OUR PROVIDERS
Our compassionate provider team is made up of skilled professionals ready to help you break the cycle of pain.
Dr. Luke Liu, MD | Dr. Terry Pexton, DO | Dr. Ben Ekstrom, MD | Dr. Nicolas Wieder, DO
Dr. Wendy Gaultney, PhD
Greg Gootee, PA-C | Paola Kennah, PA-C | Hailey Lankford, PA-C
Jamie Lytton, PA-C | Monique Hathaway, PA-C
Dr. Luke Liu, MD
Dr. Luke Liu is board certified in both Pain Management and Anesthesiology through the American Board of Anesthesiology. He received his medical degree from UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine in 2004, graduating from the highly competitive accelerated 7-year B.S. + M.D. program. He then completed his Anesthesiology residency and Interventional Pain Management fellowship at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.
CEO, CMO, Founder, Physician
ABA Board Certified in Anesthesiology
ABA Board Certified in Pain Medicine
Dr. Terry Pexton, DO
Physician
ABPMR Board Certified in Pain Medicine
ABIM Board Certified in Internal Medicine
Fellowship Trained in Palliative Care
Dr. Terry Pexton completed medical school at the Chicago College of Osteopathy. While there, he completed an extra year of training in Musculoskeletal Medicine. He then completed an Internal Medicine residency at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego. This was followed by a fellowship in Palliative Care and another fellowship in Interventional Pain Medicine at UCSD.
Upon completion of his schooling he then worked for a number of years in a traditional Interventional Pain Medicine Clinic in Seattle.
He is happy to have joined Neuroversion, where traditional meets a new and innovative approach to Pain Medicine.
Dr. Ben Ekstrom, MD
Physician
ABA Board Certified in Pain Medicine
ABA Board Certified in Anesthesiology
ABA Board Certified in Pediatric Anesthesiology
Dr. Ekstrom is a highly trained, compassionate pain medicine specialist and a true Alaskan. His primary interests are providing pain relief for children, patients with cancer, and those with complex pain conditions. He is also a practicing anesthesiologist.
He first decided to pursue a career in medicine while serving as an interpreter for Operation Smile in Cambodia. A service and global public health mindset have carried through from that time. He studied Neuroscience at Brigham Young University prior to medical school and is fascinated by the deep mysteries of the brain and consciousness. This led to him choosing a career in anesthesiology and pain medicine. He trained in some of the best institutions in the nation, including a residency in anesthesiology at Virginia Mason Medical Center, a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital, and a multidisciplinary pain medicine fellowship through teaching hospitals at Harvard Medical School. He is board certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology for all three specialties.
Dr. Ekstrom was raised in Alaska and graduated from Dimond High School. He enjoys the great outdoors in Alaska including fishing, camping, hunting, and biking.
Dr. Nicolas Wieder, DO
Physician
Dr. Wendy Gaultney, PhD
Pediatric Pain Psychologist
Wendy Gaultney, PhD, is a pediatric psychologist. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, her clinical internship at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, OH, and her postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric pain at Oregon Health & Science University.
Dr. Gaultney works with children and young adults who have chronic pain and their families. As a member of the interdisciplinary clinical team at Neuroversion, she works alongside patients from their initial pain evaluation through treatment of pain. Her research and advocacy interests include increasing the collective understanding of process of risk and resilience in the development of chronic pain and for treatment outcomes. Her overarching goal is to inform models of pain prevention and early intervention. Dr. Gaultney is delighted to join the Neuroversion team to provide children and young adults with pain and their families with high quality interdisciplinary pain care in Alaska.
Outside of work, Dr. Gaultney is an avid rock climber, hiker, cyclist and gardener.
Learn more about what Dr. Gaultney does here!
Greg Gootee, PA-C
Greg began his physician assistant training while serving in the United States Air Force, working in both primary care and orthopedics during his military career from 1983-2010. Since retired from the Air Force, he began working on the North Slope focusing on occupational medicine until he joined Orthopedic Physicians Alaska (OPA), where he was in practice for 5 years. He brought his orthopedic knowledge and experience to Neuroversion when he joined our team in February 2017.
Physician Assistant - Certified
Paola Kennah, PA-C
Physician Assistant - Certified
Paola was born and raised in Peru. She moved to Alaska in 2001 and has been living in Alaska since then.
She earned her 1st Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical Laboratory Science in 2009 from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She then worked in a clinical microbiology lab. She has also worked in general labs in Anchorage and in villages such as Nome, AK. She continued to expand her clinical experience, working in hemodialysis and physical therapy clinics. She has gained many years of clinical experience working in the lab and working with patients directly, which has helped Paola build a foundation for her new career as a Physician Assistant.
Paola earned her 2nd Bachelor of Science degree in Physician Assistant studies from the University of Washington MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program. She completed her PA education in August 2018, and obtained her PA national certification by the NCCPA in September of 2018.
As a long-time Alaskan now, Paola enjoys the outdoors such as skate skiing in the winter, spring triathlons and water sports in the summer. She also enjoys Latin dancing and traveling around the world.
Hailey earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2016. She juggled her undergraduate degree with her job as a medical scribe in the Emergency Room at Providence and across various outpatient clinics in Anchorage. Her experience as a medical scribe gave her a broad view of the medical community throughout Alaska. In September of 2019 she became a certified Physician Assistant after earning her Master of Clinical Health Services degree from the University of Washington.
Hailey has lived in Alaska for twenty years and enjoys spending time outdoors, reading and traveling the world. Next up on her list is travel to Greece and Italy with her husband.
Hailey Lankford, PA-C
Physician Assistant - Certified
Jamie Lytton, PA-C
Physician Assistant - Certified
Jamie Lytton earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological Sciences from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. While attending the university she worked as a nurse assistant at the UNC Cancer Hospital. She had always wanted to be a PA, and it was actually a patient she was taking care of at the hospital that convinced her to submit her application that year. With only two days left to apply, she submitted her application and was accepted at Elon University PA program in North Carolina.
In order to pay for school, she applied to the military Health Professions Scholarship Program and was granted a scholarship to pay for school. Following her graduation she worked as a PA in primary care for the Air Force, completing her three year commitment at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Her husband is currently in the military and has relocated them to Texas and Alaska. Jamie has worked in urgent care and emergency medicine specialties. She is very excited to be here in Alaska and working with Dr. Liu’s Pain Management team.
Jamie enjoys fishing with her husband, hiking and shooting photography in the outdoors.
Monique Hathaway, PA-C
Physician Assistant - Certified
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