I was born in Aberdeen, MD, but spent most of my life traveling the world as an Army “brat”. My college adventures started at the School of Mines in Golden, CO, where I quickly learned that Engineering was not my forte. After some struggles with knee injuries, I was enlightened by the world of healthcare and decided to pursue a career as a Physical Therapist. I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Wyoming and then west to start Physical Therapy school at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, CA. After three years of practice in Davenport, IA, as a manual therapist specializing in sports medicine, I furthered my education as a Physician Assistant locally at Red Rocks where I graduated in the summer of 2006. I started working at Kaiser Permanente Colorado specializing in Orthopedics immediately upon graduation. After a fulfilling seven years of practice as an orthopedist, I moved to a more generalized area of medicine as an Internist at our Wheat Ridge Medical Offices in September 2013.
I specialize in all orthopedic injuries and chronic conditions, in particular management of osteoarthritis, cortisone injections, and evaluation and treatment of spine conditions. I see patients from 18 years and older. I have a passion for education and strive to provide my patients with the knowledge they need to manage their own conditions. Shared decision making and full disclosure of benefits and risks of treatment options is a very important aspect of care I strive to provide.My practice style reflects that I have a common sense approach and an expectation that I give you tools to help “fix” yourself. I am an advocate of keeping the body moving and active as well as looking at all of the different holistic approaches to healthcare including eliciting assistance from our colleagues who practice Eastern philosophies of medicine.I enjoy keeping my mind active and sharp by learning new things, after all as a Physician Assistant we are educated as generalists and taught to be able to look at a patient as a whole person rather than just a body part or injury. Internal Medicine has proved to be quite the challenge and I am working on learning many new things with the help of an amazing team of Physicians and teammates. I have developed new special interests in topics such as Celiac Sprue, Diabetes, and autoimmune disorders.
I thrive by continuing to stay as fit as possible both physically and mentally. Even in the face of hardships with various medical challenges, I work hard to find ways to keep moving. This may involve adaptive sports equipment or braces as needed. I have discovered that there are ways to do many activities if you are willing to think outside the box and do research to see what is out there. In my free time I enjoy all Colorado has to offer including; cycling (road and hand cycle), ski biking, camping, fly fishing, golf, hiking, kayaking, gardening, traveling and pottery. I also tremendously enjoy spending time with my spouse and our two dogs.
