about us
our staff
Julia Getzelman, MD, FAAP
Julia Getzelman, M.D. founded GetzWell Pediatrics in 2008 based on the belief that an integrative approach to pediatric care which combines the best of conventional and alternative medicine is the wisest approach to health optimization and the treatment of illness in kids.
Dr. Getzelman graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Stanford University with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa. She later earned her medical degree from Yale University and completed her residency at Children's Hospital Oakland. Thereafter, she was an attending physician in the neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric clinic at Highland, Oakland's county hospital and also worked at After Hour Pediatrics in San Mateo. In the 5 years before founding GetzWell, she practiced at Saint Luke's Health Care Center in the Mission where she provided whole kid care to over 1200 patients. She is board certified in pediatrics and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Getzelman embraces the many components that contribute to health and illness: nutrition, physical activity, emotional/psychological stresses, and the environment, among others. She has a special interest in how nutrition and intestinal health contribute to overall wellness. To that end, she has completed the core curriculum of the Institute of Functional Medicine, located in Gig Harbor, Washington. Dr. Getzelman has additional training in homeopathy, homeopathic detoxification, and applied nutritional biochemistry/food as medicine.
Dr. Getzelman grew up in California and was the oldest of five children. She loves the outdoors and is fascinated by nature. She comes from a musical family, has sung in a variety of venues over the years, and decided recently to rediscover the piano after a long hiatus. She has a passion for romance languages and is fluent in Spanish and Italian. Dr. Getzelman lives in the Mission District with her husband and step-son.
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Aarti Nasta, MD, FAAP
Aarti Nasta, M.D. received her bachelor's degree in Community Health at Brown University. She earned her M.D. from Brown University School of Medicine, and completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). After her residency at CHLA, Dr. Nasta worked as a public health volunteer in Mumbai, India with the Committed Communities Development Trust, an organization that serves over 60,000 urban poor (of whom 65% are children) in Mumbai. She spent eight months as a staff pediatrician providing comprehensive children's healthcare. She delivered integrated health services to extremely poor children growing up in economically and emotionally challenged environments. During this time, Dr. Nasta began caring for orphaned children with HIV/AIDS. She introduced the use of anti-retrovirals in this population and combined nutritional support with child therapy as part of the overall treatment plan for her patients. She founded the HIV/AIDS Holistic Treatment & Care Initiative in Mumbai, a Clinton Foundation program. This program vastly improved the quality of life for these children and, as a result of her advocacy, is still in place today.
Dr. Nasta is an inpatient hospitalist and outpatient attending at Children's Hospital
Oakland. She is board certified in pediatrics and a member of the American Academy
of Pediatrics. Dr. Nasta embraces a holistic approach in the care of children.
Her passion for comprehensive patient care has been augmented by her clinical research
in a range of fields including sexual victimization amongst undergraduate college
females, access to primary care for lower socioeconomic patients, and hematology/oncology.
Dr. Nasta is fluent in Hindi and Spanish and loves tennis, Indian dancing, reading and
traveling. Dr. Nasta lives on the Peninsula with her husband and infant daughter.
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Janis Mandac-Dy, RN, MSN, CPNP
Janis Mandac-Dy, CPNP was awarded her Master of Science in Advanced Practice Pediatric Nursing from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) after completion of her RN and a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry. In 2004, she was selected by Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. as the top master's student and was awarded the Isabel McIsaac Scholarship. Janis also received the Patricia Smith Christensen Scholarship, a national honor awarded biennially to one graduate nursing student in the areas of maternal or child health nursing selected by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Before beginning her nursing studies, Janis was involved in basic science research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA and the Lung Biology Center at UCSF. Janis has co-authored many publications related to this research.
Janis joined GetzWell Pediatrics at its inception in 2008. Prior to this, she worked alongside Dr. Getzelman for several years in the pediatric clinic at St. Luke's Health Care Center as both a nurse practitioner and clinic manager. Janis is also the Clinical Director of the Multidisciplinary Assessment Center (MDAC) at San Francisco General Hospital. The MDAC clinic conducts developmental assessments of children ages 0 to 5 years, focusing on San Francisco's underserved pediatric population.
Janis is nationally certified by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board. She is fluent in Spanish, and enjoys the outdoors, traveling, and spending time with her family. Janis grew up on a farm in Lathrop, California. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son.
topColleen Panina, MD, FAAP
After graduating from Stanford University, Colleen Panina, M.D. taught high school geometry at Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco. Dr. Panina earned her medical degree at St. Louis University and graduated cum laude. She went on to complete her internship and residency at Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she was named Outstanding Intern. While at Children’s Hospital Oakland she also completed a two year fellowship in infectious disease. Most recently, she has been a member of the pediatric hospitalist service at California Pacific Medical Center. She is board certified and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Panina is a native San Franciscan. She is married and is the mother
of three children. In her spare time she likes to coach high school women’s
basketball.
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Marcella Spera, MD, FAAP
Marcella Spera, M.D. grew up in New York City. After earning her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, Dr. Spera completed medical school at Penn State University College of Medicine, where she decided on a career in pediatrics. She subsequently moved to New Mexico to enter her pediatric residency at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. During this period, Dr. Spera also served the Native American population through the Indian Health Service, did advocacy work for the local immigrant community in New Mexico, and served as a volunteer doctor in Brazil, Cuba, and Costa Rica. In the final year of her residency, Dr. Spera was appointed Education Chief and received an "Excellence in Teaching" award upon completion of her pediatric residency.
Upon completion of her residency, Dr. Spera worked for the emergency department at the UC San Diego Children's Hospital as an urgent care physician. After a year, she relocated to San Francisco and has practiced as a hospitalist and adolescent medicine physician at Children's Hospital Oakland and Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. From 2006 through 2008 she also provided pediatric medical services through La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland.
Dr. Spera has a strong and longstanding interest in nutrition having been raised as
a vegetarian in a macrobiotic household. Dr. Spera's interests include the science of
nutrition (food as medicine), the mind-body connection, adolescent and public/environmental
health. She is board certified in pediatrics and a member of the American Academy of
Pediatrics. In her free time, Dr. Spera practices yoga and loves to travel and photograph
the world. She is fluent in Italian and Spanish.
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Mary Janowitz, RN, IBCLC
Mary received her B.A in sociology from Barnard College in 1970 and A.D. in nursing from the City College of San Francisco in 1983. She has worked in every area of maternal child nursing (post-partum, special care nursery, and labor and delivery). Mary became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant in 2000 after her work as a home visiting nurse to mothers and babies led her to the realization that most of the problems mothers were having with their newborns at home revolved around feeding issues. She has been the principal Lactation Consultant at St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco since 2000 and has significant expertise in the early neonatal period, with multiples, and premature infants. Mary provides education for families and nurses at St. Luke’s.
Mary and her husband raised their two children (now grown) in Noe Valley,
and she routinely walked to Star Bakery (the former long-time occupant of
our office space) to buy cookies for her family. She breastfed both her kids
at a time when there were, at best, scant lactation support services. Mary’s
greatest wish is to help families achieve their desired breastfeeding goals.
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Sharon Epel, LMFT
Sharon Epel, LMFT, earned a BA and an MA in English from UC Berkeley and UCLA and received her Masters in Counseling from San Francisco State University, with an emphasis on Marriage, Family and Child Counseling. As a psychotherapist she specializes in parenting and family issues and has worked with families, couples, individuals and children in clinics, schools, and her private practice in San Francisco. Sharon provides education, support and counseling in helping parents and children thrive. She is dedicated to assisting parents to find and maintain a sure foothold on the tumultuous and joyful journey of parenthood, from infancy to adolescence. Prior to becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist, Sharon put those English degrees to work in journalism. She was a writer and editor for publications such as Parenting magazine and BabyCenter.com, where she wrote about topics ranging from what children learn from their parents' relationship to how new parents can survive the NICU.
Sharon uses an interactive approach in her parenting classes, giving parents the chance to provide each other with support and hard-earned wisdom. She is certified in teaching Positive-Discipline parenting using the work of Jane Nelson, and has additional training in Dr. Ross Greene's Collaborative Problem Solving for parents and children.
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