Born and raised in Queens, NY I grew up appreciating playgrounds made of concrete and dodging cars on the boulevard of death. My values stem from my family, built around several generations of ?You Gotta Believe!!!? and ?This is Our Year? for the Amazins. With every Yom Kippur hearing the story of how Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in the World Series, my father instructs me how I too can refuse to work on Yom Kippur.
I wandered over to the Bronx for High School where I learned several hard lessons on life first hand, one being which side of the street not to walk on, the other that the majority of people in this world are Yankees fans. For college, I thought I went far by heading out to Stony Brook and pretty much spent my entire college career playing on an ambulance. Consequently, I am a recovering EMS junkie who has also dabbled in the fire services. I then headed up to Buffalo for medical school where I learned the true meaning of cold and became a wing connoisseur in the process. I took a short sabbatical between third and fourth year to complete my MPH here in Baltimore and used my free time wisely exploring the variety of taps this city had to offer. After a brief stint back in Buffalo for my fourth year, along with some random travels on the other side of the ocean, I find myself returning to Baltimore for residency.
After a series of random jobs, from swim team coach to ski repair technician to Security/Paramedic at a casino, I?m grateful to settle in one spot for a couple of years and finally be receiving a steady paycheck. While it was difficult making a decision on where to train, I was attracted to this program for many reasons. The faculty has inspirational mentors around every corner and no shortage of opportunities. The experience of working in an inner city with some of the country?s highest rates of HIV, IVDA, syphilis, and violence insures plenty of pathology. Baltimore is named Charm City for a reason, with plenty of extra-curricular activities to participate in at a reasonable price.
As I enter the final year of my residency, the perspectives I've gained and the knowledge I've incurred have shaped and altered some of my viewpoints. I still feel firm in my opinion of this program as providing one of the best clinical training programs in the country, and my classmates being some of the best colleagues I could have ever imagined. Besides the obvious professional interests we share, the personal interactions and relationships that I have gained over the past two years have been the most rewarding. I have never come closer to group I've worked with, nor relied so heavily on each other for our successes. It is truly an honor and privilege to work with the residents at this program and I look forward to our years to come.
- EMS
- Public Health
- Emergency Management/Disaster Preparedness
- Specialty Development
