Program Director

Laura Armstrong grew up in the small town of Socorro, New Mexico. She attended Rice University in Houston, Texas and attended medical school at UT Houston, now known as McGovern Medical School. After medical school, Laura completed her residency in Family Medicine at Memorial Residency Program in Sugar Land, Texas. Laura is passionate about family medicine and caring for her patients at every stage of life. She enjoys caring for newborns, their parents and grandparents all in the context of lifelong healthy living. Her interests include nutrition, mindfulness, lifestyle medicine and integrative medicine. Laura has held leadership roles in newborn care and has served as the medical director for the Nurse Health Line in Houston. She is board certified in Integrative Medicine and recently became a diplomate of the ACLM (American College of Lifestyle Medicine). She is passionate about physician education and physician wellness.

Laura is married with three children. She enjoys gardening, hiking, yoga, tai chi, making jewelry and enjoys most mediums of art including oil painting, quilting, alcohol ink art and epoxy art. She also likes to swim, dance and read science fiction in her spare time. Laura organized the community garden at her former workplace, and she is a certified yoga instructor.

Associate Program Director

Dr. Achterman is a native to the Northwest; she was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Following high school, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She holds a Master in Public Health, International with an emphasis in maternal infant health and community education and a Doctorate in Osteopathic Medicine from Western University of Health Sciences. She is fluent in Spanish and specializes in the full spectrum of family medicine, as she puts it, “cradle to the grave” including deliveries and newborn care through geriatrics. She also performs OMT, or osteopathic manipulative therapy.

Dr. Achterman is thankful to be living close to home and enjoys spending time with her family and her two pug/Chihuahua/terrier puppies. She was a competitive swimmer through the university level and enjoys cycling. Dr. Achterman has completed the 200-mile STP five times, twice in one day and once on a tandem bike.

Program Coordinator

Anthony is originally from Houston, Texas. Following high school, he joined the US Navy, where he worked as a hospital corpsman, traveled the world and earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from National University in San Diego, California. After an honorable discharge, he continued his education and now holds a Master’s in Healthcare Administration. He truly values the impact health has on the human body, and he hopes to give people a greater understanding of health literacy so that they can live functional, high-quality lives.

Anthony is thankful for his wife Ashley, new baby boy Bodhi and two husky pups Abby and Daisy. Anthony has been a CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting athlete/coach for 12 years and has competed in competitions all over the US.

Core Faculty

Dr. Janelle Wortman, a Pacific Northwest native, is dedicated to enhancing team-based medicine to further the delivery of high-quality healthcare to our rural communities. After graduating with a Doctorate of Pharmacy degree from the University of Washington, Janelle then went on to complete two years of residency where she specialized in family medicine (Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center – Hillsboro, OR and Providence St. Peter – Chehalis, WA).

As a champion of evidence-based medicine, Janelle will be involved in resident scholarly activity requirements, journal clubs, and didactic teaching. Situated within the family medicine clinic, she is often available for impromptu consults and warm handoffs. Janelle manages her own patient panel under collaborative practice agreements with our team and welcomes residents for shadowing opportunities.

When not reading primary literature, she is an avid rock climber and paddleboarder and relishes time spent outside in the beautiful backyard of Western Washington.

Core Faculty

Dr. Heisler joined Summit Pacific Medical Center in 2018 drawn by its mission founded on commitments to service and health equity and with a focus on prevention. He attended medical school at Loma Linda University where he also received a Masters of Public Health with an emphasis in Population Medicine. He is board-certified in both Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine and has special interests in population health, lifestyle medicine, chemical dependency, and medical education. He enjoys taking care of his patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings as one of SPMC’s hospitalists and primary care providers. He is passionate about preventing and treating chronic diseases with evidence-based lifestyle medicine and behavior change tools and enjoys partnering with his patients through their health journeys.

Originally a California transplant, he has made Washington his home. He is an amateur vegetable gardener and rock climber. He and his wife enjoy the countless outdoor adventure opportunities the PNW has to offer.

Core Faculty

Jordan Snell grew up in rural Nebraska before moving to Colorado for undergraduate and medical school. He graduated from Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed residency with Providence St. Peter’s 1+2 rural family medicine residency in Chehalis, WA. Jordan feels strongly about making excellent care accessible to underserved communities and has a particular interest in palliative and hospice medicine. He practices as a hospitalist in Summit Pacific’s critical access hospital, supervising residents there and in clinic. He lives in Centralia, WA with his partner and three children.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Ken Dietrich comes to Summit Pacific Medical Center with extensive knowledge in both medicine and administration. Prior to accepting the CMO role, Dr. Dietrich spent a year and a half working in SPMC’s Emergency Department. Dr. Dietrich is excited about Summit Pacific’s vision statement and realizes that Grays Harbor is an underserved area. His work at Summit Pacific will include evaluating systems, developing services, and working with our providers to ensure they have the resources they need to provide great care. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Fellow of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He has worked in critical care medicine for more than 34 years. He served as a pediatric critical care physician at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma for 26 years.

Pediatric Faculty

Dr. Hutton has been devoted to providing the children of Grays Harbor with excellent care for more than 20 years. He strives to achieve a safe and welcoming environment where children are the highest priority. This is evident in his practice with special medical interests including Asthma, Child Abuse and Neglect, Attention Deficit Disorders, Behavior & School Problems, Oral Health and Child Advocacy. With over 30 years of pediatric experience, Dr. Hutton continues to be the cornerstone of children’s health care in Grays Harbor.

Dr. Hutton grew up in Texas and worked his way through college at West Texas A&M he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree, and then continued on to medical school at University of Texas, Galveston. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, where he has been a diplomat since 1979. In 2001, he attended the Nancy O’Leary Memorial National CAC Training Academy. Dr. Hutton co-founded the Children’s Advocacy Center in 1999.

Emergency Medicine Faculty

Dr. Syed is Summit Pacific’s Emergency Department Medical Director and is the Clinical Assistant Professor at WSU School of Medicine and UW School of Medicine. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. There she would train and work in Emergency Medicine and serve as an Assistant Emergency Medical Director before coming to Washington State. She is passionate about Emergency Medicine and enjoys running, gardening and rescuing animals in her spare time.

Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Atabeygi grew up in Vancouver, BC, Canada. His medical education was obtained in Grenada, the United Kingdom and the United States. He received his doctorate from St. George’s University on the island of Grenada. He is passionate about finding solutions to medical concerns and finds enjoyment working with patients of all ages.

Before making the change to medicine, Dr. Atabeygi worked as a high school science and math teacher.

He has a deep love for rugby and played the game for over 20 years. When at home he enjoys his time with family and completing various woodworking projects.

Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Teng has over 20 years of experience practicing medicine. He has worked as the Director of Clinic Quality and Associate Director of Curriculum at Cedar Rapids Medical Education Foundation. He was also the lead faculty for Clinical QI and scholarly activity at St. Peter Family Medicine.

Dr. Teng grew up in China and completed his medical schooling there. He finished his Family Medicine Residency in Iowa. He believes in full-spectrum family medicine and his passion is finding caring and efficient ways to provide care.
In his free time, Dr. Teng enjoys biking, fishing, and has recently picked up skiing.