I'm a board-certified general surgeon specializing in acute care surgery and surgical critical care. I know the terrain of this course firsthand: the operating room at 2 AM, the complication that follows you home, the team conflict or chaotic code that no one debriefs. After years in academic medicine at UCSF, UNC and the University of Washington, I stepped away to reimagine my surgical career. Currently, I am exploring new ways to support the things I value – excellent and compassionate patient care, education, supporting colleagues and continual learning – to build a life with genuine room for joy and satisfaction while supporting others in finding meaning, balance, and wellbeing in their personal and professional lives.

I bring more than 15 years of personal mindfulness practice to my work, along with more than four years teaching Enhanced Stress Resilience Training (ESRT) to surgeons, medical trainees, and other healthcare professionals. Teaching ESRT deepened my mindfulness practice, supporting both tremendous personal and professional evolution, and inspiring me to further develop the skills to help others transform and grow.  I have now completed a one-year rigorous, ICF-accredited coaching program with iPEC and am now in the process of completing my Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).  MMTCP is a two-year training program founded by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, renowned western meditation teachers. This Mindfulness for Healthcare Workers Course is both my practicum for MMTCP certification and the first offering of a class I plan to keep teaching well beyond, as a tool to help others change their relationship to the stresses in their work to find new joy, meaning and satisfaction in their careers and lives.