Residency Faculty

Salla Hennessy, MD (she/her)

Core Faculty, Academic Medical Director, RHEDI Director, POCUS Co-Director, Family Medicine Physician

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. Dr. Hennessy is passionate about reproductive justice and fundamentally believes in the importance of equitable access to healthcare for all. She completed the yearlong Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) POCUS Educator's Certificate Program in 2025 and loves welcoming residents into the continuity clinic to practice full-spectrum outpatient medicine, including procedures, comprehensive reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care, and addiction medicine. She directs the POCUS & Procedures, Leadership and Practice Management, Outpatient Pediatrics, and Clinic First (continuity clinic) curriculums.

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 speaks Spanish with patients, and is teaching her kids her own first language, Finnish. Outside of medicine, she enjoys reading, hiking, gardening, and backpacking adventures.