About Me

About Me

I'm a 26 year old student-athlete-researcher originally from Richland, Washington. The phrase above describes my pathway to the Bay Area and evolution into Stanford Medical School.

I grew up in Eastern Washington and as a youth was the stereotypical uncoordinated-nerdy-trying-to-fit-in kid. My parents instilled the values of hard work in the classroom, though they encouraged me to play sports and stay active, as my family has a poor track record with cardiovascular health (stroke, heart attack, cardiovascular disease, etc.)

I tried all sports at a young age, though the sports for the 'in-crowd' were limited to ball sports. Tragically, my lack of coordination made me inept at most of these pursuits, including soccer, basketball, and baseball. What I did love was getting to run with the ball, and that translated into a new pursuit of running cross country and track in middle school and high school, eventually achieving a pseudo-jock status when I started placing at national competitions and making the World Junior Cross Country team as a senior in high school.

Growing up in Eastern Washington, I was lucky to be surrounded by a very scientific community. I grew up just five miles from the Hanford Site, a location that developed much of the nuclear technology during World War II and has since transformed into a major cleanup project. In defense of my hometown, it should be noted that the background radiation levels were lower than our northern counterparts from Spokane, a town that has more background radition from naturally -occurring radon isotopes. My high school, Hanford High School, was blessed with great science and math teachers that helped cultivate my interests.

Now how did this pseudo-jock-nerd from Eastern Washington become transplanted into the rich, intellectual institution of Stanford?

My running interests were recognized by Vin Lananna, the coach at Stanford. He had developed a number of national championship teams and individuals at Stanford, and I was honored to be contacted and visited by him. On my recruiting trip, my collegiate heroes of track and field were all present at practice and very approachable during my visit. As for the school, I knew I was not making a sacrifice by choosing to attend Stanford. Hmmm, top-notch academics coupled with a winning coach? Where should I go to school but Stanford:)

At Stanford, the work ethic and scientific background I had developed in high school made me prepared for the classroom, but I initially struggled with the high-level performances demanded by my sport.

After a two year 'adjustment period' and some serious soul-searching, I found purpose again in my running. The Sports Medicine department helped me turn the corner on the constant fatigue I was experiencing from pushing myself over the edge with my athletics.

Don Chu, the head of the training room, became a father figure to me and inspired me to seek out answers for why I was facing my health problems. I did make the turn around and finished my college carreer with five All-American Awards and three NCAA Team Championships.

As a post-collegiate, I finished 9th at the Olympic Trials in 2004 but became injured and have been fighting again to regain health and pursue my running interests. Again, many doctors and specialists from the sports medicine community have come to my aid. These tangible experiences have confirmed and provided direction in my career goals of becoming a sports medicine specialist.

As I started asking the difficult questions with my health, I found research to be especially appealing. My susceptibility to heat exhaustion led to two years of research in thermal regulation, culminating in a thesis exploring the relationship between lowering core body temperature and associated physical performance gains.

In the past three years, my research has taken a different route, this time to neuroimaging and studying cognitive deficits. In John Desmond's Lab at Stanford I studied the effects of mild traumatic brain injury on collision sport athletes using fMRI.

Following that experience, I worked in Allan Reiss's Lab at Stanford studying two different genetic disorders: Williams Syndrome and Narcolepsy with Cataplexy. The latter of the disorders is the anecdotal material of cocktail parties, a largely unknown sleep disorder where excessive mirth/humor can trigger a sleep episode.

So now I find myself again at Stanford, running each day for fitness and competition, while pursuing my research and academic interests in medicine. I feel at home.