Photo by Jeff Newton

SPECIALTY:
PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE


What are your interests outside of medicine?
Besides being a physician, I have a strong interest in public health. That and literacy are my two passions, actually. I really believe that reading is such a fundamental skill and that literacy itself is a strong predictor of children doing well in school and in life. Now I’m actually chair of the board for Arizona Reach Out and Read Program – a program where pediatricians, family physicians or nurse practitioners use a book as a developmental tool. We believe that as we teach families about promoting literacy in the home, we’re really giving them the tools to enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school. I’ve been part of that for six years.

Have you always been interested in giving back to the community?
That was actually one of the reasons why I went into pediatric emergency medicine. I felt like, as a physician, I wanted to serve patients. And a good way of serving children is when they were very sick or if they had an acute illness, and the parents didn’t know where to turn to if their doctor’s office was closed.

Why do you enjoy being a pediatrician?
I love being a pediatrician, I really do. I think it’s cool to be able to work with children, and I think it’s awesome to be able to help parents. If you can teach parents, then you’re really helping the whole family.

What is your role as director of the pediatric residency program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital?
Because I’m a medical educator and I actually help young doctors to become pediatricians for the future, I feel like it’s a really big honor to impact the care of lots of children who I’ll never see just by making sure that, as we teach people how to become pediatricians, we teach them how to be really good people. The altruism of medicine is something we really promote here in terms of really wanting the residents to give back to the community.

What is your advice for parents?
I want to tell parents to learn as much as they can about their child and his or her development. I want to tell parents that reading is so important. Starting to read when they’re newborn babies – show them books ­– gives them such a huge skill and such a huge asset. The best advice I can give to parents is to give their children two things: roots and wings. Roots so that the children know that they are grounded in their family, and wings because they can be the support as their children fly their own path.



To learn more about our Top Doctors, visit azmd.gov for M.D.s, azdo.gov for D.O.s., or podiatry.state.az.us for podiatrists.