Biography
My academic interests encompass five major areas: Leadership, Education, Mentoring, Community Service and Professional Development. Throughout my career, I have actively pursued a variety of learning and teaching opportunities to enhance my personal and professional growth and to contribute to the medical education mission at the University of New Mexico.
Personal Statement
Mentoring: The greatest impact I can have on the future of medicine is to influence the attitudes, knowledge, clinical skills, and professional identity development of our medical students. I am the Learning Communities Mentor for North House and thoroughly enjoy the privilege of getting to know my group of medical students on a personal level and supporting them as they progress through the challenges of medical school. As a Professional Development Coach and Continuity Clinic Preceptor, I work one on one with medical students to improve their communication and clinical reasoning skills and model effective interactions with patients and medical staff. Through my involvement as a small group facilitator in the UNM SoM ?Healer?s Art? course, I provide perspective and insight to second year medical students as they work to recognize, value, enhance and preserve the human dimension of health care.
Community Service: I strongly believe in the importance of community service and after completing a twenty-six year career in the US Air Force, transitioning into a UNM Faculty position was a perfect way to continue to give back to my community. I am also a Supervisory Physician for the New Mexico Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) and travelled to Puerto Rico in Oct 2017 to provide medical assistance to the local population in Ponce, P.R. after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Annually as part of the DMAT, I provide medical support for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon at White Sands Missile Range.
Professional Development: Ongoing professional faculty development is vital to support the educational missions of the UNM School of Medicine and the Health Sciences Center. I continually pursue opportunities for professional growth and enjoy exploring new areas related to education, physician wellness and how communication impacts interpersonal interactions and influences both job and patient satisfaction.
Leadership: Pursuing leadership training and management opportunities empowers me to improve organizational efficiency and support the goals of the UNM School of Medicine and the Health Sciences Center. I am currently the Medical Director for the Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EMPA) Residency Program and I have served as the Director of UNM?s Emergency Medical Services Academy. I successfully completed the UNM Medical Leadership Academy and seek opportunities to put the skills I have learned to use at both the School of Medicine and the Health Sciences Center.
Education
Education: I am a clinician-educator and as such my goal is to prepare our learners, whether they are medical students, EM residents or EMPA residents, to practice good medicine in an effective and compassionate manner. I believe learning is easiest when theoretical principles are tied to clinical applications and I actively seek educational opportunities where I can stress this connection to my learners. I teach a variety of learners during my emergency department clinical shifts and I dedicate a portion of my non-clinical time to facilitating small groups in the Doctoring and Clinical Reasoning courses within the medical school curriculum. I also present lectures, small group seminars and clinical skills training to PA students, EMPA residents and EM residents and I am also an ATLS instructor. I completed the UNM Medical Education Scholars Seminar program and strive to use the principles I learned there to improve my educational performance.
Research and Scholarship
EM Residency Simulation Curriculum
Online Simulation Curriculum: shortly after the onset of COVID restrictions, we developed and implemented an online curriculum to continue to provide monthly simulation opportunities to our EM and EMPA residents.Expanded Simulation Curriculum: we expanded the content of the monthly EM Resident Conference simulation to include 4 separate stations: adult resuscitation, communication with patients/families/colleagues, peds resuscitation and ultrasound. The Communication case builds from the adult resuscitation case and provides the students with opportunities such as practice breaking bad news, obtaining informed consent, and consulting colleagues from other services/specialties.