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About Me
Hometown: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Undergrad: Tulane University
Medical School: University of Oklahoma - Tulsa
Career interests/interests within pediatrics: Diabetes & endocrinology, advocacy
Hobbies/interests outside of work: Skiing, hiking, traveling (when there’s not a global pandemic...), cooking/eating, reading, talking with people
Why Utah Pediatric Endo: Having gone to residency here in Utah, I have gotten to know the pediatric endocrinology faculty here very well and have nothing but positive things to say about all of them. They have a reputation of being one of the nicest and most fun departments to work with in the hospital and that’s something I want to be a part of. I came into residency with an interest in endocrinology, so I knew that a fellowship was likely in my future, but it was really the people that convinced me that I should pursue my fellowship here in Utah. I know this hospital well after having completed my residency here and know that the patient volume and diversity is vast and I will definitely see the full scope of diabetes and endocrinology here, which was also very important to me during training.
Living in the mountains with direct access to skiing and hiking doesn’t hurt either!
What is your favorite part about our program: Like I mentioned above, it truly is the people. They make work fun and are passionate about teaching.
What’s your favorite part about living in Salt Lake City: I really hadn’t spent much time in SLC before starting residency and am pleasantly surprised that I have since fallen in love with it and all of Utah. It is a beautiful place with everything you could want from a big city (including multiple Nordstroms), but with unbeatable access to the outdoors. We are less than half an hour away from some of the best skiing, hiking, mountain biking, climbing, cross country skiing, and much more, in the entire world. As a resident, I skied more than 30 days all three years, even this last season, which was cut very short by the pandemic.
What cool research/advocacy/education/scholarly work are you participating in? As a resident, I helped write up a very interesting case series on insulinomas that was accepted to PES and is now being published. I also have started to work on a resident education project that includes creating educational handouts/templates to have in the team rooms. I am currently working on creating an initial guideline for calculating starting insulin dosing in patients with new onset Type 1 diabetes.
What is something you didn’t know before coming to Utah that you wish you did: Honestly most everything that I didn’t know about Utah before I came out here has been a pleasant surprise. I don’t think I realized just how accessible the outdoors was prior to actually living here. I didn’t know SLC was a major international airport, as well as a Delta hub so you can usually get inexpensive, direct flights almost anywhere. I also didn’t realize that there are a lot of transplants here in Utah because once you live here, it’s really hard to leave!
What are your plans following fellowship: Since that’s still 3 years away, I don’t really have any set plans yet... I do plan to continue to work in an academic center and plan to work primarily in the clinical setting.