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Get to know me:

I grew up in Dallas, TX as a closeted gay kid. Being around southern culture and seeing the discrimination LGBTQ people faced kept me in the closet until medical school. After graduating high school, I moved to San Angelo, TX to get my Bachelor’s degree in Biology with minors in business and chemistry. From there, I moved to College Station to get a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Next, I went to Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill for medical school in Greensburg, PA. I was there first 2 years during the lecture years, then spent 2 years in Elmira, NY for my clinical rotations. During this time, I got to do an away rotation at an HIV clinic in Dallas, where I got my first taste in the field and loved it.

After finishing medical school, I did my residency in Internal Medicine in Searcy, AR. While in Arkansas, I witnessed the discrimination LGBTQ people face in healthcare first hand, and initially laid low and kept my head down. I had a student tell me, “I hope you find God” after finding out I was engaged to my partner. I had nurses make comments behind my back that would come back to me. I witnessed an attending speak down about a transwoman he was admitting to me. I witnessed a trans patient begging to have a doctor accept her, as she needed her hormones. I had enough of these abuses. There was only so much I could do as a resident, so I did what I could and educated my peers. I did several lectures regarding LGBTQ health issues so others were aware of what we faced.

This ignited a passion and led me to complete a fellowship in LGBTQ Healthcare and HIV at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). It was the first of its kind, and I was the first to go through. It was an empowering and incredibly rewarding experience. I was able to take what I learned from that fellowship and bring it back with me to San Antonio, TX where I am now working at a non-profit organization focusing on LGBTQ Healthcare, which entails primary care, PrEP/PEP, HIV, HRT/GAHT, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, STI screening and treatment and anal cancer screening. I have also signed on to be a preceptor for the local medical school to teach medical students the importance of LGBTQ Healthcare early on.

EDUCATION

Education:
Fellowship in LGBTQ Healthcare and HIV at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

D.O. at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill