Our ECHO Teams
Find experts leading these discussions.
Integrated Opioid and Addiction Care ECHO Team
Hennepin Healthcare
Brian Grahan, MD, PhD
Hennepin Healthcare Addiction Medicine Physician
Project ECHO Co-Lead
Dr. Grahan’s clinical practice focuses on the care of people with substance use disorders as well as the social, medical, and psychiatric conditions that often occur together. His PhD work focused on behavioral economics and outcome measurement issues related to substance use in adolescents and young adults. After spending a year learning advanced quality improvement and performance measurement techniques, he’s excited to join the faculty at Hennepin Healthcare to combine these efforts to improve the care for people who live in the Twin Cities community. To request a speaking engagement or case consultation with Dr. Grahan, please email Elizabeth Ryan, Project ECHO Coordinator, at [email protected].
Cameron Weaver, PhD, LP
Project ECHO Psychologist
Dr. Weaver is an integrated behavioral health provider, specializing in brief assessment and psychological interventions for mental, physical, and chemical health conditions. He completed a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK and an NIH/NIAAA postdoctoral fellowship in addictions research at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. At Hennepin Healthcare, he treats health conditions with empirically supported treatments such as behavioral activation, exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring, and harm reduction/relapse prevention. His research interests are in risk and protective factors alcohol misuse and brief motivational interventions for alcohol misuse.
Helen Wood, MD
Project ECHO Psychiatrist
Dr. Wood has broad experience in both primary care and psychiatry. She has completed residencies and board certification in both internal medicine and psychiatry. She has extensive experience in addiction and community psychiatry. She joined the Primary Care Behavioral Health team at Hennepin Healthcare in 2016 and divides her time between doing psychiatric consultations in our primary care clinics and her private practice. Providing evidence-based treatments for substance use disorders is a rewarding part of longitudinal psychiatric care. MAT (medication-assisted treatment) is one of our great breakthroughs in addiction medicine and I am delighted to help the ECHO team with a psychiatric perspective to this treatment.
MN Community Collaboration on Viral Hepatitis
Hennepin Healthcare
Amanda Noska, MD, MPH
Infectious Diseases
Dr. Noska is an infectious disease physician who completed her internal medicine training at HCMC, followed by her infectious disease fellowship at Brown University. She has expertise in treating viral hepatitis (HCV and HBV as well as co-infection with HIV), most notably among persons who inject drugs (PWID), persons experiencing homelessness, and persons with substance use disorders. She previously practiced at the Providence VA Medical Center, Maximum and High Security of Rhode Island’s Department of Corrections, & the Miriam Immunology Center in Providence, RI from 2015-2019. More recently, she treated patients at Essentia Health in Duluth, MN from 2019-2021. She joined the faculty of Hennepin Healthcare in 2021, and in collaboration with PA Jesse Powell in GI, treats folks with HCV and HBV within the Viral Hepatitis Clinic of Hennepin Healthcare.
Brenda Bauch, MSN, CNP
Addiction Medicine
Brenda is Nurse Practitioner specializing in office-based addiction medicine treatment. She has a broad healthcare experience including primary care, emergency medicine, and cardiology.
George Froehle, PA-C
Infectious Diseases
George is a physician assistant who specializes in LGBTQ+ health, HIV medicine, Hepatitis C, PrEP, gender medicine, and primary care.
Jesse Powell, PA-C, MS, BA
Gastroenterology, Digestive Medicine
Project ECHO Co-Lead
Jesse is a Physician Assistant in the gastroenterology department who specializes in the treatment of liver disease. He earned his Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies at Augsburg College in 2008. Jesse has a special interest in the treatment of hepatitis C and the management of chronic liver disease. He also performs FibroScan, a non-invasive alternative to liver biopsy for the staging of liver fibrosis.
Jessica Oswald, DO
Infectious Disease Specialist
Dr. Oswald works in both outpatient clinics and in the hospital seeing patients with a wide variety of infectious diseases. Her clinical focus is on HIV management and primary care. She also teaches an Infectious Diseases course at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Luisa Rodriguez Duran, RN
Positive Care Clinic
Luisa works in the Positive Care Clinic at Hennepin Healthcare. She obtained an Associate Degree in Nursing at Minneapolis Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. She is certified HIV care through The HIV/AIDS Nursing Certification Board. Originally from Colombia, she is bilingual in Spanish and English.
Perinatal Substance Use ECHO Team
Hennepin Healthcare
Cresta Wedel Jones, MD, FACOG, FASAM
Perinatal Substance Use ECHO Co-Director
Dr. Jones is a maternal-fetal medicine physician with additional certification in addiction medicine. She focuses her clinical care on best practices for perinatal substance use disorders as well as issues involved in equitable access to substance use screening and treatment for pregnant and parenting people. She currently provides maternal fetal medicine and perinatal addiction care through the University of Minnesota Medical School. To request a case consultation with Dr. Jones, please email [email protected].
Katie Thorsness, MD
Perinatal Substance Use ECHO Co-Director
Dr. Thorsness specializes in perinatal psychiatry and provides care at the Redleaf Center for Family Healing at Hennepin Healthcare and the University of Minnesota Psychiatry Department. She practices medicine through the framework of attachment-based, psychodynamic, family system, narrative, and mindfulness to relieve suffering and foster emotional wellbeing. She has additional expertise in physician trainee mental health.
Race Equity and Opioid Use ECHO Team
Cuong Pham, MDRace Equity and Opioid Use ECHO Co-Director
Dr. Pham is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, with training in internal medicine, pediatrics, and addiction medicine. His clinical work includes hospital and addiction medicine at the University Medical Center and primary care at the Community University Health Care Center (CUHCC), a federally qualified health center in the Phillips Neighborhood. He is also the Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the University of Minnesota Department of Medicine, and the Chair of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Graduate Medical Education DEI Workgroup. He does research with communities of color on addiction care in Minnesota with a focus on community engagement. He was one of the original co-founders of Minnesota Doctors for Health Equity (MDHEQ) a nonprofit focused on educating Minnesota healthcare providers on health equity and advocacy. He is the current President of MDHEQ. He leads a mentorship group on DEI work at the University of Minnesota Medical School. His expertise in addiction care and DEI work is a rare intersection in academic medicine.
Cedric Weatherspoon, LMFTRace Equity and Opioid Use ECHO Co-Director
Mr. Weatherspoon is the Co-founder and President of Empower Therapeutic Services. He is passionate about addressing disparities in the African American community. Since 2007, Empower Therapeutic Support Services has provided systemic-based family therapy to mainly African American people who continue to recover from generational and complex trauma. He believes that addressing disparities takes an all-hands-on-deck approach that involves a collaborative relationship with community members, transformational providers, and innovative community organizations. Since 2015, Mr. Weatherspoon has been supporting the growth and development of individuals and organizations through his training, professional mental health consultation, and program consulting. As a result, the BIPOC people receive services that are empowering and culturally responsive which decreases patient dropout. He has strong relationships with professional, individual community members and organizations who are respected in the African American/Black community willing to support, recruit and participate in this Project ECHO initiative.
Physician Credit
Hennepin Healthcare is accredited by the Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Hennepin Healthcare designates these live activities for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit ™ Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Other Health Care Professionals
Other healthcare providers who participate in this CME activity may submit their statement of attendance to their appropriate accrediting organizations or state boards for consideration of credit. Participants are responsible for determining whether this activity meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education.
Contact
Katia Chernyshov
Diane Spielbauer
Project Coordinator
MN Community Collaboration on Viral Hepatitis ECHO
[email protected]
This project is possible, fully or in part, as a result of grant funding recommended by the Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council (OERAC) and/or the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official policies the Minnesota Department of Human Services; nor mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the state of Minnesota.
