Program Director
Maria C. Andrews, MD
Born right here at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH), Dr. Maria Andrews is proud to serve her hometown community as faculty in TMH’s Family Medicine Residency Program. She is an alumna of Chiles High School and Stetson University (DeLand, Florida), where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Integrative Health Science. After her undergraduate years, Dr. Andrews moved to the U.K. to earn her Master of Science in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford, where she studied the social aspects of illness and the treatment of disease.
Clinical Medical Director
Russ D. Cole, MD
Dr. Russell Cole was born in Marietta, Georgia, and grew up in nearby Kennesaw. He started college at Young Harris College in the mountains of north Georgia and progressed on to the University of Georgia (UGA), where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in Ecology in 1998. He subsequently earned a Master of Science in Human and Animal Toxicology at UGA (ask him about the behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans), and his medical degree at Emory University School of Medicine in 2007.
Associate Directors
Tanya M. Evers, MD
Dr. Tanya Evers is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who has been a member of TMH’s Family Medicine Residency Program faculty since 2012, after completing residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. While in residency, she was a proponent of mother-infant bonding and lactation and conducted research on completion rates with the HPV vaccination. During her time at TMH, Dr. Evers has been a physician champion on various TMH and Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative initiatives and enjoys the opportunity to work on multi-disciplinary teams. Currently, Dr. Evers is the project director for a Department of Health and Human Services HRSA grant which will increase patient outreach and support physician training throughout the Big Bend region.
Matthew T. Standridge, MD
Having grown up on a farm in rural Appalachia, Dr. Standridge always planned on pursuing a medical career that involved taking care of under-resourced communities. During medical school at East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, he completed the rural training track and went West to complete his residency in Family Medicine at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado. While in residency he both served as Chief Resident and was awarded the David Bates Award for excellence in Family Medicine. After residency, Dr. Standridge has had a varied and exciting career in Family Medicine.
Faculty
Nectar Aintablian, MD
Gregorie A. Bupe, MD
Dr. Bupe grew up in the big city of Orlando, FL and moved to Tallahassee, FL where she attended Florida State University for her undergraduate studies as well as for medical school. She then received her Family Medicine training in the small town of Greenwood, SC at the Self Regional Healthcare Family Medicine Residency Program. She returned back to Tallahassee, FL to get further training in Obstetrics as a fellow with the AD Brickler Family Medicine Obstetrics Fellowship. She now calls Tallahassee, FL home and is excited to serve as a faculty member at the TMH FMRP and practice full-spectrum family medicine.
Starr J. Ball, DO
Starr Ball, DO was born and raised in Arkansas. With her mother being a well-respected Family Physician, she discovered early on in life that she was called to follow in her footsteps.
Dr. Ball completed her medical school education at William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2018. Following graduation, she spent the next three years completing her Family Medicine residency at the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa, Oklahoma where she served as chief resident her final year. She remained at the residency as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine where she supervised residents in the clinical and hospital settings.
Alecia Hassler, LCSW
Raised in the Central Florida area, Mrs. Hassler moved to Tallahassee nine years ago. In Central Florida she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in social work from the University of Central Florida. In Orlando, Florida, Mrs. Hassler completed internships at the Mental Health Association of Central Florida, The Outlook Clinic, and Aspire Health Partners. Upon graduation, Mrs. Hassler continued working in community mental health as a therapist at Aspire Health Partner’s Children’s Outpatient Program.
In 2014, Mrs. Hassler moved to Tallahassee, Florida and began working with adolescents at Capital City Youth Services in their crisis youth shelter. During her time at Capital City Youth Services, Mrs. Hassler gained a wide variety of experience working with at-risk youth and families. She worked in Wakulla County as a therapist providing mental health counseling services to children in both schools and the community for several years. From 2019 until 2024, Mrs. Hassler served as the Clinical Director of mental health services at CCYS. In this role, she also began providing qualified supervision for counselors pursuing their social work license.
Ronald L. Machado, MD
Dr. Ronald Machado is originally from New York, growing up on Long Island until the middle of high school. He obtained his Biochemistry degree from Florida State University in 1992 and then entered the FSU Program in Medical Sciences (PIMS) ultimately receiving his medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine. He completed his Family Medicine residency training at Shands at the University of Florida. He joined the faculty of the Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program in July of 2000 and served in that full-time capacity for over a decade.
Daniel R. Matta, MD
Dr. Daniel Matta was born in Cali, Colombia and moved to Tampa, Florida in November of 1999 with his parents and brothers. He completed undergraduate and medical school at the University of South Florida, graduating from medical school in 2013. He then went on to complete a family medicine residency at Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2016. While in residency Dr. Matta was blessed to meet his wife, Noemi, and they married in April 2016. After residency, he completed a one-year hospitalist fellowship at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine. Dr. Matta stayed in Maine until Dec. 2018 where he worked as a full-time hospitalist while staying involved with medical students and family medicine resident education. He acted as Assistant Fellowship Director for the hospitalist fellowship for the last year he was there.
Joseph M. Mazziotta, MD
Dr. Joseph Mazziotta joined the faculty in 1999. He graduated as Chief Resident from the Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program in 1995. After graduation, he served in the Air Force for four years where he was twice deployed to the Middle East. He is interested in procedures including skin surgery, point-of-care ultrasound, thoracentesis and vasectomies. He also has a particular interest in smoking cessation, wound care, international medicine and disaster management, and is certified in HIV medicine. Dr. Mazziotta was named Program Director in 2015. He and his wife, Danielle, have three children, Jake, McKenzie and Ellie. When not working you can find him out on the lake with his favorite dog, Prudence.
Kaitlin McGrogan, DO
Kaitlin was born and raised in Greensburg, PA and like any true Western PA native, she is a diehard Steelers and Penguins fan. She completed her B.S. in Biology at the beautiful Allegheny College in Meadville, PA and graduated with her D.O. degree from PCOM-Philadelphia Campus in 2015. During her time in medical school, she was awarded the Andrew Bagby Memorial Primary Care Scholarship from her local hospital’s family medicine program, which helped solidify her interest in family medicine. After spending all her life in Pennsylvania, she moved to West Virginia to complete her Family Medicine residency at Marshall University. During her residency, she was elected chief resident and further developed her passion for family medicine with obstetrics.
Richard Kelley Myers, MD
Dr. Myers was raised in Georgia and attended the University of Georgia, graduating with a double major in Microbiology and Psychology. From there he went on to the Medical College of Georgia for his medical degree. He received his Family Medicine training in Greenwood, SC at the Self Regional Healthcare Family Medicine Residency Program. After residency, he went into full-time Academic Medicine and did a faculty development fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He is board-certified in Family Medicine, Focused Practice Hospital Medicine, and Palliative Medicine. He serves on the ABIM Internal Medicine Exam Committee and is a question writer for the ABIM board exam.
Livia Nishi, MD
Dr. Livia Nishi, MD, was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She moved to the United States in 2017 and worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Then she moved to Jacksonville where she worked as a research trainee at Mayo Clinic.
During her residency, Dr. Nishi focused on women's health and participated in the Family Medicine Obstetrics training track. She also developed a quality improvement project using the IHI model to enhance structured improvement in women's access to contraception at her residency clinic. As chief resident, she graduated from the University of Oklahoma Tulsa and was honored with the Paul E. Tietze Memorial Award for delivering excellent and compassionate care, going above and beyond for her patients when needed.
Hugh W. Oliver, MD
Dr. Whit Oliver was born in Baptist Hospital on Napoleon Ave in New Orleans. All his life he has loved gumbo, po-boys, red beans and rice, jazz music, Mardi Gras and all things Louisiana. A graduate of Louisiana State University Medical School in New Orleans, he arrived in Tallahassee in 1979 to attend the TMH Family Practice Residency Program. Following his residency, he was the second Fellow in Obstetrics at the Family Practice Residency Program, where he was mentored by Dr. Alexander D. Brickler.
Bryan D. Robinson, MD
Dr. Robinson joined our faculty in August 2011. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care. A native of Tallahassee, Dr. Robinson is a graduate of the University of Florida School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, Richmond, Virginia. After 14 years practicing with Southern Medical Group, Tallahassee’s premier Internal Medicine practice, he served as Medical Director of Big Bend Hospice for over seven years. Dr. Robinson has assumed a key leadership role on the Residency’s adult inpatient service. He also assists with precepting in the Family Medicine Center.
David P. Robinson, MD
Dr. Paul Robinson joined the faculty in January 2011. He is board-certified in pediatrics and adolescent medicine, which he loves. Dr. Robinson is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his residency in pediatrics and his fellowship in adolescent medicine at Vanderbilt University Affiliated Hospitals. After seven years of private practice in Jacksonville, Florida, he had a 14-year academic stint at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, culminating in his role as Director of Pediatric Residency Training 2002-2008. He relocated to Tallahassee in 2008 to join Tallahassee Pediatrics, where he became very popular with the residents for his strong interest in teaching.
Phillip Treadwell, PharmD
Dr. Treadwell began working with the Program in 1995, rounding with the adult medicine service each morning. In 2000, he joined the Program full-time. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Florida, and subsequently completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at TMH. He has a particular interest in infectious disease and anticoagulation. He is certified in HIV Medicine and alligator trapping (for real!). Dr. Treadwell is an extremely valuable resource on our inpatient medicine service, runs our weekly anticoagulation clinic, and leads residency research efforts.
Midwives
Miriam Gurniak, CNM
Miriam came to North Florida in 1996, straight from the midwifery program at Yale, to serve families in Madison, Jefferson, and Taylor counties. She is now delivering the babies of babies she delivered. Miriam is widowed and has two sons: a local EMT who is becoming a firefighter, and a mechanical engineer who lives in San Francisco and works on alternative energy storage. She recently acquired a new pair of purple Birkenstocks, reads voraciously, loves Classical music, and spends her downtime gardening in the yard around her 1899 Tallahassee home.
Karen Honn, CNM
Karen Honn, CNM joined Anderson Brickler Midwifery in 2017 after practicing for three years in a hospital-owned practice in Lawrence, Kansas. Utilizing her passion for empowering women and natural labor, she has chosen to bring her talent to the hospital setting so that the women of North Florida can have a peaceful birth within the reach of our highly qualified Obstetric and Neonatal professionals at TMH. Karen is a powerful, supportive voice for her patients and their families, often exceeding expectations of all in her care.
Kathleen McKeon, MSN, CNM
Kathleen McKeon, MSN, CNM, also known as “KK”, has been part of the TMH Family Medicine Residency Program since 2005.
KK received her Master’s in Nursing/Midwifery at the Medical University of South Carolina. She served 14 years Active Duty in the United States Navy, and then served 12 years in the Navy Reserves. She has worked as a CNM in Naples, Italy; North Carolina, Louisiana and in Florida. Her husband is also Retired Navy. They are both active members of St. Peter's Anglican Church here in Tallahassee. They have 2 adult children, 3 dogs, and 2 cats.
Catharina Williams, CNM
Catharina Williams hails from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she graduated from UniRio with a BS in nursing. There, she worked with diverse populations in public and private hospitals as a Level III NICU nurse. In 2009, Catharina moved to the US where she continued her work in neonatal nursing. She decided to pursue a degree as a Nurse-Midwife because of the compassionate and nurturing patient-centered care that she received from her midwife while pregnant with her first daughter. She attended the historic Frontier Nursing School based in Kentucky and graduated with a Master's degree in 2015.
