North Star Family Medicine is a medical office in the Brainerd Lakes Area whose focus is to establish the physician-patient relationship.
We are a private medical practice is where you get a higher level of care at a lower cost. We can be far more flexible than corporate medicine, and we don’t have to sacrifice care to edicts of any committee.
Dr. Kristy Lelcu, a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician, was born in Atchison, Kansas and moved to Minnesota as a child. Her father was a miller for Pillsbury Flour in Minneapolis and her mom was a homemaker. She graduated from Park Center Senior High School with honors.
Dr. Lelcu graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a degree in Psychology. Following college, Dr. Lelcu worked in business at GE Capital and TransAmerica. A few years later, she felt a calling to work with people and returned to school to complete her pre-medical courses at the University of Missouri Kansas City. A graduate of St. James School of Medicine, Dr. Lelcu completed a Family Medicine residency in Pueblo, Colorado at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital Southern Colorado Family Medicine program. She participated in a medical mission to Ecuador and focused on preventing Childhood Obesity while in residency.
Following residency, she moved to the Brainerd Lakes Area and worked for Essentia Health. Dr. Lelcu participated in programs to help reduce opioid use in the community while at Essentia Health. She went on a medical mission to Romania, where she met her husband, Vlad Lelcu. After 4 years, she transitioned to Urgent Care in St. Cloud with CentraCare. Dr. Lelcu found she missed the connection made with patients in clinic setting, so she opened a private medical practice, North Star Family Medicine, to offer the Brainerd Lakes Community a place to obtain medical care that focuses on the patients’ needs.
In her spare time, Dr. Lelcu enjoys traveling with her husband, riding motorcycles, reading, and spending time with her 4 pets – Judah, Daisy, Snowflake and Ser Pounce A Lot. She enjoys Red Dirt Country music and is a football fan.
Ashley Gagnon, PA-C, is a nationally certified Physician Assistant and Navy veteran. She was born in West Palm Beach, Florida and raised in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Her father raced snowmobiles professionally and when he retired became a welder and fabricator. Her mother was a homemaker, managed the family businesses, and worked in finances at a local bank. Ashley graduated from Lake Havasu High School and left for the military after the summer.
After 5 years in the Navy and deploying overseas, she completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Arizona State University, where she graduated with honors. Ashley went on to getting accepted to a highly selective Master’s program at Arizona State University for research in cancer and autoimmune disorders. She then went onto Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York where she completed school to become a Physician Assistant.
Ashley trained in a multitude of fields to include hematology/oncology, trauma surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, OB/GYN, and family medicine. It was during her time at North Star, under Dr. Lelcu, that she felt the most at home. She made meaningful connections with the patients and staff and knew that is where she wanted to be. She also fell in love with the Brainerd lakes area and all that it had to offer.
Ashley and her husband, Josh, bought a home in Nisswa. They have a son, Gunnar, who is six years old, in first grade, and plays hockey with the Brainerd Amateur Hockey Association. Josh, a Minnesotan native from Hackensack, met Ashley during their time together in the military. If they aren’t at a hockey practice or game, you will find Ashley and her family either traveling, on the boat, cheering on the Vikings, or track side at BIR!
Vlad Lelcu is the Administrative Assistant at North Star Family Medicine. He has an AAS degree in Automotive Technology from Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota. He specializes in marketing, networking, supply management, accounting, and human resources, assisting the managerial side of running the practice. He enjoys reading, fast cars, and guns in his spare time. He is here to take care of all the nonmedical side of running a clinic.
The name North Star Family Medicine was created by Dr. Lelcu’s husband, who remembered the North Star was present in the Minnesota State Capital.
As a symbol, “The North Star is the anchor of the northern sky. It is a landmark, or sky marker, that helps those who follow it determine direction as is glows brightly to guide and lead toward a purposeful destination. It also has a symbolic meaning, for the North Star depicts a beacon of inspiration and hope to many.”
The goal of North Star Family Medicine is to provide an anchor and beacon to patients to guide them toward a healthier, more productive life in which they are involved in their decisions to create an individualized healthcare plan.
Some people know us as “North Star Medical”, “Northstar Medical”, “North Star Family Medical”, “Northstar Family Medical” and many other variations on the names. That’s okay, we are totally cool with it.
