Barbara Harper attended UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas after graduating from Rice University following public high school in Houston, Texas. Barbara completed her Internal Medicine residency in Dallas and it was during her residency that her interest in Geriatric Medicine was first sparked. She practiced Internal Medicine at a start-up Geriatrics Clinic affiliated UT Southwestern prior to her move to Seattle. Once in Seattle, Barbara focused on her young family. She found walking to be a good way to enjoy the city during all seasons – particularly so, after an older Norwegian friend told her that “there was no wrong weather only wrong clothes.”
Barbara continued practicing General Internal Medicine after her move to Seattle – first doing locums hospitalist work at night for several years, then working locums Internal Medicine at several Skilled Nursing Facilities – first with Group Health, then with the Swedish Medical Group.
It was while working with geriatric patients in the Skilled Nursing Facilities that Barbara began to feel it was important to increase her knowledge of Geriatric Medicine. The CoViD19 pandemic – and trying to help older family members long distance to navigate the medical system during the pandemic – gave urgency to that idea. It is Barbara’s hope that with more intensive training in Geriatric Medicine she will better understand her patients’ medical problems as they relate to aging and better encourage her geriatric patients (and their families) to obtain care for themselves and to make changes which lead to longer and fuller lives.
Stephen Supoyo (he/him) grew up in New York City and was the first in his family to earn a four-year college degree. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with Departmental Honors from the University of Rochester, majoring in Molecular Genetics and minoring in History. He then served in the AmeriCorps for two years as a patient navigator at a refugee resettlement agency in Philadelphia, PA, and a Healthcare for the Homeless program in Brooklyn, NY. He decided to become a Family Medicine doctor with the goal of being able to treat people of all backgrounds and all ages – from cradle to grave. He joined the National Health Service Corps as part of his commitment to community-based primary care for communities in need.
Stephen graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and completed his Family Medicine residency training at Kaiser Permanente Washington in Seattle. He is currently an Addiction Medicine Fellow at Swedish Cherry Hill receiving additional training in the treatment of substance use disorders, and will soon begin as a Geriatric Medicine Fellow at Swedish First Hill to receive training in the treatment of complex, elderly and frail patients. His other clinical interests include adolescent medicine, mental health, health policy and universal health care, anti-racism and reproductive rights. Outside of work, he enjoys board games, kayaking, biking, eating out, traveling, grassroots politics and his adopted senior (15 year-old) cat, Smokey.
