APPD LEAD Cohort 14

The first 18 years of my life, I lived in a small town in Iowa, before heading off to the “big city” to complete my undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa. I became a Physician Assistant and practiced for 5 years in an underserved rural area of Tennessee before applying to medical school. I subsequently graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. My husband (Al) and I then left Tennessee to pursue dual residencies (his Neurology, mine Pediatrics) in Denver, Colorado. I completed my pediatric residency, chief residency, and pediatric infectious disease fellowship training at the University of Colorado/Children’s Hospital Colorado. We then decided to make Colorado our permanent home and have now lived in the Denver area for the last 25 years. Currently, I am an Associate Pediatric Residency Program Director (18 years!), a former Assistant Dean for Longitudinal Curriculum for the School of Medicine (12 years), and a pediatric infectious disease subspecialist. I am a former Cohort 1 LEAD graduate, and I was a member of the LEAD Council for 6 years prior to becoming the Chair. My career focus is in education and my secondary specialty focus is Kawasaki Disease. In our spare time, my husband and I like to travel. However, we really enjoy spending time in the Colorado mountains. You can often find us looking at them, spending time in the mountains, and photographing wildlife. We are currently empty nesters (which explains why we have free time), after raising our two wonderful boys, Chris and Nick. I also love to cook so the holiday family meals are always at our house! I look forward to meeting and getting to know my new friends in the Cohort very soon!