I completed medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch in

Galveston in 2014, then completed my residency in psychiatry there in 2018.

 I have been board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and

Neurology since 2018. In medical school, I received the Jimmy Doyle Dickens

Memorial Award after finishing with the highest grade in the first course of

our freshman year (I was told I was the first woman to ever do so in the history

of the school, which was founded in 1891). In my 3rd year of medical school, I

was inducted into the nationally recognized Alpha Omega Alpha Honor

Medical Society, which is reserved for those with the “highest academic

achievement”.  I was recognized for “gifted teaching, supporting the ideals

of humanism, and promoting service to others”.  Also, in my 3rd year of

medical school, I was inducted into the nationally recognized Gold

Humanism  Honor Society, which “champions humanism in healthcare,

defined as compassionate, collaborative, and scientifically excellent care”. 

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from medical school, in the top 2% of my

graduating class.

 

I excelled in most areas of medicine.  However, I was most attracted to

psychiatry because of the impossibility of separating the patient from their

illness.  In most cases objective evidence such as labs, imaging, or a physical

exam cannot reveal the correct mental health diagnosis and treatment.  This can only be established with a trained eye and talking to the patient about their subjective experience within their own life.  Psychiatry necessitates looking at the patient as a whole, which is how I wanted to practice medicine.  

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In addition to the already rigorous work in residency, I was an Ambassador for the program gifted with the opportunity to recruit for the UTMB psychiatry residency program.  I chose to supplement my education by working at a 60 bed inpatient unit with addiction, acute adult, geriatric and adolescent beds, in addition to a private practice clinic and an adult inpatient chemical dependence rehabilitation center.  I served as a resident faculty at the community clinic run by medical students providing care exclusively to the indigent population of Galveston.  I served as the outpatient co-chief of the program and implemented day-before-appointment call reminders as a quality improvement project which improved the clinic no-show rate significantly.  I was the only resident who attempted original research.  In my free time, I spent several years developing a protocol for researching PTSD prevention using SSRIs at Shriners Hospital for Children, a world-class burn hospital.

 

I have continued to pursue academics throughout my career.  I enjoy attending the Neuroscience Education Institute’s Congress, Synapse and Psych Congress’, and National Commission on Correctional Health Care Psychiatric Meeting annual meetings.  I do this to learn and implement evidence-based practices into patient care.

 

I opened my own solo-private practice clinic straight out of residency in July 2018.  I have heard that in an ideal world there would be 1 psychiatrist per 10,000 people.  However, myself included, there are only 2 psychiatrists caring in Victoria County, which has close to 100,000 residents.  I understand that there is only 1 other psychiatrist in all of the surrounding counties.  This area is greatly in need. 

 

I served the community in other ways.  For example, I worked as the psychiatrist at the Victoria County Jail which is a 550 bed correctional facility for 3.5 years.  Before I worked there, the facility used a telepsychiatry company and I have been told that I have helped to vastly improve the care of the inmates.

 

In the fall of 2023 I relocated my office and staff to Corpus Christi.  Victoria is not alone in it’s psychiatric shortage.  There is a severe shortage of psychiatrist state wide, including in the Corpus Christi area.  Working as a tele-health physician allows me to provide care to the entire state.  I have patients from all over Texas including College Station, Houston, Austin, Midland, and near the Louisiana and Oklahoma borders.  At this time about ½ of new patients come from the Victoria area and ½ come from the Corpus Christi area.  My area of impact has expanded.

 

Since moving to Corpus Christi, I have continued to have a passion for working in the field of corrections and see patients at the Nueces County Jail which is a 1200 bed facility.  I have also began providing holiday coverage at Oceans Behavioral Health Corpus Christi and Corpus Christi Medical Center Bayview.  This has allowed me to directly admit patients from the clinic that require inpatient treatment without the patient having to go through the difficult emergency room process.

 

I highly value education for others.  I have educated the community as a panelist and speaker at several community-sponsored Opiate Crisis Town Halls.  I also strongly believe in educating fellow physicians.  I am associate faculty at 4 medical schools, educating several medical students per year.  I am associate faculty and highly supportive of the family medicine residency in Victoria.  Every year, the 8 second year physicians rotate with me to learn about psychiatry as it related to the practice of family medicine.  My hope is that in doing so, patients in the community and elsewhere will have better psychiatric and overall humanistic care.  I have an open-door policy to any physician, giving my cell phone out freely, and enjoy getting case calls from the residents and chatting with fellow physicians.   

 

My favorite quote is from Sir William Osler is “to study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all”.  I have felt honored to serve Texas in such an important way.

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