I was born and raised in the Midwest. After college, I moved to California to attend graduate school. I earned a master’s degree and then enrolled in medical school. That is where I was introduced to Kaiser Permanente medicine, through a family friend who was a Kaiser Permanente doctor in Hayward, Calif. Eleven years later, a doctor I met there would become one of the founders of Kaiser Permanente in Georgia.During one of my medical school summers, I worked at Yosemite National Park, where I met my wife. We were married there several years later. I completed a family practice residency in Hershey, Pa., but realized that pediatrics was what I loved best. I returned to California to complete my pediatrics residency and was then accepted into the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I spent two years working with the Ohio Department of Health. After that, I relocated to Atlanta, which has been our home since 1985.My wife and I have a son who graduated from college and is now living in Chicago and a daughter who is attending college in Washington, D.C.