I was born overseas in Taiwan but grew up in good ole Michigan via Canada. We spent a year there before coming to the states. I could've been a Canuck! I call my hometown Troy, MI (all through high school, I was known as Helena of Troy). I went to the University of Michigan for undergrad (Go Blue!) and got my A.B (or B.A....Michigan has to be different) in Psychology. After I graduated, I spent a year doing nothing while I pondered my future. After many hours of nagging by my parents, I proudly announced that I was going into healthcare administration and that I wanted to become the CEO of a hospital. I spent an additional 2 years at Michigan studying for my Masters in Healthcare Services Administration. When I graduated, I moved to Chicago where I worked in the field for 7 years before deciding that this was for the birds. During that time, I met my husband who is a registered nurse and 6 months later we were engaged! With his support, I decided to go to medical school and we moved to San Francisco (where I left my heart)! Since my husband worked in the emergency department, he's the one that got me interested in EM and I always knew that I this is what I wanted to do. Never occurred to me that I would like pediatrics. During my peds rotation, all I did was play with kids and thought that this was the greatest! Who wouldn't want to do this....thanks to my mentor, I discovered the combined Peds/EM program. My husband and I started our family during this residency (my clock was ticking!) and we now have two kids.
