Meet
Dr. Waneka

Dr. Stacy Waneka is a board-certified Family Medicine physician who received her degree from the University of California, Davis and completed her residency training at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. She has practiced privately in Los Angeles since 2000. While she is proud to call California home, her background is much broader, allowing her to draw wisdom from around the world and multiple disciplines.

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Growing up in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Waneka had the benefit of a boarding school education and world travel. This, combined with working internationally, shaped her perspective on disease and wellness. She honed her medical skills through experiences as varied as providing maternal-fetal care in rural Bali, supporting medical relief efforts in Albania during the Bosnian conflict, and studying in the high altitudes of the Himalayan Research Center in Nepal. Plant medicine was a once-buried (pun intended) interest that she now finds herself pursuing more actively, earning a Medicinal Plants Certificate from Cornell University and working towards an Herbalism Certification through Ecoversity. She believes in blending the best of science, technology, and integrative approaches to support her patients on their path to better health.

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In addition to her own practice, Dr. Waneka is always looking for other opportunities to serve and heal. She currently works with Lyra, a mental health care company, to provide much-needed psychiatric care, and covers other local private practices when colleagues are away. She also partners with Sunset Hills Acupuncture to provide Medicare beneficiaries with acupuncture services for low back pain. She is active in the community and sits on the Board of Directors of Sati Sangha, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reflective meditation. Dr. Waneka is also developing an Ask the Doctor after-school program for a local high school. And, perhaps most importantly, she co-founded Unicorn Elements with her then 8-year-old daughter, raising funds to support California’s mountain lions.

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A single mom of her teenage daughter and their four mischievous cats, Dr. Waneka is an avid yogi and intrepid traveler. You might find her hiking the highlands of Scotland or searching for the northern lights on a scientific expedition to the North Cape of Norway. Dr. Waneka is an easygoing, compassionate, natural healer who loves to know her patients well (for decades, if she’s lucky — she once cared for five generations of a single family!) She’s a true family physician who understands life’s transitions and challenges, including mental health, neurodiversity, and end-of-life care. No matter your journey, Dr. Waneka is your partner.

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