Opioids, Pain and Substance Use Disorders Specialist Panel

Eli Harris, MD

Eli Harris is a practicing pain management physician at Saint Alphonsus in Nampa, ID. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and received his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He then completed an internal medicine internship at the Boise VA Hospital, completed residency in anesthesiology at the University of New Mexico and completed an interventional pain fellowship at the University of Virginia. He serves as the medical director of the Comprehensive Pain and Spine clinics at Saint Alphonsus, helped develop their acute spine program, serves on the hospital’s leadership council and is a volunteer and associate professor at the University of Washington the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine.  

Jacob Harris, MD

Jacob Harris, MD, currently serves as psychiatry and addiction medicine specialist at the Boise VA Medical Center. As Medical Director of the Residential Substance Use Program, Dr. Harris is committed to helping those living with substance and opioid use disorders. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Preventative Medicine.  

Dr. Harris is an Idaho WWAMI graduate and received his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine before completing a combined Internal Medicine and Psychiatry Residency at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. In addition to being an award-winning lecturer, he also helps lead Idaho’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship, designed to allow medical residents the chance to gain experience working with patients who have opioid and substance use disorders.

Amy McKenzie, LCPC, ACADC

Amy McKenzie was born in California and received her master’s in counseling from Boise State University in 2019. Amy began working with Trivium Life Services in 2018 during her internship and was quickly identified as a rising star and leader. Amy was promoted to Therapist Team Coordinator as it became more obvious that she was a leader among her peers. Amy has experience working with both men and women with trauma and co-occurring SUD. She is a reality focused counselor and has been trained in DBT, Moral Recognition Therapy and is EMDR certified. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and an Advanced Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor. Amy works with her clients with directness as well as compassion, instilling hope where it was previously lost. In her free time Amy enjoys her cat Sassafrass, board games with friends, video games and cross stitching.

Cathy Oliphant, PharmD

Cathy Oliphant is Professor and the Interim Chair of Pharmacy Practice and Administrative Science at Idaho State University College of Pharmacy. She is also the faculty advisor for Rho Chi Honor Society and Generation Rx. She earned her PharmD degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and completed a residency and fellowship in infectious diseases/microbiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to joining the faculty at ISU College of Pharmacy in 2003, she taught for seven years at the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy.

She currently maintains a clinical practice site at St. Luke's Boise and Meridian Medical Centers where she works with the hospitalists and infectious disease physicians. She also works in the St. Luke’s COVID Recovery Clinic. She precepts pharmacy students on medicine, infectious diseases and academic advanced pharmacy practice experiences. Her research interests include infectious diseases, opioids and substance use disorder.

Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dogs, hiking and traveling.

Todd Palmer, MD

Todd Palmer received his medical degree from the University of California at Davis. He completed his medical residency at Full Circle Health (formerly the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho) in 1989 before joining the faculty there in 1998. He is board certified in Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine and has a certificate of added qualification in geriatrics through the American Board of Family Medicine. He developed the Addiction Medicine and Geriatric Medicine Fellowships at Full Circle Health and serves as the director for both. He is an associate  professor of Family Medicine through the University of Washington. Dr. Palmer helped develop the addiction and chronic pain ECHO Idaho project and has been a panel member since the program's launch in 2018, and is also one of the core facilitators for ECHO Idaho's X-Waiver Trainings.