Using medicine to enact social justice drew me to healthcare. My experiences with patient populations both domestically and abroad has allowed me to develop my idea of “surgical justice:” the use of technical surgical approaches to address social justice issues. Plastic and reconstructive surgery lends itself perfectly to this idea, whether it be working with pediatric patients, burn victims, veterans, or the transgender population. I plan to use my career to work towards “surgical justice” through the lens of advocacy, policy, and the patients I will serve.
Being from Tucson, Arizona I studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Arizona. After graduating Summa Cum Laude and with Honors, and receiving the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award, I continued to study Biochemistry and Biophysics, eventually receiving a Master of Science. My research was focused on protein evolution and function. I spent the year after my graduate studies as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. My work in the laboratory of Dr. Andreas Pluckthun focused on protein engineering as a means to target and kill breast cancers.
At Stanford University School of Medicine, my research focused on global health, especially in Central Europe. I worked with the Ministry of Health in Albania and the World Health Organization in Kosovo as a David L. Boren Fellow. While in Albania, my idea of "surgical justice" was born from a patient I witnessed whose cleft lip, or "buze lepurshi" in colloquial Albanian, was repaired by a plastic surgeon on a medical mission when adequate healthcare was difficult to find in Albania. Upon return to Stanford, I pursued wound healing and stem cell research in Dr. Michael T. Longaker's Laboratory as an Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow. I also worked clinically on a variety of genitourinary reconstruction projects.
Currently, I am a resident in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Washington. Clinically, I am interested in microsurgery and genitourinary reconstruction. The use of tissue engineering in regenerative and reconstructive medicine also excites me. I hope to be a leader in Plastic Surgery, doer of "surgical justice," and relentless patient advocate.
Being from Tucson, Arizona I studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Arizona. After graduating Summa Cum Laude and with Honors, and receiving the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award, I continued to study Biochemistry and Biophysics, eventually receiving a Master of Science. My research was focused on protein evolution and function. I spent the year after my graduate studies as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. My work in the laboratory of Dr. Andreas Pluckthun focused on protein engineering as a means to target and kill breast cancers.
At Stanford University School of Medicine, my research focused on global health, especially in Central Europe. I worked with the Ministry of Health in Albania and the World Health Organization in Kosovo as a David L. Boren Fellow. While in Albania, my idea of "surgical justice" was born from a patient I witnessed whose cleft lip, or "buze lepurshi" in colloquial Albanian, was repaired by a plastic surgeon on a medical mission when adequate healthcare was difficult to find in Albania. Upon return to Stanford, I pursued wound healing and stem cell research in Dr. Michael T. Longaker's Laboratory as an Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow. I also worked clinically on a variety of genitourinary reconstruction projects.
Currently, I am a resident in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Washington. Clinically, I am interested in microsurgery and genitourinary reconstruction. The use of tissue engineering in regenerative and reconstructive medicine also excites me. I hope to be a leader in Plastic Surgery, doer of "surgical justice," and relentless patient advocate.
