Meet the Redding doctor who's training a new generation of physicians for the North State

The North State faces a number of challenges in its health care system, including a shortage of doctors and a proliferation of patients living with low incomes and other barriers to consistently getting health care services. When disasters like the 2018 Carr Fire or the COVID-19 pandemic struck Shasta County, the challenges become exponentially greater.

But a family medicine physician at the Shasta Community Health Center in Redding who is facing these challenges head on has received national commendations for her efforts.

Meet Dr. Debra Lupeika, who serves as director of the family medicine program at SCHC.

Her medical work recently won Lupeika a 2023 California Medical Association (CMA) Compassionate Service Award for her commitment to community and charity care.

Among her accomplishments, Lupeika was “instrumental in establishing an accredited family medicine residency program to serve the county’s low-income and underserved populations,” the CMA said.

Dean Germano, who recently retired as CEO of Shasta Community Health Center, lauded Lupeika’s commitment to help ease a persistent physician shortage in the North State by creating "a primary care workforce for those who are otherwise medically underserved, particularly those served by Medi-Cal and the uninsured.”

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She is also a strong advocate of securing funding for residency and healthcare workforce training.

Said Germano: “Many people served by primary care physicians in our community will probably never know what role she played in helping to train their physician and helping them to remain in the North State, so this CMA recognition is more than well earned.”

Attracting doctors-in-training who have North State ties

Livermore native Lupeika has lived and practiced in Redding since 1998, after graduating from Finch University of Health Sciences at the Chicago Medical School. She started her career working at the Redding Rancheria. Lupeika went on to SCHC to start its family practice residency program, which is affiliated with UC-Davis.

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Launched in July 2013, Shasta Community's residency program trains 12 doctors each year. It’s a challenge to keep doctors in the Shasta County area because of greater opportunities for medical and other professionals in the Bay Area or Sacramento, she said.

So it helps to find residents who have ties to the community. "If somebody's from here, they're more likely to stay here,” Lupeika said.

She added: “As a family practice doctor, you can still deliver babies, you do surgical assists, we see adult patients, we do hospice care. You do everything, so the training’s really great.”

Residents at SCHC also gain a more complete understanding of all the issues that can create barriers to patient care, she said, as the program emphasizes training “the doctors on how to treat the whole person."

That can include understanding a patient’s family structure, income level and stability of housing. It also factors in chronic disease, mental health challenges or substance abuse.

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“There’s a lot of need. So being at Shasta Community, our patients have a lot of boundaries and barriers to accessing care,” said Lupeika.

The Carr Fire

One of the ways Lupeika has worked to remove those barriers to care is through the Hope Van, a mobile medical unit that serves people who are homeless or residing at Redding's One Safe Place domestic violence shelter.

During the 2018 Carr Fire, when “many, many people just had to evacuate immediately,” Lupeika said she mobilized the Hope Van's help. “There was a shelter at Shasta College, so we just drove the Hope Van there and just parked and said, ‘Okay, what does everybody need?’” she recalled about that tumultuous period.

“She was determined to care for those in need of medical attention,” said Kristy Bird MaKieve, executive director of the North Valley Medical Association and Butte-Glenn Medical Society in a statement about the doctor's effort.

And Bird MaKieve noted that Lupeika and other hospital faculty also readied and carried out an evacuation plan for patients at Mercy Hospital during the deadly wildfire, including moving premature infants in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward.

Lupeika worked hard “to ensure the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable helpless patients while the fire was heading directly toward the hospital,” said MaKieve at that time.

Helping Babies Breathe

Lupeika’s work also includes leading international medical missions, where she and her team have delivered neonatal resuscitation devices to help babies survive. In 2023, her group went to Guatemala to train midwives, nurses and community members to use those bag valve masks.

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“We bring medical students, we bring residents,” Lupeika said. “What’s nice about it is you learn about another culture, and you come back treating your own patients with more compassion because you understand language barriers or transportation barriers.”

While the COVID-19 pandemic kept the group from traveling for several years, Lupeika also has led groups to assist in the mountainous Caribbean island nation of Dominica and the West African country of Ghana.

An advocate, mentor

Lupeika started her education as a psychology major at UC-Berkeley before heading to medical school, eventually landing on family medicine. “I had a great family medicine doctor growing up… so that was one of my role models," she said of what helped crystalize her career passion.

Now Lupeika is herself a role model for a new generation of physicians-in-training.

Dr. Amanda Mooneyham, who grew up in Redding, first met Lupeika when Mooneyham was a fourth-year medical student at UC-Davis. Mooneyham went on to join the SCHC residency program, then stayed on as faculty and is now the associate residency program director.

After Mooneyham arrived back in Redding following medical school, she said Lupeika encouraged her to start a local medical society chapter. The Shasta Trinity Chapter for California Academy of Family Physicians is meant to foster community and advocate for local issues affecting family medicine physicians, she said.“It takes a lot of patience and compassion to be in her position and (Lupeika) is a great role model for everyone who works with her,” Mooneyham said.

In teaching medical residents, Lupeika said she stresses that listening to patients is key.

So is finding “your passion in medicine," Lupeika said, "because if you find your passion, it's not work. You're loving what you do every day. And that’s why I’ve always enjoyed family practice. I get to do all kind of cool stuff every day — and then train people on that as well.”

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding's Dr. Debra Lupeika receives national recognition