What influenced you to choose to be a doctor? I always knew I wanted to work in health and performance, so for a time I found myself working in sports medicine as an Athletic Traininer. I quickly realized my passion was less performance related and more acute emergency management related. This was highlighted toward the end of my sports medicine career while managing an on-field cervical fracture in a collegiate baseball player. As the ambulance drove off, I trotted back to the dugout knowing I wanted to be where the emergencies went.

What made you choose your specialty? The second part of this story begins in medical school and interest in critical care specialties like ICU medicine, emergency medicine, and trauma surgery. For multiple reasons none of those specialties quite fit. Anesthesiology was actually an accident. A buddy suggested I check it out since it was procedure based, so I did. Turns out the specialty was exactly the type of practice and setting I was looking for: acute resuscitation and emergency management requiring constant physiological and pharmacological engagement.