Provider Biographies

Louis Appel, M.D., MPH
Medical Director, Director of Pediatrics

Louis Appel, M.D., MPH, serves as Medical Director and Director of Pediatrics at People’s Community Clinic. Dr. Appel provides primary pediatric care at the Clinic in addition to overseeing the clinical programs. He is co-facilitator of the Community Access to Child Health Program for the Texas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and co-chairs the Texas Pediatric Society’s Community Access to Child Health Committee. In the past he has served on the Texas Pediatric Society’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity as well as on the Travis County Early Impact Team, advising on the coordination of Early Childhood Intervention services in the county. He has also served on the Austin Multi-Institutional Review Board. Dr. Appel graduated from Harvard Medical School and obtained his MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health, with a concentration in public management and community health. He completed his pediatric residency at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Naomi Hanser, M.D.

Naomi Hanser, M.D., is a graduate of Columbia University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She received specialized training in primary care internal medicine and was chief resident of ambulatory care internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She provided healthcare through the Navaho Nation Health Foundation in Arizona. In New York, she worked with Doctors of the World‘s Human Rights Clinic to provide medical evaluations and affidavits for international survivors of torture and persecution. She has continued this service independently upon request here in Austin. She is currently a member of the Austin chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine and the Travis County Medical Society. She is proficient in Spanish.

Celia Neavel, M.D.
Director of Adolescent Health

Celia Neavel, M.D., FSAM, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Neavel helped start the Center for Adolescent Health at the Clinic more than 13 years ago and remains its director. She also initiated and directs the Goals Program, a developmental / behavioral / primary care program at PCC. Dr. Neavel is fellowship-trained in adolescent medicine and developmental disorders and has a certificate of added qualification in adolescent medicine. She is Clinical Assistant Professor, UTMB Pediatrics-Austin, supervising residents and giving monthly lectures. Her main focus is holistic, interdisciplinary primary and specialty care for youth who are "at risk" for economic or developmental reasons. Listed Texas Super Doctor in 2004.

Richard Peavey, M.D.
Director of Adult Medicine, Internal Medicine

Richard Peavey, M.D. has twenty-six years of professional experience encompassing general practice, urgent care, occupational and rehabilitation medicine, and coordination of medical staff. He has served as a general medicine physician at the Clinic since 1999. Dr. Peavey received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas and completed his obstetrics-gynecology residency at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa Medical College.

Robert Sorin, M.D.
Director of Reproductive Health

Robert Sorin, M.D. is Director of Reproductive Health. He received his medical degree from the University de Monterrey Escuela de Medicina in Monterrey, Mexico and completed his residency at the Robert Woods Johnson Medical School. In addition to his work at the Clinic, Dr. Sorin is Medical Director at Planned Parenthood Texas Capitol Region and operates a private practice in obstetrics-gynecology.

Georgia Armstrong, R.N.
Immunizations Supervisor

Georgia Armstrong, BSN, RN has been supervising and administering the Immunization Program at People's Community Clinic since October 1993. She received her BSN from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing in 1977. Georgia worked with migrant workers and their children in Colorado where she obtained her School Nurse Practitioner Certification from the University of Colorado School of Nursing in Denver. In her capacity as Immunization Supervisor, Georgia works closely with other Immunization programs and clinics at the state, county and city level.

Juli Furgeson, Ph.D.
Health Psychologist, Behavioral Nutritional Health Program

Juli Furgeson, Ph.D. serves as Health Psychologist to People's Community Clinic, teaching the connection between stress and elevated blood sugar in both English and Spanish, and participates in the monthly follow up program, meeting with the patients both individually and as a group. Dr. Furgeson received her Ph.D. from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, in Counseling Psychology and completed her internship at the Sun Valley Regional Hospital and at the Family Therapy Institute, both in El Paso, Texas. She has also completed Clinical Training in Mind/Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Robin Rosell, LCSW, LMFT
Director of Social Services and Tandem Coordinator

Robin Rosell, MSW, serves as the Director of Social Services at People's Community Clinic, providing supervision and provision of social work services to Clinic clients; and assistance in coordination and implementation of specialized adolescent health program, as well as coordinating the interagency Tandem Teen Prenatal and Parenting Program. Ms. Rosell received her MSW from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Megan Barnes Zesati, LCSW
Program Coordinator, Integrated Behavioral Health

Megan Barnes Zesati is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she received her BA in Philosophy (1997) and Masters in Social Work (2001). She completed her clinical internship in Oaxaca, Mexico, where she worked at a home for adolescent girls. She has received post-graduate training in play therapy and EMDR, and has special interest mindfulness-based therapies. She moved back to Austin in 2006, after five years living in Oakland, California, where she worked with children and families, and one year abroad in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, where she worked at a community health clinic with adults and adolescents.