Meet the Program Leadership

Where did you do your med/peds training? 

• I trained at the Rush University Medical Center. 

What drew you to Emory? 

• My primary reason was so that I could be at Grady. I grew up in Atlanta and had a longstanding dream to be a physician at Grady. I was also seeking an academic position that would grant me exposure to medical students and residents to teach and do research on childhood adversity, trauma-informed care, and relational health. 

What roles do you currently have? 

• I am an attending physician at Grady where I work in the primary care clinic and attend on the wards. I also have my own general pediatric practice at Hughes Spalding Primary Care Center.  I also serve as Medical Director for Child Advocacy at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, providing programmatic support for Strong4Life and the Atlanta Legal Aid and the Health-Law Partnership (HeLP)—a medical-legal collaborative between Children's and Georgia State University. 

How do you currently use your med/peds training? 

• I have the privilege of caring for both adults and children as a generalist every week! 

What are you most excited about having a med/peds program at Emory? 

• Robust clinical training across a range of practice sites; world-class med-ed; a med/peds faculty community that is committed to exceptional clinical care, education, research, and humanism. 

Where did you do your med/peds training? 

• I trained at the Harvard Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Boston Children’s Hospital Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program. 

 What drew you to Emory? 

• I came to Emory because I wanted to provide care for underserved patient populations while having the support of a large academic hospital to support my research endeavors. I also was drawn to Emory because of the strong focus on advocacy among its students and faculty. 

 What roles do you currently have? 

• I am a Med-Peds hospitalist and I work at Grady Memorial Hospital and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston (soon to be Arthur M. Blank) Pediatric Hospital. I am also involved in a voter advocacy project based in the hospital medicine department at Grady created to assist patients in accessing voting resources and assessing barriers to civic engagement. 

 How do you currently use your med/peds training? 

• My med/peds training is essential to my clinical role as a dual Med-Peds Hospitalist. It also influences the way that I think about what advocacy (on both a small and large scale) means for my patients. Specifically, Med-Peds physicians are uniquely positioned to be aware of and impact policies that have an effect on the health of individuals across their lifespan. 

 What are you most excited about having a med/peds program at Emory? 

• I am always inspired by the incredible dedication that resident trainees have to improving the health and wellbeing of their patients. I am particularly excited about collaborating with and mentoring future Med-Peds physicians as they explore the unique opportunities for medical scholarship at Emory and support their efforts to be engaged in the civic health of their community. 

Where did you do your med/peds training? 

• I did my Med/Peds residency at Saint Vincent's Manhattan Hospital in 2003, where I was also the pediatric chief resident.  

 What drew you to Emory?  

• My wife was recruited by Emory to start a cardiology lab in the Department of Pediatrics, and I was the trailing spouse. However, Emory and Atlanta were a great opportunity for us because I was able to join a nationally recognized food allergy program, become program director for the allergy/immunology fellowship, and enjoy all the amazing Korean food, shops, and culture here! 

What type of clinical and educational work do you do?  

• In terms of clinical work, I am an allergist/immunologist with CHOA and Grady! I also have multiple educational roles at Emory including directing the allergy/immunology fellowship and the preclinical immunology medical school curriculum. 

How do you currently use your med/peds training?  

• Since I work both at CHOA and Grady, I'm able to see allergy/immunology patients of all ages and smoothly transition pediatric patients to my adult Grady clinic! 

What are you most excited about having a med/peds program at Emory?  

• I am a huge believer in Med/Peds and feel that CHOA, Grady, and Emory have a wealth of experiences and resources that would train top-tier Med/Peds physicians! Of course, I'm always interested in mentoring more Med/Peds residents to consider allergy/immunology. It's the perfect Med/Peds subspecialty because a single fellowship certifies you to see all ages without the need to do two back-to-back fellowships! 

Where did you do your med/peds training? 

• I completed a combined internal medicine/pediatrics residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, followed by a chief residency in internal medicine. 

What drew you to Emory? 

• We initially moved to Emory for my husband to open a public charter school and for me to do fellowships in Geriatrics and Hospice/Palliative Medicine. We’ve stayed here because we love our jobs (Grady is a fantastic place!), the resources of a big academic medical center for referrals, collaboration, and teaching, the culture of living in the heart of Atlanta, and the community we've made with friends and family. We're big runners and cyclists, and living locally allows us to run and bike on the Beltline, get donuts at one of 5 places within a 10-minute walk from our house, and play in one of the many splash pads at local parks on hot summer days. 

What roles do you currently have? 

• First, I am the APD for the Med/Peds Program! In classic MP fashion, I split my time – I spend part of my clinical time in the outpatient palliative care clinic, and part doing inpatient internal medicine with resident teams – all at Grady. I am also very involved in medical education and serving as core faculty in the IM residency program, as well as directing the Medical Education Track at Emory SOM, which has resident/fellow participants across GME. I co-direct the Aging and Dying week with our first year, preclinical medical students, and love getting to influence them early on about the importance of aging well and how to have difficult conversations with patients facing serious illness. In the hospital, I've been serving as one of the medical directors for the 12th floor at Grady, which has given me new insights into the functioning of a hospital system and how we leverage our resources to make miracles happen at Grady. 

How do you currently use your med/peds training? 

• I have my toes in a million pots – working in inpatient adult medicine, outpatient palliative care, doing remote telemedicine work in a school-based health center in Montana, and teaching about aging to medical students. I feel like I get to do all of the things I love, and not shy away from anything. 

• Inpatient palliative consult from the NICU or a pediatric burn patient? Got it. 

• Outpatient management of a 95-year-old with advanced dementia? Awesome. 

• Here for a palliative care visit, but actually, you need your COPD exacerbation treated? Check. 

• Being med-peds means not always knowing everything, but knowing how to FIND the answer for everything (and not being afraid to think outside the box!). 

What are you most excited about having a med/peds program at Emory? 

• I'm excited to have more like-minded learners on the wards, who don't blink when I suggest that we treat a 19-year-old with asthma exacerbation using the Asthma Score validated in pediatric populations! I'm also excited for community building with some of the learning + activities that make MP culture such a special place.