Family Practice Residency Program

Meet Our Faculty and Staff

Our faculty strives to live up to their reputation of being the most supportive and approachable, while teaching residents to treat a diverse, underserved patient population. We focus on training outstanding, balanced residents, in a hospital and outpatient environment dedicated to teamwork, community service, work/life balance and physician wellness. Residents cite our faculty as the highlight of the program and the reason they came here.

Ronald Chambers, Jr., MD, FAAFP | Program Director
Dr. Chambers grew up in Shasta Lake, with the lifelong desire to become a third generation family physician. He attended UC, Santa Barbara where he majored in Zoology, Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. Prior to entering medical school he worked in Washington D.C. at the Surgeon General's Office on Healthy People 2010, the UCSF Gladstone Institute on HIV research, lectured on anatomy and kinesiology at UCSB and was active in coaching the Special Olympics, the Big Brothers Program, Operation Smile and a variety of other philanthropic activities. He attended medical school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. where he continued to diversify his medical training with alternative medicine techniques while remaining focused on primary care. Residency training was done at Methodist Hospital where he participated in CAFP, worked on a medical trip to Africa and volunteered at local free clinics. Dr. Chambers was the first graduate of this program to join the faculty full time and has completed the UCSF Faculty Development Fellowship. His interests include humanitarianism in medicine, global health, sports medicine, any outdoor activity and spending time with his wife and children. View his profile for more information.

Timothy Takagi, MD | Associate Residency Director
Dr. Takagi grew up in Long Beach, CA and received his B.S. in Fisheries Biology from UC, Davis. He did research for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, taught P.E. and worked at a suicide prevention hotline, before deciding to enter the medical field. He graduated from UC, Davis School of Medicine and went to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield to complete residency training, serve as chief resident and spent an extra year teaching. He moved back to Sacramento and practiced emergency medicine in the Sierra foothills before taking over a solo private practice in south Sacramento. Realizing that teaching was still very important to him, Dr. Takagi joined the Methodist Residency Program in 1996. When he finds free time between work and family, he enjoys photography, music, cooking and outdoor sports. His first addiction is still volleyball, but his knees are starting to feel old. View his profile for more information.

Candace Lawson, MD | Medical Director, Mercy Family Health Center
Dr. Lawson hails from Talladega, AL, home of the Winston 500 and historic Talladega College. She completed her bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley with a major in Conservation and Resource Studies. She then did a year and a half of epidemiological research in San Francisco studying the AIDS epidemic. She completed her medical school training and residency at the UC Davis, followed by an academic medicine/adult medicine fellowship. She has worked in a variety of settings including community clinics, academic centers and corporate healthcare environments. Her professional interests include women's health, medical education, continuous quality improvement and general family practice. She enjoys playing piano, reading and spending time with her family. Dr. Lawson is an Assistant Clinical Professor with the Department of Family Practice at the University of Southern California. View her profile for more information.

Marina Rasnow-Hill, MD | Faculty Physician
Dr. Rasnow-Hill graduated from U.C. Davis Medical School in June of 2007. She did her three-year Residency here at the Mercy/Methodist Family Medicine Residency. Pursuing her interest in Obstetrics, she completed the Swedish Family Medicine High Risk Obstetrics Fellowship in Seattle, WA, in 2011. We were thrilled that she returned to join the core faculty in September 2011. Dr. Rasnow-Hill is a good cook and a dedicated athlete. She and her husband care for an interesting menagerie of animals.

India Fleming, PhD | Faculty Member, Behavioral Medicine
Dr. Fleming was born and raised in Berkeley, CA. She earned her PhD in psychology from the University of Maryland, then worked as a researcher studying chronic stress. She returned to school for clinical training at the California School of Professional Psychology, pursuing a special interest in health psychology. She then did a clinical psychology fellowship and served as a volunteer clinical faculty member in Family Practice at the UC, Davis Medical Center and worked in the Psychiatry Department at Kaiser. Clinically, Dr. Fleming practices from a constructivist perspective using cognitive-behavioral, narrative and family systems approaches. Her teaching commitment is to help physicians develop the knowledge, perspective and skills to truly incorporate psychosocial components into a biopsychosocial practice. Dr. Fleming juggles her dream job here with spending time with her husband and twin daughters. She enjoys reading, cooking and outdoor play including bike riding, hiking and kayaking.