“It takes a team.”

Paris Kharbat, DO, Medical Director

Dr. Paris Kharbat obtained her medical degree from the University of North Texas Health Sciences – Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her  Family Medicine residency in 2001 through the University of California Davis – Mercy Methodist. After residency she worked with Indian Health services as the Medical director during which time she became board certified in medical acupuncture.   While offering an integrative pain practice in Washington state she learned about Functional medicine while on bedrest with her second set of twins and later became an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Over the next eleven years she built a private practice called The Art of Medicine which focused on non-opioid pain management, medical acupuncture, osteopathic manipulation, frequency specific microcurrent and functional medicine.   Her next Functional medicine endeavour was spending three years as one of the pioneering physicians seeing patients from all over the world at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine in Ohio.  Dr. Kharbat enjoys cooking/eating, outdoor activities, and reading.  She loves being able to teach what she strives to do in her own daily life – always looking for the root cause and focusing on prevention and being well balanced in mind, body and spirit.

* As acting Medical Director, she will not be seeing patients at this time.

Mario Brus, MD, Functional Pediatrician

Dr. Mario Brus obtained his medical and pediatric specialty training at Loma Linda University in Southern California. He is a board-certified pediatrician and maintains his Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP) designation with his ongoing commitment to lifelong learning and advocacy for children. His current emphasis is pediatric functional medicine, which aims to find underlying causation for pediatric chronic conditions. He addresses the root cause of these conditions with appropriate laboratory testing, genetic testing, and by emphasizing lifestyle and nutrition changes, as well as appropriate nutritional supplementation. This functional approach to pediatrics allows Dr. Brus to partner in the care of your child by listening to your concerns and making your child’s health his primary focus. He believes in a conservative use of drugs and an aggressive encouragement of lifestyle and dietary changes that strongly impact body and brain function. Overall, his goal is to fix health issues at their source.

Jennifer Hudson, DO, FACOG, Functional Women’s Health & OB/GYN

Dr. Jennifer Hudson obtained her medical degree from Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her residency training in OB/Gyn at Wright State University/Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. She is a board certified OB/Gyn specialist through the American Congress of Obstetrics & Gynecology. For her functional medicine training, she has completed the Kresser Institute’s ADAPT Framework Level One course and plans additional certification through the Institute of Functional Medicine in the near future. She transitions from a busy local conventional practice to pursue professional goals in assisting women of all ages in their quest of optimizing health and promoting healing by identifying root cause of symptoms. Her interest in Functional Medicine started with her own journey to get healthier in preparation for pregnancy, and she continues to reap these rewards every day in her own life and that of her family. She provides full spectrum OB/GYN care with an integrative and holistic perspective; her favorite clinical interests include fertility, natural birth, lactation, family planning/contraception, menstrual disorders, and minimally-invasive gynecologic surgery. She also supports women through the menopause transition, focusing on using the functional medicine philosophy to help balance hormones and prescribes bioidentical hormone replacement when appropriate. Dr. Hudson boasts an extremely low cesarean rate and loves partnering with local doulas to foster the beautiful process of childbirth in a hospital. At this time, Dr. Hudson is only seeing women’s health and OB patients. For primary care and general functional medicine needs, please seek a consult with one of our adult functional medicine providers.

Amber Warren, PA-C, Adult Functional Practitioner

Amber received her Masters in Physician Assistant studies from Midwestern University. She has completed the educational requirements for the Institute of Functional Medicine and is a fully certified functional medicine practitioner. She started her career in orthopedic surgery, appreciating anatomy and physiology, but ultimately had a desire to investigate the body as a whole. She eventually moved into the field of rheumatology, fascinated by the immune system and chronic disease management. It was in this space that she started to investigate the immune system’s interaction with environment, and the root cause of autoimmune disease- alterations in the microbiome. Passionate about nutrition, she started to implement “food as medicine” with her patients, and saw dramatic improvement in symptoms, and ultimately a reduction in the need for pharmaceuticals. A career in functional medicine has allowed her to incorporate everything she believes is needed to heal the body. Outside of her career, Amber enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and anything in the outdoors with her three boys and husband.

Karen Callagy, PA-C, Adult Functional Practitioner

Karen received her Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Pennsylvania State University in 1997. After working in Physical Therapy, as a PTA for several years, she went on to obtain her M.S. in Physician Assistant Studies at Arizona School of Health Sciences in 2005. She began her PA career in Family Medicine, eventually transitioning to Urgent care, as well as a brief stint in Oncology. In all these settings, she began to realize that prescribing medications was not enough to make patients better and in many cases only perpetuated the problem. In her personal life, she was dealing with family members with autoimmune diseases that conventional medicine could not help, because diet was never addressed. After discovering the Institute of Functional Medicine in 2014, there was no turning back. Not only has she helped her own family but innumerable patients with the help of IFM. She continues to work towards her IFM certification, specializing in thyroid and gut health. Karen firmly believes in “mind, body and spirit” and that each of these aspects must in balance for her patients to achieve their maximum health potential. She immensely enjoys going on the journey to wellness with her patients and believes it “takes a village” to accomplish this, ie. Nutrition staff, life coaching, and in some cases counseling. In her personal life, she enjoys outdoor activities with her husband and 3 children, on the mountain where they reside, with their bunnies and Bernese Mountain Dog.

Amy Ray, FNP, Adult Functional Practitioner

Amy Ray is board certified by the American Nurse Credentialing Center as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Amy has over 17 years of healthcare experience and is passionate about seeking out the root causes of chronic “dis-ease” and empowering her patients to reach and maintain a state of optimal wellness. She has her undergrad in Nutrition Science from UC Davis and her Master’s degree in Nursing from MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, MA. She first started looking in to functional medicine after many years of being disillusioned with allopathic medicine when her chronically ill patients rarely ever felt better with conventional treatment. She became fully committed to functional medicine after her father was diagnosed with stage 3 chronic kidney disease and was told he would be “monitored and then treated when it got worse- and it would get worse.” Luckily, he was not satisfied with that answer and came to her for help and guidance using her new found functional approach. He is at is healthiest now, and she has never looked back.  Amy has extensive experience in metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, hormone imbalance, gut health, headaches, and autoimmune issues.  She truly believes that food is medicine and that lifestyle changes are foundational for reversing chronic “dis-ease”.  She believes our bodies are incredibly smart and protective and seeks to partner with her patients to find ways for their unique bodies to find the wellness and balance they once knew. She is currently pursuing certification in functional medicine from the Institute of Functional Medicine. Outside of the office, Amy enjoys fitness, volunteering, gardening, traveling and all things outdoors. She and her husband moved to the area in hopes of enjoying all the wonderful outdoor opportunities Idaho has to offer.

Teresa Gabiola Shelton, PA-C, Adult Functional Practitioner

Teresa earned her Masters in Physician Assistant Studies from Idaho State University. She spent several years as a family practitioner in Utah and Idaho, then began working in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Age Management, and Integrative Medicine. Through continued education at A4M, she’s rediscovered new tools to treat causes of illness, which took the focus away from treating symptoms and instead placed that focus on the entire person. Teresa focuses her practice on metabolic dysfunction and diagnosing and treating hormonal imbalances. She is well versed in using bio-identical hormone therapies. Additionally, she specializes in using intravenous nutritional therapy to treat and prevent a wide variety of chronic illnesses. Her goal of returning control to the hands of the patient and empowering them to find their best health, in Teresa’s experience, is best reached with the therapies of both functional and traditional medicine. She is excited to return to family medicine at Functional Medicine of Idaho and is proud to become a member of this dynamic team. Teresa looks forward to learning about you and your health goals, and to working together to help you feel your best. In her free time, she enjoys getting outside with her two sons and husband, attending events at the Basque block, and getting grubby in her garden, then cooking her native foods for a full house.

Mikayla Todd, FNP, Adult Functional Practitioner

Mikayla Todd is passionate about helping people THRIVE. She is dedicated to seeing people live a VIBRANT life from their insides to their outsides. She is acutely aware that a vibrant life encompasses the whole person. She is determined to see people heal from disease at the root along with preventing future harm.  Mikayla Todd is a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner with specialized training in Functional Medicine through the Institute of Functional Medicine. For the past several years, Mikayla has been practicing at a family practice in San Diego watching people heal from many autoimmune disorders and “irreversible” chronic diseases including but not limited to plaque psoriasis, diabetes, hypertension, various thyroid disorders, PCOS, concussion syndrome, a myriad of gut disorders, and infertility.  She also loves to incorporate genetic testing when applicable. Returning to her hometown in Boise, Idaho, Mikayla is honored to practice at Functional Medicine of Idaho, where she gets to live out her dedication to wholeness through the lens of Functional Medicine. Mikayla believes that with optimal health fully restored, people are able to more fully invest in their one life, the people they love, and the community around them.

Lauren Numedahl, Women’s Health RN

Lauren graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Augustana University in South Dakota. Her interest in functional medicine began with her own health journey three years ago, where she sought out functional medicine after finding herself without answers through the conventional medical system. After being a patient in the functional medicine model of health care, Lauren dove fully in and fell in love with this style of medicine. She loves to see others chase after and achieve complete wellness physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and find new strength and perseverance while on that journey. Lauren loves women’s health care and helping women reach the fullness of who they are created to be! As she has personally experienced, functional medicine can be a vehicle to reaching optimal health and wellness!  In her free time, she loves to travel, read and spend time outdoors.

Tamra Geryk, RN, Integrative Nutritionist

Tamra is a Functional Medicine Registered Nurse, Nutritionist and Health Coach. An educator at heart Tamra is passionate about creating change in how health care is provided and perceived. She is currently pursuing her certification through the Institute of Functional Medicine, specializing in detox, brain health and cardiometabolic health. She has completed all of the Institute of Functional Medicine training modules. Tamra earned a Bachelors of Science in nursing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and completed their accelerated second bachelor’s nursing program. She completed her Masters of Science in exercise science specializing in health promotion, disease prevention and behavior modification. During her graduate studies she completed her field work at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Massachusetts and her Health Coaching Certification through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC. Tamra’s journey into functional medicine began while seeking root cause medicine to address her own digestive and energy imbalances over 15 years ago.

Alexis Villaret, Integrative Nutritionist

A native of Las Vegas, Alexis completed her Bachelors of Science degree in Nutrition & Dietetics in 2013 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Shortly thereafter, Alexis began her career at Rocky Mountain Health & Wellness where she learned the importance of a “whole person” approach to nutrition care. This passion led to her obtaining high honors in a Masters of Nutrition and Functional Medicine. This enabled her to use Functional Medicine to aid in identifying the root cause of nutrition related conditions in lieu of simply reducing symptoms. She additionally provides a functional medicine based nutrition consulting with specialization in the following: food allergies, autoimmune conditions, digestive disorders, diabetes, fertility, depression, ketogenic and paleo meal planning.