Meet Our Team
Concierge Physicians and Staff
Daniel S. Frank, MD
Daniel S. Frank, MD is a board-certified internist with over 30 years of practice experience. He is a magna cum laude graduate of UCLA in neuroscience. Dr. Frank attended medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington and at UCLA. He founded MedNorthwest in 2002, following a 12 year career in emergency medicine, primarily at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Frank enjoys cycling, photography, and coding in C# and SQL Server. (Dr. Frank is a Seattle Magazine 2023 “Top Doctor” and a Castle Connolly 2024 “Top Doctor.” These are completely meaningless awards, but we throw them in here anyway.)
Melissa Schorn Kester, DNP
Melissa Schorn Kester, DNP is a doctorate-level, board-certified nurse practitioner. A native midwestener, she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing with honors from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her Doctorate of Nursing Practice from the University of Washington, one of the best programs in the country. She worked as a nurse practitioner in an academic setting at the University of Washington for five years before joining MedNorthwest. As a nurse practitioner, she has a full scope-of-practice license and can perform all the functions of a physician. Melissa has almost two decades of experience in health care and is proud to serve as the PCP for several physicians who are themselves patients here at MedNorthwest. In addition, she has held several leadership and teaching positions during her career. Melissa’s approach to patient care is to be an excellent listener, radiate kindness, and bring the highest quality scientific research to bear on patient’s problems. When not taking care of temperamental surgeons, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband and family, reading, cross country skiing, hiking, running with her dog, and boating.
Martha Fitelson, MD
Dr. Fitelson is a Seattle native and board-certified internist with undergraduate degrees in microbiology and psychology from the University of Washington. After her undergraduate education, she worked in a research lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on vaccine development. She also served on a humanitarian mission to Ecuador. She then returned to UW for her MD degree, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Virginia Mason Medical Center here in Seattle. Before joining MedNorthwest, Dr. Fitelson worked as an internist for five years in the Providence Health system where she also taught and mentored medical students and residents. In addition to her regular duties, and because of her particularly strong bedside manner and humanistic skills, she was selected by her physician colleagues to staff the Palliative Care Service at Providence which provides comfort care to dying patients. Serving as an internal medicine specialist, Dr. Fitelson particularly enjoys the close relationships she develops with patients and wants to be a strong advocate for their health. In addition to a love of medicine, Dr. Fitelson enjoys gardening, playing the guitar, spending time with her husband and extended family, and letting her cat, Ollie, run the household.
Dr. Fitelson will be joining MedNorthwest in November 2024.
Ivy Evans, ARNP, MPH
Ivy is a nurse practitioner who received her bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. She then worked in research on toxicological and bioanalytical chemistry at Battelle Memorial Institute. This included investigations into radioactive materials, research and development on vaccines, and studying the health effects of a variety of chemicals encountered in everyday life. She returned to Case Western to complete her Master of Science in Nursing to become a nurse practitioner. In addition to her bench science training, she also holds a Master’s in Public Health. Prior to joining MedNorthwest, she worked in gastroenterology. As an adult-gerontology nurse practitioner, Ivy sees patients 13 and up, and her license permits her to perform all the functions of a physician in Washington state for patients in that age range. Although she considers herself a true generalist in internal medicine, her training provided an additional focus on geriatrics. Ivy takes care of a number of complex individuals aged 80 and older, coordinating management with patients and their adult children who are often involved in their care. Interestingly, she has an equal number of patients aged 30 and below, where their parents are also sometimes quite involved. Ivy’s approach to clinical medicine is to empower patients and families to make decisions that are right for each individual. Ivy enjoys painting, reading, and exploring the outdoors with her husband and their dog.
Roshan S. Panchanathan, MD
Roshan Panchanathan, MD (“Dr. P” for short) is a board-certified internist. Dr. P grew up in beautiful Gilbert, Arizona and holds a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley. He received his MD degree from the University of Arizona, where he was nominated by his peers to the Gold Humanism Honors Society. His internal medicine residency was completed at the University of Washington. Dr. P managed to produce nine peer-reviewed papers during his education, including several where he was first author, and also has many poster presentations and abstracts. He enjoys building meaningful relationships with his patients and helping them develop a personalized plan to achieve their health goals. As a general internist, Dr. P especially appreciates the broad mastery of medicine that a true generalist can bring to patients. He loves sports, including basketball, pickleball, and tennis. Dr. P also likes to play the guitar and spend time with family and friends. He is a proud new father in 2024.
Melia Shorr (Practice Manager)
Melia Shorr is MedNorthwest’s practice manager who joined our office in 2015. She grew up in Bellevue and studied at the University of Washington. Her responsibilities include hiring, training, and mentoring her team of medical assistants, managing the day-to-day operations of the office, supervising the work of the many vendors and small businesses that assist the practice, and supporting all of the physicians and nurse practitioners at MedNorthwest. In addition, she continues to provide expert bedside care to our patients. On rare occasions, such as unexpected school closures, we’ve been fortunate to have an even more capable employee, Melia’s daughter, here in the office, where she uses up our office supplies and creates stunning art projects.
Julianne Tran
Julianne is a medical assistant who has been with MedNorthwest since 2020. She handles a wide variety of both administrative and medical assisting duties. Julianne received her bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the University of Washington and has a background in primary care. She was born and raised in Washington and is musically quite gifted, having played over 10 instruments. She is also an alumni of the Husky Marching Band. Go Dawgs! Julianne’s affinity for music certainly explains her love for the boy band group, BTS. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, finding new restaurants, playing the piano, reading, and spending time with her friends, family, and her two cats, Oliver and Peaches.
Danielle Alioto
“Dani” is a medical assistant who grew up in Washington State and completed her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at CWU. She then continued her education with additional coursework in anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and organic chemistry. She has worked as a medical assistant since 2017, initially in Moscow, Russia (actually Idaho, but Russia sounds more exotic), and then at Harborview before joining MedNorthwest. Dani handles a variety of front and back-office duties. In her free time, Dani enjoys hiking with her dog Barkley, reading mystery novels, and knitting.
Alex Hernandez
Alex was born and raised in Los Angeles. She studied at Cal State LA and started her healthcare career at Los Angeles Downtown Medical Center, a 269 bed hospital about a mile from Dodger Stadium. In that role, she served as an executive assistant to senior management and also worked as a relief pitcher for the Dodgers during home games. She then helped start and run an internal medicine practice in Los Angeles. Looking for a change of scenery, she moved to Seattle and joined MedNorthwest. Alex is a medical assistant with a variety of front-office and back-office duties, including taking vitals, drawing blood, giving vaccines, fighting insurance companies, and generally advocating for patients. Alex is an avid reader, a dedicated sports fan, and a great cat and dog mom. She loves spending time with friends and family.
Hunter Zaller
Hunter is a Navy brat who grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming. Her late father was a Navy SEAL on famed SEAL Team Six, and her mom served in the Navy as a petty officer first class. Her younger brother is a corpsman on the USS Comstock. After completing her medical assistant training, she worked in two specialty areas for about four years before moving to Seattle and joining MedNorthwest. Hunter prefers working as a generalist and really enjoys the wide variety of conditions that are seen in primary care. She practices the full scope of medical assisting on both the clinical and administrative sides. When not working, Hunter likes spending time with her two dogs, sailing, and hiking. (Note: Because of her family background in the military, it is recommended that you salute Hunter prior to all blood draws and flu vaccines.)
Ann Jarris, MD
Dr. Ann Jarris is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Mayo Medical School, an affiliate of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She completed her residency in emergency medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Jarris is a diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. She is a co-founder of Discovery Health, LLC and director of telemedicine for MD Solutions International. Dr. Ann provides on-call coverage for the practice.
Get in touch
901 Boren Ave, Suite 1520, Seattle
office@mednorthwest.com
(206) 292-0700
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