I was born in Dubuque, IA, but moved when I was 4 years old, and grew up in Louisville and Boulder, CO. I completed my Associated in the Applied Science of Medical Assisting from Westwood College. I worked for Boulder Community Hospital after my first degree, and it was at this time that my passion for medicine grew even more. The doctors I worked with were wonderful, they fostered my passion and taught me so much. After 4 years, I decided to go back to school to become a physician. I received Undergraduate degrees in Biology and Anthropology from the University of Colorado Denver. I worked at the campus library and as a teaching assistant during school and fell in love with teaching others as well.

I attended medical school at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, CO, and spent an extra year at their Southern Utah campus in St. George completing a pre-doctoral fellowship in Principals of Clinical Medicine. I not only got to teach students the basics of history taking, physical exams and procedures, but I was able to do rounds at a Veteran’s home and volunteer at a free walk-in clinic seeing patients with acute needs. I was able to spend a month with SCFM during the last year and knew during that time that this was the place for me. I loved the area and the people, and in that short time I just felt as if I belonged. I know I will get a great and well-rounded education here that will make me a wonderful doctor. In the future I hope to work primarily in underserved areas, and hopefully also return to teaching and taking other students for rotations.

When I have extra time, I love spending it with my husband, Sam, our German Shepard, Gideon, and the rest of my family and friends. I like to hike, camp, and garden outdoors. I also knit, make candles and jewelry, read, and bake – I love making cakes and cookies and sharing them with everyone. I always love learning and doing new things and am excited to be able to explore the town and area for all the great things to do and new activities to learn.

As a little girl growing up in my village in Cameroon (West Africa), medicine was even further from a dream. It was not for girls like me. After moving to the USA (Colorado) in 2006, I felt loved, cared for, and supported by my community. I knew I wanted care for people and thought medicine could be a great way to do this considering I was a sick child myself.

I completed my undergraduate education in biology through the University of Colorado and eventually with a lot of love and support was able to get my doctorate from the University of Colorado also.

My decision to specialize in family medicine was a very easy one. Growing up as a child, I don’t remember seeing any doctor that was not a family medicine doc. They took care of all the members of my family and were well invested in my health and overall future. I also wanted to practice international medicine in resource scarce areas and family medicine was a specialty that would allow me to pick up and go with little need for high technology. I see family medicine as a specialty that will give me the opportunity to bond with my patients in a way that will carry them “pre-womb to tomb”. My love for family was so obvious while in medical school that I accepted a job offer as a first year medical student to practice in Lamar Colorado.

I wanted a residency program where I would be able to learn full spectrum family medicine and South Colorado Family Medicine was the best fit. I fell in love with the people, the location, and the fact that it was an unopposed program. I loved that I would be able to be in an OB track as a way to foster my love for experiencing the miracle of life.

If you asked my Grandmother (bless her soul) she would tell you that I was blessed (or cursed depending on the day) with the love for and ability to dance. I love to dance A LOT. I also act, play the djembe, and I am a mean plastic canvas artist. I guess it was the best irony when I married my high school sweet heart who doesn’t dance or has any fine motor skills (sorry Babe) but can spend many hours watching animes with me when I am not doing medicine. I am blessed with the best husband a girl could ever ask for, my four brothers, two of the most handsome twin nephews you would ever meet, my mother and my in-laws who love me and support me unconditionally. With my husband and our doggy Scotty, we are excited and blessed to be taking part in the Pueblo community.

I grew up in a small town in central Pennsylvania called State College, the home of Penn State University. My first job, and the one I returned to every winter during high school, was as a ski instructor. Like all of my fellow instructors, I dreamed of moving out to Colorado one day. But I took a couple of detours first, spending almost seven years in the Army, then returning to Penn State to major in electrical engineering. Finally, I attended the University of Oklahoma - School of Community Medicine, an integrated track within the OU College of Medicine that goes beyond the required curriculum teaching students to improve the health of entire communities.

I am very excited to have finally landed in Colorado, and now that I’m here I don’t intend to ever leave. I’d like to live and practice medicine in a small mountain town after residency, and that’s why I chose the Southern Colorado Family Medicine – Rural Training Track program. I believe this is the best place to learn the skills I’ll need to take care of the health of whole families in a small town like the one I grew up in.

I still love to ski, although these days I prefer to earn my turns in the backcountry, and I love just about every other mountain sport there is, from rafting and backpacking in the summer to winter mountaineering; from rock and ice climbing to paragliding.

My name is Chad Roberts. I have an easygoing, laid-back personality, and I like to have fun. I grew up in Northern Utah and later attended Dixie State College followed by the University of Utah where I completed my Bachelors Degree in German. I then traveled to Phoenix, Arizona where I received my Masters Degree in Biomedical Sciences. Finally, I attended the University of Utah School of Medicine for medical school.

I am an outdoorsman and love the wild adventure life has to offer. I like hiking, climbing, canyoneering, camping, river rafting and exploring untraveled places. l love to seek out the most remote and far-away places I can. Some of these places have included long stretches of time in the northern arctic latitudes of Alaska/Canada and the inner remote reaches of Patagonia. The years I’ve spent in the forgotten, mysterious canyon country of the red rock desert and the Colorado Plateau are among my most favorite.

I also enjoy research. It started with studying water quality and giardia in Southern Utah’s slot canyons. This transitioned to several other projects, including hypothermic drug development at the University of Utah and studying hemerheology in spaceflight through NASA’s Aerospace Medicine Training program in Houston, Texas. I like the research process and will always make it a part of my future career.

I plan to make medical humanitarian work and wilderness search and rescue a large part of my future career as well. I am a former Deputy Sheriff for Salt Lake County Search and Rescue and I have taught wilderness and rescue medicine for the University of Utah and other private organizations for many years now. I intend to use and teach these skills to the local and abroad communities as much as I can.

I am excited to be a part of the Southern Colorado Family Medicine team. I look forward to my time here in Colorado!

My name is Christin Thompson. I grew up in Monument, Colorado where we have 35 acres with horses, cows, chickens, dogs and geese. I loved growing up on land and I am so glad to be back in Colorado. I did my undergraduate at University of Denver where he played Division I tennis. I have also coached a lot of tennis between college and medical school. I spent some time playing tennis overseas and during that time I developed a love for the underserved population. That is one of the reasons I decided to pursue medicine. I am passionate about doing medicine overseas and teaching doctors overseas how to provide more efficient medical care to those who don’t have access to care.

I love to be outside running, hiking, with my dogs, climbing, riding horses, or coaching tennis. When I was in medical school I did some dog rescue and love my dogs with all my heart. My goal is to climb all of the 14ers in Colorado. I have currently climbed 38 of them.

I’ve spent the last 20 years living in Colorado and consider myself a native! I studied Chemistry at the University of Denver and completed medical school at Rocky Vista University in Parker, CO. I’ve picked up many hobbies over the years while in Colorado! Skiing is one of my big passions and I spend most winters chasing as many snow storms as I can. During the summer I enjoy rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking and exploring the outdoors.

I really enjoy family medicine because it gives me a chance to see and solve a variety of different problems every day. I believe that building relationships with patients and creating continuity is important. SCFM gives me the resources to hone my knowledge and skills so I can continue serving the Colorado community. The program highly values wellness and provides many outlets to continue what I love to do.

I was born in Moscow, Idaho, but grew up 8 miles away in Pullman, Washington. My father is a microbiology professor and my mother runs a daycare, so it was almost destined that I would go into a profession that integrated science and caring for others. I did my undergrad at the University of Washington. After doing research at the NIH for 2 years, I went to medical school at the University of Kentucky. Following medical school, I pursued an MPH with a concentration in epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health.

Traveling from state to state made it so I had to learn to develop strong relationships quickly. Which, in turn, led me towards family medicine, a specialty where one needs to form strong bonds with their patients quickly in order to successfully help them. I chose SCFM because it is an unopposed residency where I knew I could get ample hands-on experience, and because of its focus on the blue-collar and underserved populations of Colorado. I was also drawn to the location. Living in Pueblo, I have the resources of Colorado Springs and Denver, but I don’t have to deal with the daily traffic associated with these large cities. There is seriously never traffic in Pueblo!

In my free time, I enjoy playing sports like soccer, tennis, and basketball. I also enjoy traveling abroad and sampling the various cheeses of the world. In Colorado, enjoy exploring the various mountains through hiking, rock climbing, and snowshoeing. Lastly, if there is a TV show on Netflix, Hulu, or HBO, I have probably binge-watched it.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles (where my family still owns a Mexican restaurant) and spent much of my adolescence in Dallas, Texas. I then moved to the central mountains of Colorado. SoCal, Big D and the Rocky Mountains are very different worlds. But then, I really enjoy new and varied experiences.

My previous career was in music where I worked as a professional classical and jazz musician for many years. Despite having a busy and successful career as a musician, I knew that there was much more that I wanted to do in life. As I researched other possible careers, I found myself called to the field of medicine. Medicine would offer the opportunity to work in my two most favorite arenas: science and people.

Science had always been in my life. My father, who was an aircraft engineer for Lockheed Aircraft, instilled in me a voracious curiosity. In my varied occupations as a motorcycle mechanic, piano technician, and musician, a scientific approach was indispensable. I have always appreciated how method and logic can lead you to understanding. For me, this approach is by far the most rewarding when I can use it in service of others. My mother, who was raised in an orphanage, ventured out into the world ultimately running her own business. She taught me to take on new, even scary challenges. She also instilled in me the strength of resolve (or pig-headed stubbornness, depending on who you ask).

My first real experience in medicine was in caring for my parents during their long illnesses. Though I had no idea at the time, this would be my inspiration to pursue a career as a physician. I saw in the actions of their doctors and nurses many examples of the impact one can have on the life of someone in need.

Though I kept an open mind during medical school, I knew from the beginning that Family Medicine was where I belonged. I believe that the best health care involves a whole person approach with an emphasis on prevention and health maintenance. I believe that this should be available to everyone, regardless of their background or economic status. And SCFM is a great fit for me. Here I can pursue my interests ranging from OMT to OB, from Asthma to Zoster. And I get to do all of this in an atmosphere of respect and support.

In my free time, I enjoy: cooking, motorcycling, guitars, basses, and anything outdoors. But, most of all, I love to spend time with family, friends and my too-good-for-me wife Camilla.

Let me first say I am thrilled to have matched at this residency program and can not wait to learn from and get to know these wonderful people! I’ve had a theme throughout my life where I just kind of “feel” when something is right. It’s how I ended up at a small liberal arts school in Iowa (after growing up in a wooded mountainous area of Washington), it’s how I chose my medical school in Des Moines, IA, and it’s how I chose this program.

Medical school taught me some of my hardest lessons, and one of those was to take time to fill my own cup. I took a year off between my 3rd and 4th year to do just this. I moved to San Francisco and worked as a barista (which I came to realize is NOT my life calling!) and with the help of a great therapist learned how to make my life more manageable and enjoyable. It’s during this time that I realized Family Medicine could give me everything I wanted in a career, and I set off searching for the perfect fit.

When I found, and interviewed at, SCFM I knew that this place would provide me with friendships, strong support from faculty who care about my mental health, further training in holistic medicine (like OMM and acupuncture), a robust OB experience, and a chance to help the most needy in the community with the migrant clinic. I also knew it was a place I could be happy with the endless sunshine and plethora of outdoor activities (including a lake for my fish of a golden retriever!).

I know I’ll be busy this year but I also know that I will thrive in this environment. I can’t wait to work my butt off and also keep my new garden watered, my dog happy, and my soul content with plenty of hikes. I’m confident I can do all of that and more here.

Kelsi Brown grew up in Fort Collins, CO where she enjoyed time on her grandparents farm and experiencing the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.   She attended Colorado Christian University, earning her Bachelor in Science. During her undergraduate studies she was actively involved in a club visiting the elderly to play bunco and mentoring underclass men through the Discipleship Program learning how to develop the the relationships she hopes to have with her patients.

After obtaining her degree, she worked as an emergency department scribe before pursuing her Master of Biomedical Science from Colorado State University. She then attended medical school at Rocky Vista University. There she discovered her love for family medicine because of its broad spectrum of care and the opportunity to form life-long relationships that can even span generations. She wanted to attend residency at Southern Colorado Family Medicine because of the medically underserved community and the breadth of training.

When she has free time, Kelsi enjoys spending time outdoors gardening, biking, and hiking, or curling up with a good book, playing board games, or watching Old Hollywood films. She is very excited to explore the trails and farmers markets in Pueblo and eat lots of green chili.

My car’s bumper sticker these days would read something like “Semi-Native.” Although, I am originally from Boston, MA, I moved to Colorado in 1999 and have lived here ever since. I grew up in the Ken Caryl valley area of Littleton, just an hour and a half north of Pueblo. I am very much a “valley boy” at heart and have spent many summers hiking the front range, fishing the streams and winters skiing the Rockies. I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Planetary Science from CU Boulder in 2013. Prior to starting medical school, I worked as a hospital phlebotomist which further inspired me to pursue a career in medicine through developing meaningful interactions with patients over these several years.

I attended medical school at Rocky Vista University in Parker, CO. During this time I developed a particular interest in academic research and even spent an extra year of training doing a fellowship at CSU in Fort Collins where I worked as a researcher. Our team helped illuminate several important risk factors involved with active pulmonary tuberculosis and how, in the future, we can hopefully curb infections rates in developing countries through nutritional supplementation. This experience was particularly valuable by providing key insights about how evidence-based research can guide future clinical practices.

I am extremely excited to join the team at Southern Colorado Family Medicine in Pueblo. I am continually inspired by the diverse patient population here and I look forward to delivering excellent and compassionate care. SCFM has such an outstanding faculty focused on training excellent residents. A few of the areas of medicine that are of particular interest to me are, evidence-based research guiding clinical improvements, preventative medicine, and sleep medicine.

Outside of the hospital you can find me cooking up some tasty homemade BBQ, stargazing with my backyard telescope, mountain biking, power napping, or relaxing with my favorite furry friend, Poppy.

My name is Patrick Henke and I am very excited to be joining the SCFMR team! I was born and raised in a small town in upstate New York. For my undergraduate studies, I attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where I majored in mathematics. I then attended Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where I received a master’s of science in cell and molecular biology. Between graduate school and medical school, I worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as a data specialist, and taught high school and middle school math at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy in Minturn, Colorado. These experiences have shaped my interests in primary care and further strengthened my desire to work in a rural community.

I attended medical school at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Here my passions for primary care, population health, and the southwest continued to grow, and I found joy in many areas of patient care from working with kids to nursing home visits. I soon knew that Family Medicine was the perfect fit for me. As I thought about my residency, I was drawn to training in a rural program, staying in the southwest, the beautiful mountain setting, the rigorous, broad-scope training and especially the people of SCFMR. I feel extremely lucky to be taking the next step in my medical training and career here!

I enjoy spending as much of my free time in the outdoors – biking, running, skiing, or hiking – and I am excited by the prospects that Pueblo and Alamosa offers in all of these areas. I can’t wait to learn, work, and play with the great people in this wonderful setting.

While I was born in Louisiana, I came to Colorado as fast as possible and it will always be where I call home. Growing up in a rural part of Aurora, my brother and I ended up with our fair share of lacerations and broken bones, so my curiosity for medicine developed early during those frequent emergency room visits. My mother was also a nurse and I always admired her determination to help others and wanted to follow in her footsteps.

After completing high school, I attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. While completing my degree, I was a competitive skateboarder and snowboarder, and after graduation, I spent several years as a professional touring and competing internationally. When injuries forced me out of the sport, I turned to medicine and completed my medical degree at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, hoping to serve underprivileged populations and especially those affected by substance use disorders and other mental health maladies.

I met my wonderful wife in the years before medical school and we had two beautiful children during my early training. My wife and kids are my life and my time away from work is spent with them exploring Colorado, fishing, hiking, biking.  We also love to dance, play baseball, football, board games, draw, and play chess.

I instantly fell in love with the Southern Colorado Family Medicine Program during my interview because of the amazing faculty and residents that I met and the many opportunities the program offers. I took my wife to visit the city and she fell in love with the area because of its natural beauty. We are all tremendously excited to be a part of the program and look forward to joining the Pueblo community.

I was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, where I lived until I was 13 years old. I spent some time in Mexico with my dad before eventually moving to Miami, FL with my mom. I attended high school in Miami where I first discovered my passion for medicine after helping my best friend through an arduous recovery from a soccer injury that had her sidelined for the entire year.

I later attended Florida International University, where I got my Bachelor's degree and met my future husband. After undergrad, we went to different parts of the country to continue our education; I ended up in Nevada to attend Touro University Nevada's osteopathic medicine program, and he worked on his Master's degree at CU Boulder. During these years, I regularly visited Colorado and fell in love with all it had to offer!

After graduating, I moved to Texas and took a detour through the world of surgery before realizing that, although I loved the procedures and hands-on approach to medicine, I was missing the deeper and long-lasting connections with my patients. I found family medicine, and I felt like I fit right in! On my journey into the next chapter, I found SCFM - a program with a strong curriculum, ample hands-on experience, and the flexibility to shape my learning to the type of practice I aim to lead. More importantly, the people I met here, residents and faculty alike, are the program’s greatest asset. I am so excited to be joining the family!

I’m a sports fanatic, so during my time off I enjoy not only watching and attending various games, but also playing! I enjoy playing soccer (duh!), volleyball, football, beach tennis (it’s a thing in Brazil!) and many other outdoor activities like snowboarding, disc golfing, and hiking. I’m an avid Peloton rider and enjoy weightlifting as well. Although I love being active, I also love having movie nights and having people over! My husband and our two dogs are excited to be coming to Colorado to enjoy all this wonderful state has to offer, and seeing how well this Brazilian does in the snow and cold weather!

I was born in Roorkee, India and immigrated to the United States when I was eight. I grew up in the Orlando metropolitan area in Florida where I also completed my undergraduate at Rollins College with a degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology. During college I developed a passion for biological sciences and community outreach of which a career in medicine seemed to be the natural conclusion. After graduating I started medical school at PCOM Georgia in Atlanta.

I decided to pursue family medicine because I very much enjoyed developing deep and personal relationships with patients and communities. I like being able to follow and contribute to the well-being of families for years. I also enjoy the diversity in cases one sees on a day to day basis. I choose SCFM because it is an unopposed program that prioritizes serving its community.

I was also very much drawn to the location. I have always wanted to live near mountains with ample trails for hiking and outdoor activities. I also appreciate the fact that Denver and Colorado Springs are not too far away. Some other hobbies I enjoy are playing tennis, reading, visiting museums and historical sites, and traveling the countryside.

I was born in Naples, Florida but primarily grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ve always enjoyed playing sports, traveling, and exploring.

I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science at Appalachian State University. While in undergrad I worked as a waitress and a CNA, both of which gave me unique opportunities to communicate with people and connect with those from other walks of life. I was also able to volunteer with the Community Care Clinic, which truly showed me the importance of healthcare accessibility.

After graduation, I moved to Oahu and continued working as a CNA. A large part of who I am and what I aspire to contribute to society stems from interactions with people who had a deep impact on my personal development during my time on the island. I became a part of a community dedicated to caring for the health and well-being of its people and appreciating the natural world around us. These values lead me to pursue Osteopathic Medicine due to its emphasis on providing holistic care in addition to learning OMM and its many benefits. I eventually left Hawaii to attend medical school at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Suwanee, Georgia.

During my time in undergrad as well as in Hawaii, I saw the need for primary care physicians and the importance of their role in the community. This encouraged me to pursue Family Medicine. I seek to provide wholesome care to those in my community, as well as develop transparent and meaningful relationships with those around me. In addition, I would like to pursue alternative and complementary medicine in order to integrate these into how I practice and to further offer patients various options while on their healthcare journey.

I chose to attend residency at SCFM because of many unique opportunities it allows such as acupuncture, integrative medicine, and international medicine. I also appreciate the strong focus on OMM and wellness education within the program. I’m looking forward to moving to Colorado and being able to go hiking, snowboarding, and fly fishing in my free time!

I grew up in a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains bordering Yosemite National Park. My parents owned and operated an assisted living facility out of our home, so I was able to experience healthcare at an early age. After high school, my family served in Gimbie, Ethiopia as missionaries. Through my pivotal year of experience there, I decided to pursue medicine in order to provide care to rural disenfranchised communities in the majority world.

I received my undergraduate degree in biology from Pacific Union College in the Napa Valley, California. I then studied at Loma Linda University where I received a master’s in medical science and completed my medical school training. Between my third and fourth years of medical school, I obtained an MBA in healthcare management from La Sierra University.

My lovely wife, who I met in medical school, joins me in my love of nature. We are excited to explore Colorado through mountain bikes, hiking, off-roading, camping and boating. I also enjoy woodworking, fabrication and auto-mechanics in my spare time. If you can’t find me at the hospital, look for me under my Jeep.

I chose SCFM as my #1 ranked residency because it was the only program I found to have all of the attributes I desired in a residency program. I wanted a full spectrum family medicine program with strong OB training, surgical/procedure experience and the flexibility to tailor the curriculum in areas of interest. As a devout Christian of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I also wanted to work under a religious institution where I was free to provide spiritual care alongside medicine. I am excited to be able to train in such a well-rounded program with the ability to recreate in the great outdoors of Southern Colorado.

My name is Katelyn Deveraux. I am originally from Pueblo West, CO and am thrilled to have the opportunity to serve the community I grew up in. After graduating from high school, I completed my bachelor’s in Chemistry at University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. In Greeley, I was hooked into the healthcare field after I worked as a certified nursing assistant through college in both the nursing home and hospital setting.

After living in Denver for a year, I packed up and moved to Kirksville, MO to attend A.T. Still University- Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. This town of 17,000 was where I spent 5 years learning not only about the human body but also about how to work in a rural/ low resource area. I fell in love with treating patients of all ages and in all stages of life. My love of family medicine started and grew as I progressed through all of my rotations. I wanted to be the one to take care of babies, their parents, and grandparents all in the same office. My desire to serve an underserved/rural community was further validated by my love of the community and the patients I was able to help on my medical school journey.

Southern Colorado Family Medicine was my ideal residency program. I loved the ability to tailor my education to allow myself to become the type of physician I want to be 5 years down the road. I have a passion for women’s health, obstetrics, and breastfeeding medicine. SCFM also will allow me to expand my knowledge on treating migrant workers and also adding addiction medicine skills to my toolbox. The people were extremely welcoming, and I look forward to becoming part of the team.

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my husband, children and our 3 dogs. I love any outdoor activity and you can always find me looking for new hiking trails or taking my family to a new park. I also love gardening, cooking, and keeping my sourdough starter and kombucha brew alive.

Hello all! I am ecstatic to be joining the Southern Colorado Family Medicine residency team! I am eager to learn from well-rounded physicians and grow as a doctor in an inviting and friendly environment. Even though I am from the southeast, I had a strong inclination that this program was very special after talking to the residents and physicians. I felt like SCFM and Pueblo, Colorado could be my new home!

I was born near the beach in Virginia but have grown up all over the place, moving from the suburbs of Chicago to North Carolina, and then to the rural Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky for medical school. My journey in science began when I was a child but blossomed when I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Go Tarheels! I worked for many years with children with developmental disorders such as autism, and then moved into the field of breast cancer clinical research. I loved my careers before medical school, but ultimately medicine was my passion. I attended Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tennessee and moved to Hazard, Kentucky for clinical rotations. Since Kentucky is my most recent home, I have to cheer for the darker blue team, University of Kentucky, as my boyfriend is a huge Wildcats fan! I still bleed Carolina blue though!

Medical school taught me many hard lessons and challenged me to always persevere in order to make my dream a reality. Coming to SCFM is my dream come true! I am drawn to SCFM because it has a full spectrum family medicine curriculum. It challenges resident physicians to develop the area that interests them most while being extremely proficient in all aspects of family medicine. I particularly want to expand my outpatient and inpatient procedural skills as well as harness the education from a robust obstetrics department. Since I was a team leader for an English Second Language program in California and worked in a community hospital in Spain, I am eager to take care of the diverse patient population in Pueblo and help at El Centro De Los Pobres.

I have lived in many places and am excited to make Pueblo my next home! Of course, I want to continue my love of traveling and exploring new cultures. When I am not taking care of patients, you can find my boyfriend and I driving across the country adventuring with our four dogs or hiking around National Parks and kayaking down rivers. The beautiful outdoors of Pueblo is perfect for us and we are thrilled to join the community!

My name is Grace Kim and I am very excited to be joining the SCFMR team! I grew up in Colorado Springs where I enjoyed hiking, horseback riding, tennis, and skiing. For my undergraduate studies, I decided to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. I majored in biology and conducted research on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. While I loved my time in California, I missed Colorado and decided to return. After college, I wanted to gain some experience in the medical field and worked as an EMT in Denver. During this time, I gained an appreciation for primary care and further strengthened my desire to become a physician.

I attended medical school at Rocky Vista College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colorado. Here I discovered my love for osteopathic manipulative medicine and realized that Family Medicine was a perfect fit for me. I enjoyed the broad spectrum of care and the opportunity to form life-long relationships that Family Medicine provided.

I am excited to train at SCFMR due to its broad-scope training while fostering my passions for OMM. I love that this program promotes a strong since of community and allows me to stay in beautiful Colorado.

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time outdoors hiking and climbing. When I am not outdoors, I enjoy baking, reading science fiction, and playing board games. I am excited to explore the trails around Pueblo and all that Pueblo has to offer.

I was born and raised in Northern Utah in a close-knit, blue-collar family. Growing up I developed a love for people and the outdoors. After high school, I moved to Arkansas for two years where I learned to speak Spanish and worked with the immigrant community. This was one of the most treasured experiences of my life. Since that time I have made a special effort to continue to serve the Spanish speaking community wherever I find myself.

My interest in biology led me to get a college degree in Physiology and Developmental Biology from Brigham Young University. From there I attended medical school at Rocky Vista University’s Southern Utah campus. In medical school I developed a passion for Osteopathic Manual Treatment (OMT), pain medicine and sports medicine. These, with my other interests, were a natural segue to Family Medicine and the Residency Program here in Southern Colorado.

When I am not in the hospital or the clinic, my wife and I can often be found outdoors. We love hiking, backpacking, skiing, snowshoeing and enjoying time with family.

After dropping out of high school at 16, I lived in various homeless shelters in order to leave the chaotic instability of an abusive home. As I watched those close to me overdose or go to prison, I felt called to do more with my life. I have spent the last eighteen years relentlessly perusing my dream to become an osteopathic physician so I could help implement meaningful changes to long term primary care in disparaged communities.

But what changes can I make that would actually be meaningful? How can I truly help improve the long term health outcomes of my patients? These are the question I have asked myself while in medical school. The answer to this lies in identifying and accurately treating underlying mental health conditions that often go unidentified, misdiagnosed, and untreated, especially in vulnerable populations.

Untreated mental health conditions result in dysfunction in the day to day activities and can result in lifelong opportunity costs for patients. This is due to a decrease ability for self-control, lack of insight, and functional decision making capacity. Thus, preventable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and even addiction are not simply “poor lifestyle choices”. They are a symptom of deeply rooted issues that originate in the mind and result in behaviors patterns that literally re-wire our natural neurobiology.

As a physician I want to dedicate my work to shift the mentality in health care that preventable diseases are a simply the result of “poor lifestyle choices”, and recognize these are complex behavioral patterns often engrained in youth. I want to partner with my patients to recognize underlying mental health conditions and implement small, but powerful changes which manifest in overall physical wellness.

When deciding what type of program I wanted to complete my medical training, I wanted to be part of a program that shared the same philosophy around whole-patient integrative care, valued the wellbeing of their residents, and allowed me to maintain a work-life balance conducive to maintaining my own mental and spiritual wellbeing. I found all of this and so much more here at SCFM. I couldn’t be more excited to be completing my training here where I will be able to grow in my passion and knowledge of lifestyle-based preventive medicine and integrate non-traditional medical remedies such as acupuncture.

Outside of being a physician, I write and perform spoken word poetry with the goal of sparking meaningful conversations around difficult and uncomfortable topics. I also want to encourage and inspire others to have resiliency in the face of despair.

I am a mom of two amazing little boys, 8 and 12. We have a dog named Marley and a banded water snake named Nessie. Marley is lab mix who loves to go for runs, eat candy, and pee on couches when mommy leaves for to. Nessie, grateful she did not meet an untimely death when found in my kitchen, enjoys entertaining the boys when they grounded from technology. She can devour 10 fish in less than 10 seconds, and will swallow a frog in one quick swoop.

We are a very active family. We love to fishing, hiking, and pretty much anything out doors. They are video game fanatics (all kids are at this age right?) and will slaughter anyone at Mortal Kombat…. including me. We are all so excited to for this next chapter in this journey. There is truly only one place a southern girl like me would be willing to trade flip-flops for snow boots, and that is Colorado.

I grew up on a farm across the street from Nortonville, a small town in northeastern Kansas. My family has put a heavy emphasis on volunteerism since before I was born, my parents met when they were volunteers with blind athletes and we continued this throughout my childhood. Summer tournaments were our family vacations, exploring different cities across the country, including Denver, CO, and making friends from all walks of life. Choosing to practice family medicine was easy for me because I enjoyed the science and have never known anything other than serving my community.

Our family vacations are part of what led me to leave my town of 600 to attend the University of Dallas where I received a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Biopsychology. I had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad, living in Rome, Italy for 4 months and making memories for a lifetime. I returned home for medical school at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City Kansas and couldn't be more excited to spread my wings once again by moving to Colorado.

My fiance and I are looking forward to spending a year in Pueblo before moving to Alamosa.We have many plans to explore the community, ski on real snow instead of the artificial stuff, and travel around farther west than we're used to going. We're hoping to have many new stories to tell our families when we get married on December 31, 2021! As a couple who grew up, met, and fell in love on the Great Plains, the mountains will be a new adventure for us to start our married life.

SCFM immediately became a special program to me when I was researching where to apply. I was hoping to take advantage of a program that allowed me to take advantage of both urban and rural communities to study in and I immediately fell in love with the longitudinal rural curriculum that will allow me to spend more time with my patients and follow them throughout my time as a resident. I can't wait to meet my new residency family and make friends who can teach me what it means to practice medicine and enjoy the mountains!