Facility Oakland Medical Center Pediatric Neurosurgery Address 3701 Broadway, 1st floor Oakland CA 94611 Map & Directions Telephone Reception and Appointments: (510) 752-1749 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Office Hours

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	8:30 am 4:45 pm	8:30 am 4:45 pm	8:30 am 4:45 pm	8:30 am 4:45 pm	8:30 am 4:45 pm
Closed during lunch, 12:15 pm to 1:30 pm

About Me

I have had the good fortune to call many places home. I was born in Michigan, but raised mostly in Hawaii and California. I graduated High School from Iolani School in Honolulu and went to Pitzer College in Claremont, California for my undergraduate degree. I graduated with a degree in Psychology, but my true interest was Psychobiology, or the connection between the brain and behavior.

After college, I moved up to Portland, Oregon where I tried a few different things before becoming inspired to pursue a career in medicine. It was a conversation with a nurse about the blood brain barrier that did it. After that conversation, I spent the entire night thinking about ways to get chemotherapeutic agents across the blood brain barrier. By morning, I realized I was missing my true calling.

I originally thought I wanted to become a physician, but after many conversations with residents, doctors, and nurses with whom I was working, I decided the Physician Assistant profession better fit me.

I did my Physician Assistant training at Cornell University Medical College in New York City and was intimately involved in the events of 9/11. I was on rotation at New York University Downtown Hospital, four blocks from the World Trade Center, when the planes hit and the buildings collapsed. I spent the next several days volunteering at Ground Zero.

After my training was completed, I was fortunate enough to find a job here at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland and have been here since March 2003. My family lives nearby and I love the activities the Bay Area offers.

I am an avid cyclist, and this past July did a two-week, 1000-mile, riding tour through the French Alps. I also love bodyboarding, bodysurfing, and surfing, though I don’t love 53-degree water. I used to snowboard a lot, but now only seem to make it to the mountains a couple times a year. The same holds for fly-fishing. The golf clubs have four years of dust on them.

Many people ask me, “What is a Physician Assistant?” While I have many euphemistic answers, like “MD Lite” or “Eternal Resident”, a Physician Assistant is a mid-level practitioner (much like a Nurse Practitioner) that has been trained in the medical model. PA’s receive a condensed version of medical school, stuffing 4 years' worth of education into approximately two. After we finish school, we then get what is essentially on-the-job training in whichever specialty we choose. What can a PA do? Anything their physician supervisor has trained them to do or they are comfortable with them doing. This includes seeing one’s own patients in clinic (and giving one’s opinions about treatment, like surgery), performing minor surgical procedures on one’s own, and assisting in major procedures. This also includes seeing patients in the hospital, writing orders, and answering nurses' and families' questions.

How do I view my role? I see myself at the physician’s left arm. Sure, they could do without me, but it makes their job much easier, and frees them up to focus on the more complex neurosurgical patients and issues. On the other hand, one of the key focuses of my training is to know when to ask for help and when to get the physician involved in the care of a patient. I know my limits, and if I feel like I’m beyond them, I’ll get the necessary assistance.

I look forward to seeing you and your family in the clinic soon. To find out more about the Physician Assistant profession, the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, you can see both have great websites:

http://www.aapa.org

http://www.aaspa.com

Other favorite sites of mine:

http://www.surfline.com

http://www.wavewatch.com

http://www.whistler-blackcomb.com

http://www.ncnca.org

http://www.yjadventures.com

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