College: Undergrad at FSU, 

Physical Therapy school: University of Florida 

Med School: Miami

Residency: Emory University 

Professional place of practice: Anesthesia Associates of Gainesville — a private anesthesia group with roughly 30 MDs and 70 plus anesthetists who cover Northeast Georgia Medical Center (Gainesville and Braselton campuses), Braselton ASC and several outpatient centers in Gainesville.

What influenced you to choose to be a doctor? I was a physical therapist, and was the director of an Orthopedic rehab center. I had always loved sports and liked working with athletes. It closed, and the PT market was flooded at the time due to medicare and medicaid cuts limiting PTs in nursing homes and rehab centers, so I decided to go back to Med School to be an orthopedic surgeon. (I didn't want to have to worry about job security moving forward).  I finished a few pre-requisite classes at a local community college and took the MCAT and applied to med school while working as a waiter at a Bennigan's.  

What made you choose your specialty? I did a rotation in surgery during med school and didn't love it, so I decided to be an internal medicine doc and then do a fellowship in cardiology. Two weeks before the "match" where we have to decide on a residency, I did a rotation in anesthesiology and fell in love with the specialty. It combined the knowledge of internal medicine and the ability to do procedures and work in the OR. Fortunately I was able to interview at Emory the next week and matched into their Anesthesiology residency program.