Mua Ngo, DO, MPH
Uprooted from his homeland courtesy of the Vietnam War, Mua spent his childhood displaced. In between continents and across the United States, he’s picked up a few languages, earned a couple of extra-posh degrees, and inherited and then lost a '68 Porsche 912 (don’t ask, it still hurts). He worked some odd-end jobs (sold cassette tapes at the swap meet, worked in a sleep lab, installed car stereos) before setting off for college at Brown University, followed by a stint at Johns Hopkins for his graduate degree . He spent the better part of his life working in Public Health. He created a summer youth program in UC Berkeley, facilitated a region-wide effort to address food insecurity in the rural central valley of California, researched social networks among IV drug users during his time at Johns Hopkins, and drove a huge RV providing testing and counseling in San Francisco. He was working on Social Determinants of Health before it became a buzzword! Along the way he’s found a deep love for humanity. Mua is inspired most by people and their stories. He’s finally found his life’s work in medicine and a home in the soggy Pacific Northwest (we’re working hard to keep his itchy feet, as his mom would call it, from wandering!).
Equally a slumbering homebody, one of his favorite places to be on a Friday night is with his family around the kitchen table getting whipped by his kids at board games (he admits he can barely keep up with the rules). He is often found with a lazy cat on lap, giant dog at feet, and book in hand - likely a dense biography or a bizarre Murakami novel. A secret watercolorist and Youtube-taught uke’ player in the making, Mua is always keeping his hands busy. His son is a math whiz (yes, that boy can multiply triple digits in his head while playing Dvorak on the piano…perpetuating the Asian stereotype much?). At 10 years old, his daughter is a young woman warrior who devours as many books as she does chocolates (she chooses books based on the most pages now, hoping they last longer than a weekend - they rarely do). As much as Mua wishes he can take credit for how amazing his kiddos are turning out, it’s of course his beautiful wife who holds everything together. A brilliant pharmacist by trade, she can cook a mean pot of Phở and if you're nice to her, she might knit you a hat for Christmas.
This refugee, first generation college grad with a little bit of street cred (he did grow up in Oakland, CA), Ivy-league educated, Hopkins-trained, family physician to the core is on our block.
Allyson Campanelli, DO
A home-grown Port Orchard Native with a love for sailing, Italian food, and old cars. Stayed local and graduated Summa Cum Laude (‘cause she’s fancy!) from St. Martin’s University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Spent her gap year before medical school hanging out with the famous Lino Tagliapietra during his visiting artist tenure at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, watching him blow glass and eating his home-cooked Ziti. During her time in medical school, she volunteered with HOME (Health Outreach through Medicine and Education), an outreach clinic for the unhoused. During her time in residency, she co-directed a clinic-wide Social Determinants of Health project that addressed the multifaceted determinants of health and disease.
Allyson loves that story and can spend a pot of coffee pouring over a single chapter of Grapes of Wrath. She drags a million books from the used book store home, never getting past the first page of any book (“I just like the smell!”). In between books, she’s building a 12 foot wooden sailboat named LouC with her Dad, chasing her wild-eyed 3yo from aft to stern, sourcing feeder rats for her 8 year old daughter’s ivory yellow belly ball python, mastering the art of pasta making, and convincing her family to adopt a water dog (a black Newfoundland to fit in her tiny Prius! She’s getting close… puppy eyes galore). She’s working on her Spanish, taking piano lessons with her daughter, and is constantly challenged to order food in Vietnamese (condiments and all). Her husband, who’s a computer whiz, prefers to be on the mountaintop taking pictures of trees rather than of people, keeps them all fed. He religiously brews 40 gallons of apple cider every fall and drinks half of them himself. In the midst of the chaos, Allyson has found a place at LAPIS to do honest to goodness work.
Allyson believes that no matter where you’re going, what you’re doing, who you are, who you’re with, who you were, who you want to become - everyone deserves care. Period. ‘Nuff said. She sometimes, to the angst of her partner, sits cross-legged on the floor with shoes off discussing electrical rhythms of the anatomical heart with her patients. She makes medicine - a complicated, unapproachable, intimidating, scary, daunting subject into something navigable like mom’s macaroni and cheese recipe. But really, she advocates, meets you where you’re at, takes you where you want to go, or sits with you where you are.
