Before becoming a physician, I'd already been an English Professor and then a touring folk musician. I love family medicine because it embraces the art of medicine as much as the science. It takes an inherently holistic approach to patients and their families, stresses patient autonomy and self-care as the foundations of longterm health, and finds beauty in all stages of the human experience, from birth up to and including death. Being a family doctor is never having to say "There's nothing more we can do" to a patient or to those they love.

Behavioral health: I provide a weekly primary care psychiatry clinic at our office. 
Palliative care: I am a Medical Director for a hospice program.
Obstetrics: We deliver babies. 
Narrative Medicine: I use storytelling (in essays, poems, songs and art) to promote healing for both patients and care providers.

As Director of Behavioral Medicine at UConn's Family Medicine Residency Program, I teach community medicine, primary care psychiatry, and the ethical use of evidence based medicine and narrative medicine. I also supervise residents during their clinical work, both in our Hartford office and at Saint Francis Hospital, including obstetrics. My work with medical students starts with courses in basic clinical medicine skills for first and second year students, moving on to advanced subjects and clinical experiences for third year students during their Family Medicine clerkship and fourth year students doing sub-internship.

I am also a core faculty member in the Urban Service Track program (UST), an interprofessional education program administered by AHEC, which includes learning retreats focusing on the care of at-risk populations as well as hands-on community service activities from free migrant farm worker clinics to blood pressure screening events.

I have done clinical research in the effects of music on patients recovering from traumatic brain injuries and on premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. I have presented at national conferences on several topics concerning medical education from traditional storytelling to the use of hand-held technology.

I have served as faculty advisor and primary investigator for medical students doing research in the area of health care access.

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