I was born in upstate New York and grew up just outside of Albany. I stayed in the region for undergraduate and medical school, where I discovered that the best part of medicine is service to others. I was drawn to the Pacific Northwest for Internal Medicine residency training and even stayed an extra year to work as a provider at Kaiser Permanente's Cascade Park clinic before returning to the East Coast for Infectious Disease fellowship training. During that short time in Boston, I realized that I am not cut out for New England winters! I was happy to have the opportunity to return to the Northwest for good.