Residency Faculty

Salla Hennessy, MD (she/her)

Core Faculty, Academic Medical Director, Co-Director POCUS & Procedures, Family Medicine

Dr. Hennessy (she/her) is our founding Academic Medical Director at Santa Cruz Community Health, the Federally Qualified Health Center that houses the residency continuity clinic (Family Medicine Practice) at the Live Oak Health Center. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Dr. Hennessy graduated with a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University and attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, cementing her love for community medicine with completion of a Schweitzer fellowship. She trained at the Sutter Health Family Medicine Residency Program in Sacramento where she served as Chief Resident, and upon graduation, was excited to move to Santa Cruz in 2019 to serve the local community. In 2022, she stepped into the role of Site Medical Director of the Live Oak Health Center prior to taking on her new position in 2023. She is enthused about welcoming residents into the continuity clinic to practice full-spectrum outpatient medicine.

Dr. Hennessy is passionate about reproductive justice and fundamentally believes in the importance of equitable access to healthcare for all. In addition to POCUS and outpatient procedures, she particularly enjoys teaching well-childcare, comprehensive reproductive healthcare including prenatal care and medication abortion, gender-affirming care, and office-based addiction treatment. She speaks Spanish with patients, and is teaching her kids her own first language, Finnish. Outside of medicine, she enjoys reading, hiking, spending time at the beach, and backpacking adventures.