Biography
BS in Anthropology and Spanish 2003 UNM Earned Doctor of Medicine 2010 UNM SOM Completed a 3 year FM residency at UNM
Personal Statement
As a Clinician Educator at UNM SOM I serve as an educator, clinician and scholar. My educational philosophy is to inspire and excite my learners using case-based learning and interactive lectures. Learners benefit more from an interactive experience in which they can utilize and practice the information being taught. I am extremely passionate about education. I feel that we, as Clinician Educators, have a duty to teach the next generation of health care providers in innovative, effective and dynamic modalities to engage learners and inspire them. I am the Clerkship Director for Family Medicine. This educational role allows me to interact and educate over 100 medical students a year: every medical student during their 3rd year clinical experience rotates through 8 weeks of Family Medicine. I teach in a variety of settings: inpatient, outpatient and classroom. I am proud to be a primary care provider and hope to inspire students and residents to pursue careers in primary care to improve the health of New Mexico and our nation. My resident and student reviews are extremely positive and I was awarded the ?inpatient teaching award? in 2017 by the graduating residents. I have demonstrated a large acumen for education in multiple settings. I have above average comments from learners, awarded teaching excellence award and am recruited to teach by the School of Medicine and other departments. I have developed a new and innovative curriculum that has been recognized nationally. I find great joy and satisfaction in education and have demonstrated excellence in education. My clinical service also brings me great joy. I find it an honor to establish long-standing relationships with my patients. These long-standing relationships allow me to be my patients? advocate, coach and cheerleader, it also allows me to have difficult conversations with them when their health is declining and help them make decisions regarding their care. This passion for primary care and my dedication to patients in New Mexico stems from my personal life and has become deeply embedded in my personal identity. I was born and raised in Pe¤asco, NM, a very rural, economically disadvantaged and resource poor town in Taos County. My father became chronically ill at a young age and my family had to travel great distances to receive specialty care. I was inspired to become a physician at an early age by my father?s PCP who served as our advocate throughout my father?s life. I attended and graduated UNM SOM and completed residency in NM with a continued passion to serve the people of NM through primary care. I provide clinical service in the outpatient clinic at UNM Atrisco Heritage clinic. This is a unique clinic situated on a high school campus. I provide service to adolescents in both the primary care and confidential services role. In addition to providing adolescent care I also have a panel of patients for whom I care for in management other chronic diseases as well as preventative health at Atrisco. I have cared for many of the same patients for over 9 years and manage their chronic diseases. It is my honor and privilege to help patients through their disease process as well as help people at the end of their life. I am also very passionate about serving patients who suffer from opiate addiction and I am a suboxone prescriber. This entails specialty training in opiate addiction and the use of the medication as well as significant time spent seeing these patients and coordinating care. I speak Spanish fluently and provide care in both English and Spanish. I also provide clinical care on the UNM Inpatient Family Medicine service. For the past 5 years I spent 10-13 weeks a year on inpatient service providing inpatient care as well as teaching residents. We provide acute care of both adults and pediatrics as well as patients admitted for complex diagnoses such as heart failure. I have developed an institutional reputation as an excellent inpatient physician. I am c
Areas of Specialty
FM Education
Certifications
? Board Certification Family Medicine ABFM 2013-2023 ? New Mexico medical license 2012-2021 ? Drug Enforcement Administration certification certified through 2022? ? Advanced Cardiac Life Support Certified through 2020 ? Pediatric Advanced Life Support Certified through 2020
Achievements & Awards
? Excellence in Teaching on Inpatient Service 2017 ? Chief Resident 2012-2013, UNM Family and Community Medicine ? UNM Medical Leadership Academy 2017-2019. Awarded top 3 QI project from cohort
Languages
- English
- Spanish