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Tell us about yourself.
I’m originally from Massachusetts, about an hour outside of Boston. I received my undergraduate degree in environmental studies and chemistry from Bowdoin College in Maine. I’m applying into internal medicine and plan to follow that with a fellowship in rheumatology.
Which academic aspects of CCLCM have you enjoyed?
I love the flexibility of our curriculum and how everything is decompressed. The flexibility allowed me to explore what careers and life looks like in academics and in medicine, both from an educational standpoint and a research standpoint.
Describe a stand-out moment.
During my first year at CCLCM, Dr. Ilyssa Gordon came to talk to our class and asked if anyone had an interest in exploring the impact of climate and the environment on health. I dove into this burgeoning field of medicine, helping to design a curriculum at CCLCM and then giving numerous talks and workshops with Dr. Gordon and others about our work. One stand-out moment was one of those talks during my clerkship year. I left my pediatrics rotation on my lunch break to give a virtual talk on my computer with Dr. Gordon. The contrast between feeling kind of lost on my clinical rotation to speaking about a topic I felt confident about was really stark. I really felt like I had learned something.
What drew you to CCLCM?
I worked as a research assistant in Boston after graduating from undergrad and before coming to medical school. One of the projects I was working on had collaborators in Cleveland, and during an investigators meeting and dinner for that project, I happened to sit next to Dr. Morgan Jones, an orthopaedic surgeon and CCLCM faculty member at the time. He and I got to talking, and he suggested I seriously look at CCLCM if I had an interest in research. When I got home, I looked it up. I thought the program seemed absolutely incredible, but there’d be no way I’d ever get in. The rest is history!
What excites you most about your future?
A lot! I want to do a lot of different things with my career in clinical care, research and medical education, but it’s the opportunity to work and give back to others around me as I progress through my career that makes me most excited. I’ll be graduating from CCLCM because of the opportunities and mentorship from many incredible mentors in academic medicine. I hope one day to be in a position where I can offer opportunities to trainees and help others launch a meaningful career.
What advice do you wish you had received prior to starting the program?
Two things: One, I wish I was told to lean into Cleveland a little more. During my first year at CCLCM, I was in a long-distance relationship, so I was traveling to and from Boston many weekends. However, once COVID hit, it somewhat forced me to lean into Cleveland. Two, I wish I was told to be more patient with myself as I found my path.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about applying to the program?
Be ready to treat medical school as your job. Take a work approach rather than a school approach.
Accomplishments you’d like to share?
The two biggest accomplishments are the manuscript on the climate and health curriculum at CCLCM published in Academic Medicine, one of the first that outlined a longitudinal curriculum at a medical school in the United States, and getting accepted to my climate and health educational fellowship at Columbia University with the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education.
What’s your most-used app on your phone?
Unfortunately, it’s probably Instagram. I use it for making my mind go numb to decompress after long days. I favor photos of beautiful places to travel or awesome food to eat.
How do you spend your free time?
I enjoy spending time outdoors and cooking with friends. The best recipe I’ve attempted has been a pork shoulder tomatillo chili. I workshopped the recipe with my friend, and it turned out great!
Fun fact?
I skied far too much the year before medical school. One season, I spent 60 different days skiing at a variety of mountains around the country.
