Joel Hoekema, MD, joined the PeaceHealth Medical Group Orthopedics & Sports Medicine team of providers in September 2018. Dr. Hoekema seeks to compassionately meet the needs of all patients in need of comprehensive orthopedic surgery, including lumbar and cervical spine surgery. Dr. Hoekema began his professional life as a mechanical engineer at Boeing after graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington. Four years later, he refined his choice to mechanics of a different, human kind and returned to medical school to use his skills to serve others. After completion of his residency at the University of Washington in 2000, he accepted a one-year fellowship in spinal surgery at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He has been practicing medicine in the Bellingham community since 2001. In his free time, Dr. Hoekema enjoys an active lifestyle that includes taking in all the Pacific Northwest has to offer. He likes to bicycle, hike, hunt and fish. He has paddled in the Ski to Sea Race for 22 years.