Growing up in a sheep ranching family, Dr. Mary Barinaga was destined for the medical field. She attended the College of Idaho and graduated medical school from the University of Washington School of Medicine as an Idaho WWAMI student.

WWAMI helps deliver medical education and training to students in their home states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

Barinaga went on to complete her residency at Full Circle Health in Boise and then practice rural family medicine for 12 years on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. Today, she serves as the assistant dean for regional affairs for Idaho WWAMI and is a clinical professor at the University of Washington in the department of family medicine.

In addition, Dr. Barinaga has served as the Idaho Medical Association’s (IMA) president for 2024-2025.

““Medicine or health care is a team-based sport,” she said in 2024. “We need to work to the top of our licenses and making sure it is a team effort.”

A deep passion for accurate patient information and quality health care is what drives Therasa Bell. After working in various sides of health care for the majority of her career, she quickly became aware of some of the gaps.

She saw significant challenges and costs with how patient information was shared and exchanged and started to think about how she could do something to make things better. Kno2 was established and she has helped lead the company to soaring success over the past 16 years.

Despite an initial immediate and negative impact on the company at the beginning of the pandemic, Bell has helped Kno2 grow and win awards for its ingenuity. The company was also named No. 1,544 in Inc 5000’s list of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies for two years.

Outside of work, Bell has been a benefactor for Healthstory for many years.

Mary Biddle-Newberry loves people and seeing them thrive. As the director of YMCA Healthy Living Center for the Treasure Valley Family YMCA, she’s honored to oversee disease prevention and management programs. Here, she helps develop and run programs that promote wellbeing, ultimately helping reduce the risk of disease and help people live healthier, more active lifestyles.

Whether it’s building and implementing programs that support the needs of those living with chronic disease or finding ways to help people pursue their own individual health goals, her primary goal is to build accessible programs that improve the health and wellbeing of Idahoans everywhere.

Biddle-Newberry has spent more than two decades in this role and has since built a long list of community partners that share her vision. She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees and is a certified medical exercise specialist.

Liz Bryant has served as the director of the North Idaho Area Health Education Center for more than six years. Having earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Idaho, she understands the importance of education, especially in the lives of young people.

In fact, Bryant state in a 2023 interview that one of her passions is helping young people find a career path in health care. She worked with WWAMI medical students, developing a STEM Youth Outreach service-learning group, stating that she was “very proud of their impact, from panel presentations to full-day career exploration events such as ‘Doc for a Day’ and ‘Hands on Healthcare.’”

She has been lauded by colleagues for her leadership style, professionalism, loyalty and dedication to her endeavors. Along with her current role, Bryant has worked as a pre-health professions program coordinator, group home administrator, nursing department coordinator, research assistant and probation services assistant.

Dr. Paula Carvalho, who serves as a physician with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has had a diverse career in health care and medical education.

From her own education, earning a bachelor’s degree in zoology and subsequently her MD from the University of Washington – School of Medicine, Carvalho has gone on to teach students herself as the academic section chief, pulmonary/critical care/sleep medicine director, intensive care and professor of medicine at UW.

She also started a satellite simulation lab at the Veterans Affairs Hospital, training many medical students, residents and practicing physicians in that time.

“I am honored to have the privilege of teaching, mentoring and contributing to the education of individuals who pursue the profession of medicine and who subsequently provide medical expertise to the state of Idaho,” Carvalho said in a 2023 interview.

Along with her career in the medical field, she gives back to the community by giving her knowledge to nonprofit organizations such as the ALS Association and the DaVinci International Society for the Study of Airway Circulation.