Medical School: University of North Texas - TCOM
I was born in an old Quaker village in northern Virginia and grew up on hilltop acreage, surrounded by gardens and creeks and the Blue Ridge Mountains. I was raised to love the earth, go to the mountains, read avidly, and to maintain a degree of curiosity that toys with the boundaries of insatiability. Though my family moved to the sprawling asphalt pannus of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex while I was in middle school, my love for green and open spaces simply never left, and I have spent the rest of my life in a perpetual state of quiet revolt against concrete and dirty air. I am a man for the mountains, and there are few things that bring me more peace and purpose than to fill my pack and disappear for a week or two into wilderness.
I studied at Baylor University, where I meandered and wandered through a variety of interesting academic thickets before settling on Biology. If it were feasible, I’d still be in college studying anything and everything from Ecology and Forestry to Horticulture, Engineering, and Literature. Even though I went straight to medical school after graduating from Baylor, I’ve been blessed to have lived a life crammed with beautiful experiences, including attaching myself to medical service teams that traveled to rural Kenya, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, as well as studying and traveling extensively in Europe. Along the way, I hobbied and worked pseudo-professionally as a coffee-pourer and an audio engineer, slowly putting together a humble but functional little home studio.
As I’m sure anyone reading this understands, medical school has occupied an enormous amount of my time over the past four years. But like crowded forest floors still make room for beautiful new green and colored things in spring, I’ve found plenty of space for the clamoring passions of my life. I married my beautiful wife Katie nearly two years ago, and – as of this writing – we’re ecstatically awaiting the arrival of our first baby! Every time I put my hands on her blooming belly, I am amazed at how much I already love our new son (or daughter), even though I haven’t met the little one yet.
I garden with giddy captivation, read voraciously, and go outside every time the opportunity presents itself. Other passions include rock climbing, jogging, back packing, kayaking, and now SURFING! Intellectually, I’m consumed these days by topics like ecology and biotechnology (particularly the mind-bending field of biomimicry), as well as the writings of John Muir and other wilderness poets and fellow “men of the beard” like Thorough and Whitman.
As a man obsessed with mountains, you may find it surprising that I wound up down in Corpus Christi, which may be about as far from the mountains you can get in this country. Upon the recommendation of a dear mentor, I spent a month with the EM program here on an elective rotation early in my fourth year, and immediately found myself in the midst of some of the most enthusiastic, friendly, and brilliant educators I had yet encountered in my studies. Additionally, the program is unique in that it is nested in a hospital that is not bloated and overgrown, like so many training institutions are. The ED here sees a remarkable amount of fascinating pathology, a perfect mix between trauma and intellectually stimulating medical cases, and moves at a pace that is neither frenetic and chaotic nor lethargic and slow.
The program genuinely seems to prioritize your individual education, allowing you remarkable personal access to the brilliant and energetic faculty, while recognizing your need to have a healthy life outside of work. On top of all that, my wife and I both fell absolutely in love with the clear skies, clean sunlight, and quiet pace of beach living.