Ms. Ripka was born and raised in the Pioneer Valley. As a child, she and her O’Connor family clan were all patients of Holyoke Pediatrics; The circle of life has now brought Ms. Ripka back home to care for new generations of children. While attending graduate school, she worked as a Registered Nurse on the Infants & Children’s unit at Baystate Children’s hospital. After completing graduate school, Ms. Ripka left New England to explore city life and transition to her first role as a practitioner at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Read More

Dr. Velasco grew up in the small central Massachusetts town of Oakham.  She grew to love the Pioneer Valley as a UMass undergrad, where she earned a B.S. in Exercise Science, played flute in the Minuteman Marching Band, and delved into a variety of volunteer roles to explore her interest in medicine.  After college she spent four years working as a cancer research technician, first at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute then at Duke University Medical Center.  

Read More

Dr. Chien grew up in northeast Pennsylvania.  She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Georgetown University.  During her college years she worked in a genetics lab at Georgetown University Hospital.  Not sure whether she wanted to study genetics or medicine, she moved to Philadelphia after graduation and took a job as a genetics research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Read more

Dr. Condon was born and raised in the Boston area. Therefore, she comes by her silly accent honestly. She moved to Western Mass to go to college and fell in love with the area. She returned to her Boston roots for Medical School but the beauty of Western Mass pulled her back for her pediatric training.

Read more

Dr. Gottsegen grew up in New York and Philadelphia, but learned to love New England hiking in the forests and mountains of New Hampshire and Maine.  During college, he spent summers working as a wilderness counselor at overnight camps for inner city children in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.   In college he double majored in English and Biology, concentrating on environmental sciences. 

Read more

Dr. Kates was born and raised in the New York City area, but fell in love with Western MA while pursuing her undergraduate degree in the Berkshires. She headed back to New York for her medical training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. She then stayed on to become Chief Resident in a social pediatrics program devoted to primary care and community health. 

Read more

Though not a native New Englander, Dr. Lemme has quickly made his home here in Western Mass.  Proud to have grown up in the U.S. Air Force, he spent his early years living on various military bases.  After living in Japan for several years, Dr. Lemme’s family settled outside of San Antonio, TX, where he spent the rest of his childhood.  

Read more

Dr. Lynch is a native of Western Mass and proud descendant of Irish and Polish immigrants who grew up in the tiny Franklin County village of Turners Falls.

Despite the clean, country air, she suffered from childhood asthma but was fortunate to be diligently cared for by the late, great Dr. William Buchanan of Greenfield, MA.  

Read more

Dr. Mugford grew up in the south, in a town just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Having always wanted to explore the northeast, she moved to Boston where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Boston College.  Following college, she moved back to New Orleans to attend the Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine.  

Read more

Dr. Norton was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He received his undergraduate degree (magna cum laude) from Georgetown University and his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of California in San Francisco, and was in practice in Marin County, California for several years before moving to the Pioneer Valley. 

Read more

Dr. Petrosky was born in Brooklyn, NY but moved to the Philippines at the age of four where she lived until she was nine years old.  Her family returned to the United States when martial law was declared in the Philippines and her family settled in Massachusetts.  She majored in Biology at Mount Holyoke College and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. 

Read more

Dr. Pillard was born and raised in Cambridge, MA.  After high school, she spent a few years in California before returning east to complete her undergraduate degree at UMass with a focus on Women and Healthcare.  Unsure of whether or not to pursue medicine, Vicky worked before, during and after college in a variety of human service positions - including as an organizer for the United Farm workers union,..

Read more

Dr. Robbins took a circuitous path to HPA and feels very fortunate to now call the Pioneer Valley, and HPA, her home. She was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio and went to college in North Carolina, where she studied Biomedical and Electrical Engineering. She worked for a few years as an engineer doing medical imaging before she moved west to start medical school in San Francisco.

Read more

Dr. Rounds is a proud Pioneer Valley native.  After graduating from Northampton High, she moved on to the University of Virginia, where she earned B.A.’s in both Spanish and biology with a minor in Chemistry.  After college, Dr. Rounds spent a year living and working as a CNA in Austin, Texas.  She returned home to Massachusetts to attend UMass Medical School in Worcester,..

Read more

Ms. Trowbridge is a native of Holyoke, growing up in Holyoke and graduating from Holyoke High School. After graduating from UMass Amherst with a bachelors in both journalism and public health, she knew that she wanted to pursue an advanced degree in nursing. She attended nursing school, getting her masters in nursing focusing on pediatrics from Yale School of Nursing.

Read More