First off, thank you for taking the time to read this! This is my first blog post ever and I hope that you will continue to read about what I am thinking and possibly learn something from the material that I talk about. I created this website in order to reach out to a broader audience and share my work and passions with anyone who is willing to listen.
For those of you who know me, I'm a family guy. My wife and daughters are my entire world and I wouldn't be where I am without the support of all of them.
My oldest daughter, Taylor, was recently married in Sept 2020 and is now about to graduate from PA school. My younger two daughters, Olivia and Rowan, are also growing up fast with Rowan doing amazing things on a competitive cheer team and Olivia maturing into a soon to be 16-year old and (in the distant future) a new driver! My wife, Nicole has been at my side for the past 25+ years, has always supported me, and has never held me back from any insane idea that I have had over the years.
Ok- now about my work. I'm a physician assistant by training for the past 17 years. I can't believe it's been that long but time flies when you are having fun! The beauty of the PA profession is the flexibility of working in various disciplines over ones career and I have practiced in many areas including pediatrics, emergency medicine, transplantation, orthopedics, and now pediatric neurosciences. I transitioned into academia in 2012 to create a PA program at an amazing institution where I still teach today - Baldwin Wallace University (Go Jackets!). I am fortunate enough to have the most intelligent and adaptable faculty members that any program could ask for and our university, program, and students are better for having been exposed to these faculty members over the years. If you have any interest in becoming a PA and would like to apply to our program or for general guidance, feel free to reach out -either through my page or directly through email.
Due to my interests in medicine and public health, I decided to pursue a Ph.D in public health and graduated in 2018 from the College of Public Health at Kent State University. This was a wonderful experience with the opportunity to work with prominent faculty members from various disciplines in population health, health policy, and epidemiology. My doctoral research examined social capital factors and their affects on medical care availability and the impacts of care access for vulnerable pediatric populations. My current research interests surround hospital investment into local neighborhoods and how this impacts the health status of the local population.
Outside of the classroom and clinical practice, I enjoy golfing, snowboarding, travel, and learning all about Scottish distilleries. I also continue to relive my youth with a little house/techno DJ session in my basement once in a while and thinking about how I could possibly not hurt myself if I got back on a skateboard (yikes!).
Well, that's me in a nutshell. I hope that you are able to get a small glimpse into my world and I hope to post on more academic/research/clinical medicine/policy topics in the future.
Til next time...
"be the change that you want to see in the world"
-Mahatma Ghandi