What is your background?
By way of clearing the confusion that may arise from the varied geography of my CV, I am the wife of a native Arkansasan, and I grew up as the daughter of missionaries from Oregon serving in East Africa. I earned my high school diploma from a boarding school in Kenya and chose a small school in Northwest Arkansas for my bachelor’s degree.
Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher because I knew I was passionate about both understanding and helping people understand how things work. That passion has never left, but as I completed my teacher’s ed coursework I realized it was more specific than that. I wanted to work one-on-one with people who wanted not only to understand but to apply knowledge of biological science to their lives. And, as I learned with time, I wanted to listen to the stories these same people have to tell and to be able to take actions that would truly help them. It wasn’t until I met a pediatrician who listened as a friend to my aspirations that I learned that what I wanted was to become the first physician in my family’s history.
What kinds of things do you like to do for fun?
I love my family and spend a lot of my free time with them. My husband’s family has a hobby farm which always has projects going, whether it’s replacing fences, caring for goats, working horses or rebuilding chicken coups. My husband and I have a cat and a dog and a lot of plants. We hand-make most of the gifts we give out at birthdays and Christmas-time out of leather, wood, fabric or food. When the weather is nice, we love going for hikes, riding our bikes and training our horses and dogs.
Besides home and family life, we spend a lot of time with our local church, Sager Creek Community Church, serving in choir, community groups and the young adult ministry.
What is your ‘philosophy of medicine’?
I chose to go to an osteopathic medical school because I resonated with the osteopathic philosophy. I truly believe that the body is a unit of physical, emotional and spiritual components, that structure and function are interrelated, and that the body is capable of self-regulation and self-healing. In light of this, I think that each patient should be considered holistically and medical decisions should be made on an individualized basis and founded upon the best clinical research available.
Prevention by mitigating lifestyle risk factors is first. I intend to discuss lifestyle factors including diet, exercise, sleep and stress levels whenever I can. After disease has occurred, if there are lifestyle modifications which have shown significant efficacy in treatment, I am all about trying that first. Application of modern science truths to the healing arts has dramatically advanced the options for medical therapy we have available today. While we have so many conservative options for prevention and management of diseases which are invaluable, I am still grateful for the advances of modern surgery when necessary.
What are your career goals?
I have found through clinical rotations that I enjoy all branches of medicine specifically because I enjoy being able to help patients with any complaint, working as a consultant for their self-management of their health. I want to practice primary care both in the hospital and out-patient clinics, perhaps as a hospitalist first and then moving to a private practice clinic. Perhaps I will find a balance of doing both. I am so very excited to be serving the people of Northwest Arkansas, and I am planning to continue serving here indefinitely. My dream is to build my own practice that is designed to serve this unique area.