I was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in rural central Florida. In 1991, I moved to New Orleans and received a Medical Degree as well as a Masters of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from Tulane. After this, I completed a family practice residency and public health service obligation in Savannah, Georgia. After four years, I became dissatisfied with the scope of traditional western medicine and sought to expand my skills by becoming certified in the practice of acupuncture and Ayurvedic medicine.
In 2003, I moved to Northern California to attend a doctoral program at California Institute of Integral Studies. My goal was to develop a better understanding of why illness could be a revolutionary transformation for some and a hopeless abyss for others. Understandably, I wanted to be able to guide my patients into the former route.