I grew up in Fort Worth Texas in a family where my father was an electrician and my mother an accountant. While in high school, I met a teacher with diabetes who taught Anatomy and physiology class and she was the one who inspired me to go into medicine. I wanted to understand her diabetes more and why she was unable to heal after having a surgery done. Since then, I have pursued my career in medicine. I went to University of North Texas Health Science Center Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and graduated in 2005. I then went to SCFM and graduated in 2008. Since then, I have been living and working in Alamosa, Colorado.

What drew me to living in such a small community was the ability to be a part of the community as well as take care of the residents that live here. I am able to see my patients in their everyday life and understand how they fit with the community here. It’s also a great environment to raise my son. We have also started going to the local rec center and learning Taekwondo.

I look forward to having a residency program here so that I can teach them there is more to life than being the physician. You can become teacher, friend, student and community leader all at once.

I attended University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Medical School. My internship and residency were with the United States Army. After serving an additional four years as a military family physician, I returned to my home town of San Luis, Colorado. I have been the family physician in my home town for 27 years and am now semi-retired. I serve as faculty preceptor for the Rural Training Track Residency Program at Valley-Wide Health Systems in Alamosa.

I enjoy the Colorado mountains to include hiking the 14,000-foot peaks and bicycling all the mountain passes. I also play trumpet with a mariachi band.

Doctor in Latin means “teacher / instructor / trainer / tutor / educator / or master” depending on the translation. Being in family practice means that I can treat everything from “cradle” to “grave” and everything in between. Since a very early age I have always imagined myself as a physician. I like to teach the patients and residents the pathophysiology behind the disease. This helps them to see how the treatment can combat or cure the disease. I like to offer hope to patients when they feel like they have run out of answers. I cannot count the number of times that patients have cried and told me something that they have never told anyone else before. Or how many patients have said that they never had a doctor like me before and that they finally feel listened to. This has been incredibly heartening for me. Every patient has a story and those stories are powerful. Each person has lived a tremendous journey and I am humbled when they share that story with me. This career has been so rewarding. I have realized my dream to help people and to educate patients, and now residents. I love being a “doctor’s doctor”. I strive to model for the residents that it’s not just about the medicine and solidifying their medical knowledge. It’s about treating the whole patient and to meet them where they are at. This has made all the difference.

When I am not precepting residents or seeing my own patients, I love playing with my twin toddler boys and Misha, our family dog. I also enjoy baking, glass fusion and home improvement. I have also just taken an interest in getting back into more summer activities and gardening.

I was born in Irvine, California, and raised in Upland, California. I have had the benefit of living on the west coast, the east coast, as well as the midwest, and finally Colorado.

I completed medical school in Pakistan, which provided me with a unique perspective on different populations. Most recently I completed a Masters in Public Health from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

At SCFM, I hope to be molded into the best primary care physician I can be, through not only hard work but also teamwork. The environment at SCFM is very conducive to learning, and I have no doubt I will walk away from this experience with a healthy proficiency in family medicine. Long term, I see myself practicing as an outpatient primary care physician.

In my free time I enjoy spending time with my husband Sulaiman. We enjoy traveling, and the great thing about Colorado is that there are plenty of vacation spots that serve as great weekend getaways.

A native Ukrainian who has called Colorado home for the past six years. While I was raised in a large city in Ukraine, being married to a cowboy is where I grew to adore a rural lifestyle and small towns. My husband Thomas and I now have a young son, Theodore, as well as a boxer named Tauntaun and they all enlighten my every day and mean the world to me.

I attended Kharkov National Medical University for my medical degree and also studied at Kharkov National Karasin University receiving a Masters in teaching German language and literature. I am currently fluent in English, Ukrainian, Russian, and German and really look forward to learning Spanish as well.

Being passionate about helping people in the underserved and rural areas, I am absolutely excited to be a resident in the SCFM residency program / Alamosa Rural Training Track. It appealed to me because it is an unopposed program, which provides a lot of one on one training with the faculty physicians. I have a special interest in providing OB care for the rural population and this program will enable me to master a wide variety of inpatient and outpatient procedures including full range obstetric care. From the very first day when I had my interview, I felt an energy and the warmth of a true welcome, I felt like this was home. I am privileged to be a part of such a great family and to receive an exceptional training in order to provide the best care for the patients of my community.

If I could be any animal on the planet I would probably be a fish of some sort due to my absolute passion for anything with water. I really love finding different ways to enjoy all four seasons outdoors whether it’s skiing and sledding in the winter, hiking in the fall, gardening in the spring, or camping and swimming in the summer. I love to cook, especially traditional Ukrainian dishes, and my family and I have a secret fondness for trying new restaurants. I also have a penchant for Russian poetry and love collecting and reading books from German authors in their original language. Actually, if there’s any kind of book on my night stand, it means I probably just spent every ounce of free time not being able to put it down until it was finished. All in all, I am absolutely excited to begin working and call Southern Colorado home. Go Broncos!

I’m a Colorado native and grew up in Westminster. I graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a bachelors in Integrative Physiology. Before medical school I took a couple years off to teach at the Denver School of Science and Technology at Green Valley Ranch while also training in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Muay Thai. At the time I thought I wanted to be a Mixed Martial Arts Fighter (MMA) and compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) but my plans changed when I was accepted to attend medical school. Luckily I was able to stay in Colorado near family to attend the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora. In my free time I still practice Brazilian Jiujitsu but also enjoy cooking, writing, playing with my two white fluffy dogs, and watching superhero movies.

I chose family medicine because I love every aspect of the training and wanted to see a variety of patients from all backgrounds. My passion while in school was helping the underserved and I knew SCFM would be the best fit. The residents and faculty have all been very welcoming and their dedication to improving the community is why I chose SCFM for residency.

I was born and raised in western Massachusetts and received my undergraduate degree at Middlebury College in Vermont. My wanderlust then took me across the ocean to Japan and then across the country to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I devoted a year to Americorps VISTA helping individuals with developmental disabilities and then worked at a senior assisted living facility. I then attended medical school at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, where I was involved with the ACOFP student group organizing volunteer events and speakers.

I chose family medicine because I believe it is the core of medicine – long-term, full-spectrum primary and preventive care. I enjoy the opportunity to see patients of all ages and address their varying health concerns. My specific areas of interest include women's health, osteopathic manipulative medicine, and geriatrics. I plan to practice full-spectrum family medicine in a rural underserved area after graduating, so I look forward to my training at the SCFM Alamosa rural training track.

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Rory, and my cat, Trooper. We are avid hockey fans (go Penguins!) and enjoy traveling and painting. I love cooking, hiking, and rock climbing, and dream of being fluent in Japanese and Spanish.

Denver is my home, but I’ve lived in many areas in the eastern United States when I was growing up. My parents were graduate students struggling to make ends meet. I am thankful to call Denver home for the last 18 years and see that the access to medicine for the underserved has improved.

For college I attended the Colorado School of Mines in Golden with the intention of either going into pre-med path to become a physician or to become an engineer. After graduation, I had a detour for several years starting my own business as a software developer. The time was well spent, but my original desire to become a physician was unquenchable, which set the motion for my going back to school. My med school was the University of Colorado School of Medicine, fortunate enough to be in the same city. I had a wonderful but grueling four years of which reaffirmed my career choice as a family physician.

I chose Pueblo and Southern Colorado Family Medicine because of the wonderful people I met on my interview trail, the incredible training it offers as well as proximity to home. This was a good opportunity to venture outside of the comfort zone of my home city and yet stay within a drive away from friends and family.

I am most passionate about preventative and integrative medicine, endocrine, mental health and digestive disorders, as well as technology in medicine. Every day I am grateful for the opportunity to be a physician-in-training here in Pueblo. Looking forward to working with the people of Pueblo and to enjoy the surroundings!

I was born and raised in a small town in Virginia (Madison). I am the oldest of five kids, all home-schooled. Mom is a physical therapist and my dad is a brick mason. I spent summers in undergrad and med school doing masonry labor. I went to college at University of Virginia and medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University. I moved out to Colorado with my fiance.

I love working with my hands and doing procedures. I want to practice full scope rural family medicine. I wanted to be able to take care of everyone from babies to the elderly.

My hobbies include snowboarding, mountain biking, road biking, triathlons, hiking, swimming, running, and binge-watching south park. I’m also a craft beer enthusiast.