team

For more than 25 years, Dr. Thunder has studied chronic pain and how it is treated by the mainstream medical community. As a former emergency physician, he has witnessed the devastation that chronic pain can cause and the many impediments within our medical system which make it difficult for patients to receive optimum care.

In response to his prior experiences, Dr. Thunder has worked tirelessly to develop a better way of helping people manage their pain and improve their quality of life. Dr. Thunder is well known for his kindness, compassion, attention to detail, and ability to see the big picture. After their first visits, his patients often say they feel like they’ve finally been heard. Nothing makes Dr. Thunder happier than hearing one of his patients say, “That made it better.”

Dr. Thunder has almost 30 years of experience treating patients from every walk of life. He received his M.D. from the University of Nevada and did his residency in Modesto, California. He’s board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a member of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management and the American Pain Society. Dr. Thunder's favorite activities include spending time with his family, walking his dogs in the woods, and thinking outside the box.

Pearla McDonald has been taking care of patients for two decades. As a nurse practitioner, she’s been especially proud to serve our brave men and women in uniform at veterans hospitals in Saginaw, Michigan, and Reno, Nevada.

Pearla earned her Bachelor and Master of Science in Nursing from Saginaw Valley State University. Her empathy, thoroughness, and interest in learning have made her a perfect addition to the Thunder Pain and Wellness team.

When she isn’t taking care of the patients and families at Thunder Pain and Wellness, you can usually find her hanging out with her two adorable children and extremely nice husband (who we all like because he brings her lunch on the regular).

Dr. Thunder and Sandy worked together at the Reno VA Hospital, so we knew just who to call when we needed another nurse. Sandy approaches her patients and everyone around her with a tremendous amount of respect, tenderness, and care (except when she’s treating one of us to a dose of her wickedly sly sense of humor).

As a native Canadian, Sandy loves exploring the lakes, forests, and other areas of natural beauty that we have all around us — especially within motorcycle-riding distance. She’s happy to have her family close by and even manages to have dinner every Sunday with her grown-up “kids.”

Trina Spaulding is a Manual Athletic Therapist who founded Thunder Pain and Wellness with Dr. Thunder in 2014. For 30 years, she’s been helping her patients live more active, productive, and fulfilling lives.

Trina has 25 years of continuing education through the Ursa Foundation, which teaches scientifically-based, effective manual techniques. She spent 14 years working with Peter Barbieri at Barbieri Manual Therapy and more than 5 years as an Assistant Athletic Trainer at the University of Nevada, Reno.
 

Trina has called Reno home since 1993 and takes full advantage of everything it has to offer. She loves skiing, kayaking, biking, and just being outside with her husband, son, daughter, and three dogs.

Joanna is a medical assistant and Texas transplant who has brought the perfect combination of empathy, organization, and medical knowledge to the front desk. We greatly rely on her kindness, caring, and slight bit of “Don’t mess with Texas” sass.

She’s also determined to keep the office happy with her mad baking skills.

When she’s done making sure everyone at Thunder Pain and Wellness is in the right place at the right time, you can probably find her at home with her husband and three little fur babies.

Michelle is a true renaissance woman: trilingual, well-traveled, and a graduate of both international affairs and neuroscience at the University of Nevada, Reno.

After discovering an interest in medicine, she finished the medical assistant program at Truckee Meadows Community College and made her way to Thunder Pain and Wellness.
 

Her calm demeanor and dry wit have been perfect additions to our office. We’re constantly in awe of the way she boldly takes on any new task, be it insurance billing or urine collection (we’re pretty sure the first is much worse). When we aren’t asking her to do “one more thing,” you can probably find her checking her mailbox for her acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

Tammy Soong is Dr. Thunder’s wife and the Jill-of-all-Trades at Thunder Pain and Wellness. She’s still not entirely sure how she ended up working at the office, but she thinks it has something to do with the fact that she finds her husband’s work extremely worthwhile.

It also helps that she still finds Dr. Thunder endearing and attractive after more than 25 years.
 

Tammy can usually be found putting out various office fires (the figurative, nonflammable type), smacking her not-a-Mac computer around, or trying to decipher the memes texted to her by her kids . If she weren’t at Thunder Pain and Wellness, she’d be taking the advice of Virginia Woolf and trying to find a of room of her own. Either that or walking her dogs.

Gina Strasser has more than 25 years of management experience, including more than a decade as the operations manager and project coordinator at C*A*R*E Chest. She oversaw operations for Howard’s Chevron, which she managed with her late husband, Carl. Most recently, she was the executive director for the Modern Widows Club.

Gina loves feeling like she’s making a difference, both working at Thunder Pain and Wellness and volunteering for her favorite organizations.  She also enjoys visiting her son who’s attending American University, cooking way too much fantastic food for her friends, and finding a great bottle of wine.

Gina may be reached at officemanager@thunderpain.com