Sansum Medical Group Santa Barbara Introduces Board of Directors

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September 12, 2024 (Santa Barbara, CA) Sansum Medical Group Santa Barbara, the organization ofclinicians who serve patients of Sansum Clinic, now part of Sutter Health, today announced members of its Board of Directors for the current term. Members began their terms on July 1, 2024, and will serve through 2027.   

“We are pleased to welcome these members of our board who are dedicated to our Central Coast communities and our patients,” commented Jeff Hadsall, M.D., Sansum Medical Group Santa Barbara Board of Directors President and practicing internal medicine physician at Sansum Clinic. “I am confident that this group of talented, experienced physicians will successfully guide our organization as we work together to further improve and expand access to the care we offer.” 

Daniel Brennan, M.D., Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

Dr. Brennan has been serving patients in his hometown for more than 23 years and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  He previously served as the Chair of Sansum Clinic’s Pediatrics Department. He has been a volunteer coach for over 60 youth sports teams, serves as a board member for the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table and Dos Pueblos Little League, referees recreational and high school soccer, and he pens the ‘Your Hometown Doc’ Noozhawk column. Dr. Brennan completed his medical school training at Albany Medical College and his pediatric internship and residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. 

Gregory Cogert, M.D., Cardiology & Electrophysiology

Dr. Cogertjoined Sansum Clinic in 2015 and has more than 20 years of experience caring for patients with heart disease. He is board certified in clinical cardiac electrophysiology and specializes in arrhythmia management with complex catheter ablation and device implant. He completed his medical school training at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine, his residency and internship at UCLA Medical Center, his cardiovascular medicine fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and his clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowship from Mayo Clinic.       

Bret Davis, M.D., FACP, Dermatology

Dr. Davis has been a Sansum Clinic dermatologist for more than 25 years, with a focus on the diagnosis and treatment of skin cancers including life-threatening melanoma. He completed his medical school training at the University of Washington School of Medicine, his internal medicine residency at Cambridge Hospital, his dermatology residency at Boston University/Tufts University and a skin oncology clinical fellowship at Boston University. Dr Davis is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He also serves as a member of the Sutter Health Greater Central Coast Advisory Board.    

Bryan Garber, M.D., Pulmonology & Critical Care

Dr. Garber joined Sansum Clinic in 2018. His expertise in the management of critical illness and advanced lung disease placed him on the front lines of our community’s battle against COVID-19. Dr. Garber’s interest in pulmonary medicine grew from his personal experiences with childhood asthma. He completed his medical school training at David Geffen School of Medicine and his internal medicine residency and internship, and his pulmonary and critical care fellowship training at UCLA. 

Mukul Gupta, M.D., Medical Oncology & Hematology

Dr. Gupta has been serving Central Coast patients as a medical oncologist and hematologist for more than 20 years, most recently at Ridley-Tree Cancer Center. He is an experienced researcher and has had his studies on lymphoma and carcinoma treatments published in medical journals. He completed his medical school training at the University of Zambia, his internal medicine residency and internship at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center and his hematology and oncology fellowship training at the University of Southern California. 

Jeffrey Hadsall, M.D., Internal Medicine

Dr. Hadsall has practiced internal medicine at Sansum Clinic for 25 years and has served on the Board of Directors for Sansum Medical Group Santa Barbara for 19 years. He has been President of the medical group since November 2023, representing the voice of clinicians during Sansum Clinic’s integration with Sutter Health. He most recently guided the recruitment of more than 25 new clinicians in 2024, and the effort to increase patient access to care through expanded hours. He completed his medical training at Washington University School of Medicine and his internal medicine residency at UCLA.   

Justin Hwang, D.O., Goleta Family Medicine

Dr. Hwang joined Sansum Clinic in 2020. He completed medical school at Touro University in California, and his residency and internship training at Aspirus Wausau Family Medicine. Following medical school, Dr. Hwang served as a faculty member for the University of Wisconsin Wausau Family Medicine Residency Program before joining Sansum Clinic. Dr. Hwang is certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians. 

Toni Meyers, M.D., Ophthalmology

Dr. Meyers joined Sansum Clinic in 2008 and has been treating patients for more than 20 years. She employs state-of-the-art treatments and technology to improve and restore vision for patients as a specialist in cataract surgery and glaucoma treatments/procedures/surgeries. She completed her medical school training at St. Louis University School of Medicine, her internal medicine internship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and her glaucoma fellowship at Emory University. Dr. Meyers volunteers as a medical advisory committee member for SEE International. 

Nicole Stern, M.D., MPH, Urgent Care

Dr. Stern joined Sansum Clinic Urgent Care in 2014 as an internal medicine and sports medicine physician after serving as the Associate Athletics Director for Spors Medicine and Sports Performance at the University of California Santa Barbara.  In addition to completing her medical school training, residency and internship at the University of Arizona, she received a Master of Public Health in Health Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health while serving as a Commonwealth Fund Fellow in Minority Health Policy at Harvard School of Medicine.  Dr. Stern is a citizen of the Mescalero Apache Tribe of New Mexico and has served as president of the Association of American Indian Physicians.  She speaks nationally on American Indian health equity challenges, the lack of AI/AN health professionals and the need for more medical education opportunities for AI/AN students. 

All nine Sutter-aligned medical groups, including Sansum Medical Group Santa Barbara, recently received high marks on state report cards which rate how well clinicians care for patients. The 2023-2024 edition of these report cards was recently released by the California’s Center for Data Insights and Innovation’s Office of the Patient Advocate. 

Sansum Clinic, now part of Sutter Health, is the leading nonprofit provider of high-quality, outpatient healthcare on the Central Coast. Both Sansum and Sutter share a century-long commitment to improving the health of their communities and have embarked upon this partnership to shape the future of healthcare for those they serve. Sansum Clinic’s 260+ highly trained clinicians and compassionate staff of 1,200+ care for more than 160,000 individual patients per year, contributing significantly to the medical quality in Santa Barbara, which has a long history of being advanced despite its small size.   

Sutter Health is a not-for-profit healthcare system dedicated to providing comprehensive care throughout California. Committed to health equity, community partnerships, and innovative, high-quality patient care, Sutter Health is pursuing a bold new plan to reach more people and make excellent healthcare more connected and accessible. Currently serving nearly 3.5 million patients, thanks to our dedicated team of more than 57,000 employees and clinicians, and 12,000+ affiliated physicians, with a unified focus on expanding care to serve more patients. 

Sutter Health delivers exceptional and affordable care through its hospitals, medical groups, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care clinics, telehealth, home health, and hospice services. Dedicated to transforming healthcare, at Sutter Health, getting better never stops. 

Learn more about how Sutter Health is transforming healthcare at sutterhealth.org and vitals.sutterhealth.org.