Carrie Rubenstein, MD
Program Director
Directing the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and being part of the Swedish Family Medicine - First Hill faculty gives me the opportunity to work with wonderful people in a city that I love. I enjoy caring for patients of all ages, but have a particular affinity for older adults. I am excited to share this passion as we train our family medicine residents and geriatric medicine fellows.
In light of our rapidly aging population, understanding best practices in geriatric care is essential knowledge for the family physician. I grew up in New Jersey and went to college at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). I returned to my home state for medical school at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School - Rutgers University. There I was inspired and mentored by Dr. Jeff Brenner, a Swedish - First Hill graduate. Jeff has spent his remarkable career redesigning clinical care models to deliver better care at lower cost while serving under-resourced populations. Dr. Brenner advised me that there was no better place to train than Seattle if I wanted to become a family physician. Thus I ventured west. I did my residency here at Swedish-First Hill and stayed on to complete the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship. I practiced for eight years at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, a community health center in Seattle’s Central District, as a full-spectrum family physician.
I embraced the opportunity to start a new residency clinic site in partnership with the Swedish - Cherry Hill Residency. I ran the clinic site for five years, working both as a physician at Carolyn Downs and as faculty at Swedish - Cherry Hill. I directed Swedish-Cherry Hill’s geriatrics curriculum and ran a geriatric assessment clinic. I am energized by working with residents and fellows and was delighted to return to Swedish-First Hill as the director of Swedish Geriatric Medicine Fellowship in 2014. Outside of work, I keep busy running, biking, and adventuring with my daughter Zelda and my husband Justin. We stay active outdoors in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, always looking for our next adventure.
