What are some of your favorite activities outside of work?
I love running, cycling, travel with my family, yoga, meditation, and snowboarding.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in academic medicine at UW?
UW medicine approaches care in a way that aligns with my values. I lost my mom to cervical cancer when I was eight years old. In college I worked as a sexual health peer educator and as I started medical school, I discovered that I loved birth. OBGYN allows me to be with people during some of the most pivotal moments of their lives and guide them through complex decision making with a compassionate and person centered approach.
I love being a translator of medical knowledge, helping people understand their care and what is best for them depending on their unique values.
What is one professional or academic accomplishment of which you are most proud and why?
I am proud of my work with the home and birth center community. I have contributed to creating a culture that is trauma informed and safe for individuals planning community birth when interfacing with the hospital system.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Be for something and against nothing.
What is one thing that brings you joy, either inside or outside of work?
Spontaneous dance parties
What inspires you?
People who are justice oriented and work to question and change the system by calling others in to do the work.
When do you feel the most impactful?
When I can hold space for my patients to heal and grow even in difficult situations involving loss and trauma.
Research Interests:
Community birth, collaborative care with midwives.
Clinical Interests:
Support of normal pregnancy and physiologic birth, collaborative care with midwives, vaginal birth after cesarean, pregnancy after loss and infertility, trauma informed care, family planning, contraception, basic infertility evaluation and care, cervical dysplasia, menstrual disorders.
Board Certification:
FACOG, 2012
Licensure:
Washington, 2010
Education & Training:
Residency, Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2010
MD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2006
Memberships:
American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists
Date Joined UW Medicine: 2020
Languages: English, conversational in Spanish
