I am a first-year medical student at Thomas Jefferson University's Sidney Kimmel Medical College. I spent my undergraduate years at Penn State University as part of their accelerated BS-MD program in collaboration with SKMC. I do research with Dr. Rose in the Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. 

 

I grew up in San Francisco, California and the wider Bay Area. Ever since I could sit up, I loved to draw and paint. I grew up tracing my fire truck toys onto paper, and my first painting as a baby is framed in the hallway of our home. As I grew older, my love for visual arts remained the same, but I took on new media. I still paint with oil and watercolor, but I also carve wood and sculpt clay. When I have limited space or time for artwork, I like to take photos on my camera and edit them to accurately represent the emotion and life I felt at that moment.
 

I'm a lover of handiwork, and I believe that is why I am attracted to the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Taking what visuals I've crafted in my head and creating it with a brush stroke, a saw blade, or an Adobe edit in the real world is what I've done my whole life. With surgery, it's just a different medium.

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I've contributed to neurological and sleep research, both of which still continue to intrigue me. It has taken me to places like Houston to present a poster at the annual SLEEP conference; or Switzerland, where I spent a semester studying human risk calculation and behavior. However, I've found an excitement in surgical research, especially in the burgeoning field of lymphatic surgery. At UCSF, I've enjoyed the privilege of working with Dr. Rose, who leads the hospital's new lymphatics team. I've gained an appreciation not only for outcomes-based research, but for health policy and administrative research, which remains elusive in today's lymphatic surgery literature.

 

I am passionate about adopting dogs, and have my own rescue mix named Sammi. I love to add to my collection of maps when traveling, although they have become tougher and tougher to find in the modern world of paper obsolescence. As much as I love a warm and sunny day, you can always catch me taking in the sound and smell of rainfall.