsburgh Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) Course and has taught in multiple ALSO instructor courses. In addition to teaching the family practice approach to obstetrics, she teaches general family practice and gynecological procedural skills, such as colposcopy. She is active in the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church. Her personal interests include racquetball, cross-stitch, and enjoying time with her committed partner and son.
David Freeman, MD
David R. Freeman, MD, grew up in Ohio and attended Cornell University for his undergraduate study. He returned to Ohio for medical school and graduated from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1990. He completed residency training at Hamot Medical Center in Erie, where he was Chief Resident and recipient of the STFM Resident Teaching Award. Before joining the Famly Medicine Residency Program faculty at Forbes Regional Hospital, David spent 3 years in private practice in Springfield, Ohio. He now practices at Metro Family Practice, a not-for-profit community health center. David spends his spare time with his two young boys and also enjoys playing golf, guitar, writing, and being an OSU Buckeye Fan.
Katherine Homrok, MD
Katherine Homrok, MD, is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the Shadyside Hospital Family Practice Residency Program. A board-certified family physician, she also received her certificate of added qualifications in geriatric medicine in 1994. She joins the Forbes Family Practice faculty after 6 years in private practice in Pittsburgh, and is currently the director of Forbes Metro Family Practice, Inc. She also instructs residents in general family practice and family-centered maternity care. Dr. Homrok's professional interests include women's health and maternity care. She continues her involvement with Pittsburgh's Health Care for the Homeless project, volunteering at the Wilkinsburg Bridge Housing unit for women and children. Her interests also include bicycling, team sports, gardening, and just about anything having to do with the woods.
Dr. Johnjulio is the Chair of our organization's Department of Family Medicine. He joined the organization from UPMC Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, where he served as both Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the Family Medicine Residency Program since 2001.
Dr. Johnjulio is responsible for overseeing all clinical, administrative, and academic components of the Department of Family Medicine. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and completed postgraduate training with a family medicine internship at the University of Rochester/Highland Hospital and a residency in family medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He also completed a Faculty Development Program at Duke University and a Physicians Leadership Academy Fellowship at UPMC Mercy Hospital.
Certified by the American Board of Family Medicine, Dr. Johnjulio is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. He is married with two children and spends his time with family, fly fishing, biking, skiing, and participating in many other outdoor activities.
Katherine Patterson Neely, MD
Katherine Patterson Neely, MD, is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Forbes Family Practice Residency Program, where she earned the STFM Resident Teaching Award. She is certified by the American Board of Family Practice. Before joining our residency program as a full-time faculty member, Dr. Patterson worked at an urban community health clinic, serving the uninsured. Her medical interests include women's health, woman-centered maternity care, culture and language in healthcare, and health issues of lesbians and gay men. She sees patients at Metro Family Practice, Inc., and teaches residents general family practice, women's health, and maternity care. She is the Treasurer of the American College of Women's Health Physicians. She enjoys hiking, biking, and traveling with her life partner, two daughters, and son, and is learning Aikido.
Rowena D. Pingul-Ravano, MD
Rowena D. Pingul-Ravano, MD, is the Family-centered Maternity Care Coordinator. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California and received her medical training at the University of the East. She completed her residency training and served as Chief Resident at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program. She pursued a fellowship in Maternal Child Health at Brown University, where she served as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and was actively involved in medical student and resident education.
During her fellowship, Dr. Pingul-Ravano piloted and implemented Centering Pregnancy: A Model for Group Prenatal Care. She also served as a co-instructor for the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) course. Her special medical interests include obstetrics in family medicine (especially prevention and education for preterm labor), HPV, women's health care, global health for women, and evidence based medicine. Dr. Pingul-Ravano enjoys photography, ballroom dancing, traveling, volunteering at The East End Cooperative Ministry's shelter for the homeless, and most importantly, spending quality time with her husband and their two daughters.
Bob Sukolsky, MA
Bob Sukolsky is the Director of Behavioral Science for the Forbes Family Medicine Residency Program. He earned his master’s degree in counseling from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has 29 years of experience as an individual, family, and marital therapist, clinical supervisor, program director, teacher, and trainer. His work in our residency program is focused on behavioral science teaching, including conducting Balint groups and video reviews with residents, inpatient rounds, didactic conferences, and office precepting. Mr. Sukolsky is also currently an adjunct instructor in the Counselor Education Program at Waynesburg University. He has previously taught in the Counselor Education Programs at Duquesne University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Seton Hill University. In addition, he was formerly a trainer/clinical consultant for the Family Based Mental Health Training Program through Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) for 10 years. He currently continues to train in WPIC's OER program and is a teacher/facilitator for TWOgether Pittsburgh, a marriage enrichment program. Bob is married and has one son. He enjoys fishing, gardening, and watching his son play soccer.
Charles Sturm, MD
Charles Sturm, MD, is Director of the Family Health Center. A graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he completed his residency at Forbes Family Practice, where he earned the STFM Resident Teaching Award. He is certified by the American Board of Family Practice. Medical interests include office surgery, podiatry, geriatrics, and wilderness medicine. He is an assistant professor at Drexel University, an adjunct clinical instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, and a fellow of both the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. Dr. Sturm is married and has two children. His hobbies include scouting, photography, gardening, paleontology, and malacology. He pursues the latter two at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where he holds an appointment as a research associate in the Section of Mollusks.
Steven R. Wolfe, DO, MPH
Steven R. Wolfe, DO, MPH, is the Program Director for Osteopathic Graduate Medical Education and the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Forbes Family Medicine Residency program. Prior to joining Forbes Family Health Center, he served as an assistant director at The Washington Hospital Family Medicine Residency for 2 years. Dr. Wolfe attended medical school at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) and completed a residency in Family Medicine at UPMC St. Margaret. He completed a 2-year teaching fellowship in faculty development at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, while also earning a master's degree in public health. Dr. Wolfe is board-certified by both the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Osteopathic Family Physicians. His medical interests include optimizing the medical educational experience, EMR, dermatology, diabetes care, adolescent health, and musculoskeletal medicine. He enjoys photography, creative thinking and learning, weight lifting/exercising, and his friends.
Michael J. Yao, MD
Michael J. Yao, MD, is the primary teaching attending on the internal medicine rotation. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1987, where he completed the Five-Year Cooperative BS/MD program with The Pennsylvania State University. He completed his residency training with Forbes Family Practice in 1990. Prior to joining the faculty of our Family Medicine Residency Program, he was in private practice in the Morningside district of Pittsburgh. Dr.Yao is an assistant professor of family medicine at Drexel University College of Medine and a clinical instructor of medicine with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Dr. Yao holds a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Geriatrics and is the Director of Geriatric Education at Forbes Family Practice. He is Medical Director at Golden Living Centers (a skilled nursing facility) in Monroeville as well as the Divisional Director of Golden Living Centers in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. He is on the Board of the Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society, Western Division. His other medical interests include evidence-based medicine and development of teachers in medicine. Dr. Yao's interests also include Tang Soo Do, drawing, and classical literature. He is married and has two children.
Pediatric Faculty
Pediatricians serving as faculty for our Family Medicine Residency Program include the following:
Yolanda Dingess , MD
Dr. Yolanda Dingess did her residency at Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh. She joined East Suburban Pediatric Practice in 2007. Dr. Dingess has a special interest in treating patients with asthma, eczema, allergies, as well as ADHD.
Matthew A. Keller , MD
Dr. Matthew Keller did his residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. His specific interests include asthma/allergies and children with disabilities. Dr. Keller has lobbied Congress for the Individuals with Autism Act.
Paul J. Trainer, MD
Dr Trainer received his M.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Medicine in 1980. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY in 1983. He completed a two year fellowship in Behavioral Pediatrics and School Health at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD in 1985. Dr Trainer is a Board Certified Pediatrician and has been a partner in East Suburban Pediatrics since 1987. He has been on the medical staff at Forbes Regional Hospital since 1985.
Contributing Faculty
Our Family Practice Residency Program is fortunate to have a contributing faculty that is impressive both in number and degree of excellence. Every specialty and subspecialty is represented, drawn predominantly from our organization and augmented by outside specialists from the Pittsburgh area.
The volunteer faculty's commitment to resident education, whether a month-long rotation or an afternoon conference, is an invaluable addition to the program's quality.
