Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents

Sarah Birkholz, M.D. 

Hometown: Wayzata, Minnesota
Medical school: Creighton University
Undergraduate school: Drake University; Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology

Sarah Birkholz's favorite part of residency is that it's incredibly supportive! The environment is one in which you feel comfortable learning and making mistakes, and everyone works well as a team and the comradery improves patient care. She enjoys spending time with her co-residents both at work and outside of the hospital. After graduation, she's interested in being a generalist or hospitalist.

Brikholz was a flight surgeon in the Navy for four years with a F/A-18 squadron and has over 100 flight hours! She loves baking, skiing, drinking good wine, brewery hopping, camping and hiking. She and her husband, Ryan, scuba dive, and they dove the second largest artificial reef, the Vandenberg Wreck, in Key West, Florida. They moved to St. Louis with their adorable son, Casen, and two goldendoodles, Ollie and Piper. She and her son can frequently found running around Forest Park. They also try to go for family walks every evening.

Miranda Corona, M.D.

Hometown:  O’Fallon, Missouri
Medical school: Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: Rockhurst University, B.S. in Biology

Miranda Corona's favorite part of residency is the community of co-residents and faculty whom she learns from daily. Each and every individual is compassionate and patient in teaching and caring for patients. She hopes to practice as a generalist in her career but has not ruled out the option of fellowship yet! SLU has been the perfect fit to get excellent generalist training as well as exposure to robust sub-specialty departments.

Corona and her husband are both from St. Louis and were incredibly excited that she could continue her training at SLU. Outside of work, she enjoys camping, hiking, reading and watching live music.

Raneem Issawi, M.D.

Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas
Medical school: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Missouri-Kansas City, B.A. in Biology

Raneem Issawi's favorite part of residency is the camaraderie. You can graduate as a competent OB-GYN from just about any program, but not all programs have the positive culture that SLU upholds. When working long hours and managing job-related stress, it's important to find co-residents who will step up when needed and support each other. That's exactly what Issawi has found here.

Issawi pursued obstetrics and gynecology for the balance of medicine and surgery in women's health. As of now, she would like to be a generalist. She enjoys the aspects of each subspecialty, so it's hard to make up her mind! She's also interested in studying the effects of socioeconomic status on post-operative pain.

Prior to the start of residency, Issawi went backpacking in Portugal and Italy. It was a one-of-a-kind experience, and she met so many people from the world whom she still talks to today. She enjoys traveling and has been to Western Europe a couple times, so her next goal is to travel to Latin America or Asia. Issawi also enjoys yoga and exploring the city — she's been to a Cardinals game, the Muny, Forest Park and the International Festival in Tower Grove Park. She has two cats, Prince and Whiskers, and an incredible partner who is an opthalmology resident here in St. Louis.

Neither of Issawi's parents had the opportunity to graduate high school. They were able to work hard to push she and her siblings to pursue professional degrees. She is forever grateful to them!

Issawi was the March 2024 Resident of the Month.

Kirby Mateja, M.D. 

Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Medical school: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Undergraduate school:  University of St. Andrews in Scotland, United Kingdom; B.S. in Biology

Kirby Mateja's favorite parts of residency are the people she works with at SLU and her amazing call schedule! She's interested in pursuing a fellowship in urogynecology.

Mateja loves skiing and hiking in Colorado with her family. She spent four years in Scotland for her undergraduate degree and was able to travel all around Europe and Asia. It was the best decision of her life!

Yelena Mishkov, M.D. 

Hometown: Des Moines, Washington
Medical school: University of Washington School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Washington Bothell; B.S. in Biology

Yelena Mishkov's favorite part of residency is the trauma-bonding! She's not sure where her career will go, but sure enough, her cat, two dogs and lovely spouse will come along.

Mishkov enjoys hiking in national parks and hopes to visit all of them. Closer to home, she enjoys knitting and finding new audiobooks and podcasts. She knows the first 40 numbers of pi; she memorized them to earn a pie in grade school and now they have real estate in her brain.

James Redmond, M.D. 

Hometown: Torrance, California
Medical school: Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Undergraduate school: University of California Santa Barbara; B.S. in Cellular and Developmental Biology

James Redmond's favorite part residency is that the resident culture fosters an enjoyable learning environment. Older residents and faculty are happy to teach, and residents genuinely have a fun time working together. Redmond is interested in being a generalist OB-GYN and is planning on a career that involves research or education. He's interested in fertility awareness-based methods of family planning.

Redmond and his wife have a toddler and another baby on the way! He loves backpacking, playing soccer and going to breweries with friends.

Redmond was the February 2024 Resident of the Month.

Lynn Bui, D.O.

Hometown: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Medical school: Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Oklahoma; B.S. in Biology, B.A. in Psychology

Lynn Bui's favorite parts of residency are learning from supportive faculty, trauma-bonding with quality residents and exploring food in a diverse city. Her passion for women's empowerment led her to pursue an OB-GYN career — a specialty that appealed to her because it encompasses a diverse range of activities, including clinic work, L&D and surgery. She sees herself being a generalist at heart but is open to exploring subspecialties such as family planning or MIGS in the future.

Bui loves to travel and has so far been to 28 countries. Prior to significant chapters in her life, she plans big backpacking trips. Before residency she took a trip to Asia climbing mountains in Nepal, biking in Switzerland and surfing in the Philippines. She plans to take another big trip after residency!

When Bui is not working, you'll catch her outside. She loves being active, whether that involves snowboarding, scuba diving, backpacking, playing tennis or lounging by the pool. Her wellness is sipping a glass of wine while she paints and takes care of her plant babies.

Alyssa Hobson, M.D. 

Hometown: Shawnee, Kansas
Medical school: University of Kansas School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: Stanford University

Alyssa Hobson's favorite parts of residency are the amount of experience she gets and the collaborative, supportive culture. Her co-residents are fantastic, and she's so happy she gets to work with them! Hobson is passionate about improving medicine for diverse patients and hopes to do this not only be being a minority provider herself, but also through focused efforts/research, medical education and a post-residency practice in a rural area.

Hobson was a cheerleader throughout most of her life, including at Stanford University, and she really enjoyed many of the amazing places cheer was able to take her, from California to China! Outside of medicine, she enjoys traveling, hiking, pilates and spending time with family and friends.

Caroline Lamoutte, M.D. 

Hometown: Plant City, Florida
Medical school: University of Florida College of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Florida; B.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science, B.A. in French and Francophone Studies

Caroline Lamoutte's favorite part of residency is her co-residents, who are the best. She loves their pre-call Trader Joe's snack runs and impromptu sand volleyball tournaments. Everyone is incredibly supportive, and the blend of academic and community medicine provides a unique training opportunity. Lamoutte is unsure whether she wants to subspecialize. She's considering urogynecology or MIGS, but the thought of not delivering babies anymore is a little sad.

Lamoutte and her best friend once got the chance to walk the last 100 km of the Camino in northern Spain. They experienced almost every form of weather in those five days and hobbled their way into Santiago on Day 5. It was one of her most incredible adventures.

Lamoutte enjoys playing beach volleyball, leisurely runs, hosting dinner parties, baking, reading, road-tripping, visiting friends across the U.S. and Italy, playing board games and going to breweries. Her sister managed to drag her and her brother into training for a half-marathon. They love their sister so they did it, but they barely survived.

Onyinyechukwu (Onyee) Ibekwe, M.D. 

Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky
Medical school: University of Louisville
Undergraduate school: University of Kentucky, B.S. in Biology

Onyinyechukwu Ibekwe's favorite part of residency is the camaraderie and support amongst the residents. She was drawn to obstetrics and gynecology because of the balance between surgery and medicine. She thinks she would love to be a generalist.

In her free time, Ibekwe likes to crochet and create fun outfits. She enjoys caring for several plants at home and is currently debating getting a cat.

Abigail Knuckles, M.D.

Hometown: Waterloo, Illinois
Medical school: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Missouri, B.S. in Biology

Abigail Knuckles' favorite part of residency is the program's promotion of work/life balance! Since her first day, she's felt lucky to gain a family of co-residents who are supportive and love to have fun in and outside of work! She is confident that the camaraderie and patient-forward training she has observed during her time here will give her the building blocks needed to be a skilled and knowledgeable OB-GYN. Knuckles is from the St. Louis area and happy to be back to complete her residency at SLU. She sees herself working as a generalist, though REI and MFM have always peaked her interest.

When Knuckles was younger, she raced go karts as part of her family's racing team! She enjoys watching Blues hockey games, traveling to explore national parks, jeeping and trying local goods from St. Louis farmer's markers. Her life at home revolves around making good food, doing Pelaton workouts and taking cute pictures of her Bernedoodle, Doc.

Rena Wang, M.D. 

Hometown: Cupertino, California
Medical school: Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of California Davis

Rena Wang's favorite part of residency so far has been working with such great people! She was a medical student at SLU and wanted to pursue obstetrics and gynecology largely because of this program and its residents. She's undecided about her future career but is open to exploring as many avenues as she can, including generalist medicine and fellowship options.

Wang loves to travel. So far she's been to 34 countries and 22 national parks! She also enjoys sand volleyball, hiking and trying new restaurants around St. Louis.

Katherine DeHoog, M.D.

Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Medical school: Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: Spring Hill College, B.S. in Biology

Katherine DeHoog's favorite part of residency is feeling so supported by everyone around her. Being a medical student, she was able to see firsthand just how much the residents cared for each other and the relationships they had with faculty within a few short weeks. The days are long, but the people on your team are who help you get through them. DeHoog's plan is to be a generalist because she appreciates that she gets to enjoy all aspects of the specialty! If she were to specialize, she would consider urogynecology or minimally invasive gynecologic surgery.

DeHoog's hobbies include trying to make her way through the St. Louis food and drink scene, playing on a co-ed soccer league, crocheting/needlepointing and walking through every park St. Louis has to offer! She adopted a cat her first year of medical school and decided to name her Peperacilian (Pip, for short) after the antibiotic she was learning about in pharmacology class. She plans to get a dog during residency training and is open to other drug-related name suggestions.

Lauren Evelti, D.O.

Hometown: Decatur, Illinois
Medical school: Kansas City University's College of Osteopathic Medicine
Undergraduate school: Saint Louis University, B.S. in Health Sciences

Lauren Evelti's favorite part of residency is training at an institution that values both academic excellence and a strong commitment to the community. She has felt support since her first day, and her co-residents have been welcoming and encouraging, which has made the transition into residency much smoother. She also appreciates the breadth of clinical experience. She gets to see and do so much, making this a great place to learn and grow.

Evelti is drawn to the full spectrum of obstetrics and gynecology. She really values continuity of care, building strong patient relationships and working with diverse communities. She is also passionate about global health and hopes to continue doing international work throughout her career. While she's leaning toward generalist practice, she's keeping an open mind about subspecialty training as she goes through residency.

Growing up in an Italian family, Evelti was lucky to spend her summers in Italy just outside of Rome. She'd spend her days at the beach, eat endless gelato, explore the surrounding area and enjoy time with loved ones. Those summers are some of her favorite memories and keep her grounded in her roots. She feels fortunate to return at least once a year and hopes to continue the tradition for many years to come.

Some of Evelti's favorite things to do include traveling, running outdoors, exploring coffee shops, baking, cooking homemade meals and trying new restaurants.

Nadia Kenfack Kembou, M.D.

Hometown: Washington, New Jersey
Medical school: Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Undergraduate school: Rutgers University, B.A. in Biology

Nadia Kenfack Kembou's favorite part of residency is the camaraderie among residents and staff. She works alongside amazing colleagues who are not only brilliant and hardworking, but also genuinely supportive friends. She also appreciates the commitment to providing quality care to a diverse patient population.

Kembou is passionate about women's health and driven by the opportunity to support, educate and advocate for women through every phase of their health journey. She is still exploring career interests and is open to the possibility of practicing as a generalist or subspecializing.

Kembou is a native of Douala, Cameroon and fluent in both French and English. She enjoys dancing, trying new cuisine and learning new languages. She is currently learning Spanish and a bit of Korean. She hopes to travel the world, discover beautiful sights, help as many people as she can as a clinician, and try even more delicious dishes.

Michelle Krach, M.D.

Hometown: Kingsville, Maryland
Medical school: Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Undergraduate and graduate school: Drexel University; B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, M.S. in Biomedical Engineering

Michelle Krach's favorite parts of residency are the friendship and support among the residents. She thinks she will be a generalist, but she's open to fellowship if that's where residency takes her.

Krach traveled to Thailand before residency and got to feed elephants! She enjoys baking, sewing, reading, puzzles, board games, hiking and her sweet but rambunctious cat named Bambi.

Hannah Manion, M.D.

Hometown: Twin Cities, Minnesota
Medical school: Creighton University School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: Bethel University; B.S. in Biology, B.A. in Spanish

Hannah Manion's favorite part of residency is her co-residents. She was drawn to this program because she could tell people supported each other and enjoyed spending time together outside of work; she was not disappointed. She also thinks the medical complexity of our maternal-fetal medicine population will prepare her to leave residency feeling confident managing medical co-morbidities in pregnancy. She's undecided about specializing; she is drawn to gynecologic oncology and minimally invasive surgery but doesn't know if she wants to give up deliveries.

Before medical school, Manion lived in Segovia, Spain. She first went for a semester abroad while pursuing her undergraduate degree, but she returned after graduation to become a TA for the program. She traveled around Spain and Europe, and her wonderful host parents taught her how to cook traditional Spanish food. They spent many evenings watching professional football and golfing.

In her free time, Manion likes kayaking and hiking in the summertime. But, as a Minnesotan, she doesn't mind winter and enjoys skating and downhill skiing. She also enjoys baking for her co-residents and hosting dinners. She also loves traveling and hopes to one day visit Asia.

Priya Suvarna, M.D.

Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas
Medical school: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Undergraduate school: University of Missouri-Kansas City

Priya Suvarna's favorite part of residency is how she's felt welcomed, encouraged and supported by everyone in the program. She feels very lucky to be surrounded by so many people who want to help her grow every day.

Suvarna loves to cook, read, play work games and explore coffee shops. All four of her grandparents were teachings of some kind, and her family has inspired her deep passion for academic medicine.

Emma Famous, M.D.

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
Medical school: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Kansas City, Missouri
Undergraduate school: Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, B.S. in biology

Emma Famous’ favorite parts of residency have been getting to know her class and working with other residents. She is currently undecided on post-graduation plans but would like to continue working with underserved populations.

In her free time, Famous enjoys dancing, reading, sewing, jigsaw puzzles, walking and hanging out with her dogs. She has two rescue dogs, Lucy and Gilmore. Interesting tidbit: She has climbed a volcano!

Rebecca Hammond, M.D.

Hometown: Elmhurst, Illinois
Medical school: Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska
Undergraduate school: University of Notre Dame, Southbend, Indiana. B.S. in neuroscience and behavior

Rebecca Hammond’s favorite part of being a resident at SLU is the people! Her career interest is to be an OB-GYN generalist.

Hammond's hobbies include long walks (she lives walking distance to Forest Park now), yoga, pilates and reading. The coolest thing she has done outside of residency is hike Mt. Kilimanjaro when she was in college.

Kayte Lafon, M.D.

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Medical school: University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee
Undergraduate school: DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois. B.S. in biology

Kayte Lafon’s favorite part of residency is the genuine sense of community here. Everyone has welcomed her openly, and she can feel how invested both the residents and faculty are in her learning and growth. She truly enjoys the patients she serves and learns so much from them every day!

Lafon loves OB-GYN because being a generalist offers such broad variety in practice while still allowing for development of lasting relationships with patients throughout all stages of life. She would like to work with high-risk and underserved populations throughout her career and is considering the possibility of pursuing fellowship training in high-risk obstetrics.

Lafon is not from St. Louis, but she has visited frequently and has loved the city since she was a kid. Before starting medical school, she traveled across Europe for a month with her sister, visiting Greece, Italy, Ireland, France and England! She loves trying new restaurants, pilates, needlepoint, true crime and cooking. She is recently married, and she and her husband have an Australian shepherd named Eddie.

Lauren Schaffer, M.D.

Hometown: Mason, Ohio
Medical school: University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio
Undergraduate school: Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. B.S. in both kinesiology and pre-medical
studies;  minors in neuroscience and art/architecture history

Lauren Schaffer’s favorite part of being a resident at SSM Health/SLU is the people. Residency is difficult anywhere — logistics, learning, hours, patient demands, managing life at home -- and having kind, available people around makes a world of difference. Everyone, from the program directos and attendings to her co-residents, and operating room and cafeteria staff have been lovely, supportive, making it a great place to work.

Schaffer is planning on becoming a generalist and would like to stay at least adjacent to the world of academia, as she hopes to one day work for a medical school alongside medical students and residents and help with their training.

Schaffer is married to an anesthesia resident whom she met in medical school through her CMDA chapter, and she hopes to have kids sometime soon. (TBD if in residency or not!) She is the youngest of three girls, and while her responsibility hat is on at work, her sisters and lovely parents will say that she does sport a stereotypical “youngest personality.” In her free time, Shaffer loves a good trivia night (theme or general) or even just a good Jeopardy episode at home. She loves to paint a wide variety of things (and is open to commissioning). She also loves cooking with her husband -- primarily Mediterranean and Italian. Interesting tidbit: She has flown in a two-seater plane.

Alexandra Marie Tan, M.D.

Hometown: College Station, Texas
Medical school: Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska
Graduate school: Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, M.S. in medical physiology
Undergraduate school: University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, B.S. in neuroscience and behavior

Tan’s favorite part of being a resident at SLU is the community.

Tan’s parents and one of her sisters are also in medicine. She loves to be outdoors, crocheting, biking and walking in the park. She is also a big fan of cottage cheese!

Flannery Voges-Haupt, M.D.

Hometown: Starkville, Mississippi
Medical school: University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi
Graduate school: Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi, M.S. in biomedical science
Undergraduate school: Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, B.S. in chemistry

Voges-Haupt was drawn to SLU because of the patient population and extensive experience in high-risk obstetric care. She loves how genuinely the residents and faculty work together and feels very supported during her residency. She chose OB-GYN because every day brings something different -- the blend of preventive care, surgical experience and both high- and low-acuity care while caring for women throughout different milestones of their lives. She is probably going to be a generalist but is also drawn to surgical subspecialties like gynecology oncology, urogynecology and minimally invasive gynecology surgery.

Voges-Haupt is one of eight kids (a middle child), so she feels right at home among 23 other residents. She loves to travel, scrapbook her adventures, scuba dive, ski, paint, make jewelry from her plants and go thrifting. She is also learning, but is not yet fluent in, other languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Greek and ASL. During her last year of medical school, she had the opportunity to travel to Peruvian Amazon. She has also lived on a riverboat for a few weeks with a medical team that traveled down tributaries of the Amazon providing medical care to villages otherwise unable to access healthcare.