I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona in human physiology. Throughout this time, I was a competitive Irish Step dancer and had the chance to travel around North America, competing both individually and in group dancing. The best part of this time was meeting my husband, Michael, who is also in family medicine. I was ready for a change by the time med school came around and jumped at the opportunity to try out life in the Midwest as I attended Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. While at Stritch, I developed a love for global health as well as for working with underserved communities. I volunteered at Community Health, a free, inner-city clinic in Chicago, as well as spent much time working with the local Maywood community. I also spent time in Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru, volunteering at various clinics, hospitals, and orphanages. Inspired by these experiences, I became a Loyola Global Health Scholar and spent a year in between 3rd and 4th year of medical school working at a clinic in rural Bolivia, Centro Medico Humberto Parra. During this time I developed a health promoter training program, did a research study on Chagas disease, as well as implemented several quality improvement projects at the clinic. Although Chicago was an incredibly fun city to live in and I loved my medical school, I realized I am not cut out for the cold and snow of winter. I need sun in my life, year around. As my family as well as my husband's family are in Arizona, it was not a tough decision to return to sunny, warm AZ! The U of A Family Medicine Residency Program really stood out to me during interview season. I was impressed with the diversity of opportunities the program offered, the underserved community it works with, and the incredibly dedicated, gifted, and supportive residents and faculty. I was also very excited by the integrative medicine curriculum. I came to the program as I believe they really have an ideal setting for training in full spectrum family medicine, offering the best of both worlds by having you learn in both a community and academic center. Outside of the hospital, I love to spend time with my family and friends. I also love to be active, whether it be running, biking, hiking, or yoga. I am a bit of a (vegetarian) foodie, so I like to explore new restaurants and enjoy delicious food. Tucson is very vegetarian friendly and you can get a surprisingly wide variety of foods from all ethnic backgrounds. I am a Wildcat at heart and am very excited to be cheering the Cats on from courtside again! I am so happy to be back in Tucson and am looking forward to all the exciting adventures and learning to come!
