Professional Summary:

As a specialist in adult and pediatric care, I practice general primary care for both children and adults. I also provide specialized care for adolescents and young adults who have a wide range of health and psychosocial conditions and concerns, including eating disorders, gynecologic issues, sexual health concerns and complex chronic disease.

My academic interests focus on adolescent resiliency, i.e., a teenager’s ability to overcome adversity. Those with more resiliency tend to cope better with chronic disease or negative experiences and are less likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors. I am particularly interested in the role resiliency plays in my patients’ quality of life in the face of their chronic health conditions. I am also interested in its role in preventing risk-taking behaviors—specifically, high-risk sexual behaviors that lead to teenage pregnancy. My resident research project focused on the relationship between resiliency and perceived quality of life in adolescent mothers, a research area that I continue to explore. My goal with these research foci is to develop ways to improve resiliency among adolescents in our community, through coursework in our high schools, perhaps, or through after-school programs.

As a faculty member in internal medicine and pediatrics, I am involved in resident and medical student education. I teach evidence-based medicine and its clinical application, keeping current with journal articles and reviews, using data to modify my clinical practice, when indicated--and encouraging these practices in residents and medical students. I participate as well in introducing both first- and second-year medical students into the clinical setting via the Clinical Practice of Medicine (CPM) course they are required to take. Students come to my primary care office to shadow me and to practice their history-taking and physical-exam skills. I also lecture at the monthly medicine-pediatrics conferences; recent topics have included contraception and proteinuria in pediatric patients.

Education and Training:

• Residency, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York (2017)
• DO, Medicine, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (2013)
• MS, Environmental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2009)
• BS, Biology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Summa Cum Laude (2008)
• Certificate, Board certified, internal medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Certificate, Board certified, Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics

Employment:

• Transitional Care Elective Director, Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, University at Buffalo
• Assistant Professor, Medicine, University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (2017-present)

Awards and Honors:

• WNY Top Doctor (2023)
• WNY Top Doctors (2022)
• Poster of Distinction - UB Internal Medicine Research Day 2017 (2017)
• UB Richard T. Sarkin/Emeritus Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (2016)