I am a nurse practitioner in the Division of Psychiatry, where my focus is on children and adolescents. I meet each child and family where they are, hear their story, and try to provide a safe place where they can find hope, direction and healing.

I’ve always wondered why humans think the way we do and how this impacts our life direction, decisions and suffering. When we intercede while our patients are young, there’s an opportunity to prevent distress, create better emotional outcomes, and heal the hurting child and family. This approach can be true even when things are out of their control.

My practice is patient-centered, empirically based and holistic. In my research, we are studying pharmacogenetics, which pertains to how people respond differently to medications based on their genetic makeup. I contributed to a paper on pharmacogenetics titled Pharmacogenomic testing in child and adolescent psychiatry: An evidence-based review. This paper was published in the February 2019 issue of Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.

I am a guitarist, a composer, and I enjoy reading.