Dr. Ellie Yanchar was born and raised in Kent. She graduated from Kent Roosevelt in 1999. She took a roundabout journey to get to medicine, which was sparked by working for the American Red Cross during Hurricane Katrina, and she did not start medical school until she was 29 years old. She is now dual boarded in family medicine and psychiatry. She did her most of her medical training on the west coast, with medical school in Oregon, and residency in San Diego, where her training was focused primarily on working with homeless and underserved populations, and those suffering from addiction. After residency she moved to NYC to complete a fellowship at Columbia University, where she was working at a shelter for men with mental illness in the Bronx. When COVID hit in NYC last year, she volunteered for deployment at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, where she spent the spring covering the COVID ER, and hospital wards. She has since taken a new position with Montefiore working as both a psychiatrist and family medicine physician with the Bronx Health Collective, a clinic system serving patients in family shelters, domestic violence shelters, housing projects, and asylum-seeking individuals and families. In addition, she is an assistant director for the NYC Homeless Healthcare fellowship, which started in July 2020. She lives in Harlem, NY with her dog Otis, and her parents still live in Kent.