Who I am and why I practice palliative medicine.

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and studied to be a ballerina. My backup plan was to go to college and then medical school, which has worked out well!  One of my best jobs was a two-year stint as a physician on the Navajo Reservation right out of residency. I have two wonderful young adult children and enjoy bootcamp, biking, hanging out with friends and reading in my free time.

As a humanities major in college, I studied history and literature that addressed human experience, including joy and suffering. In medicine, I have always been captivated by the patient as person, their experience of illness, and how they maintain their sense of self in the midst of suffering.  As a primary care physician and hospitalist, I cared for patients with chronic, serious illness cycling in and out of the hospital without time and attention to the underlying reasons for their admissions: often progressive, unremitting illness—while the “person” often suffered greatly. In Palliative Medicine, I help patients and their families identify what is most important and live their best lives for the time they have left together.