Thank you for joining me as I enter the information age with my new website. A Norfolk native, I have practiced family medicine in Tidewater since 1995. My desire to become a physician began when I was a little girl receiving allergy shots. I announced that I wanted to be a nurse like Nurse Andy. My mother told me that "little girls can be doctors" and that was all I needed to hear. In elementary school, I wrote compositions about my goal and how I would take care of Dr. Pearlman, my family doctor, one day. As a teenager, I decided that I wanted to be a pediatrician. And that was my plan until I started clinical rotations in medical school and found each specialty to be intriguing. My final rotation in my third year was in family medicine and it was then that I knew which specialty to choose. Family medicine is the perfect combination of all aspects of medicine. I came full circle and realized my childhood dream of becoming like my own family physician.
I spent four wonderful years in Charlottesville as an undergrad at the University of Virginia before heading to Richmond where I attended the Medical College of Virginia. Riverside Family Practice Residency program in Newport News was the site for my three-year residency training. In the summer of 1995, I joined a practice in Virginia Beach where I worked with a great group of physicians. After five years, I returned to my starting place - Norfolk - and have been privileged to provide medical care in downtown Norfolk since then. I am an associate faculty member at Eastern Virginia Medical School. In this role, I function as a mentor to first and second-year students who gain hands-on experience in primary care for three semesters prior to beginning their clinical rotations. I enjoy watching the students develop skills and confidence in dealing with patients and appreciate my patients' willingness to spend time with the individual students.
As we navigate through the changes in healthcare, my goal is to maintain strong relationships with my patients and to assist them in achieving optimal physical and mental well-being.
