Member Biography

Research interests and current projects: 1) Health tools for prevention and health promotion for patients and clinicians. Current project: I have created a new psychometric tool named the SMILE Scale (a brief self-administered questionnaire assessing the frequency of behaviors intended to improve wellness in five domains: Sleep, physical activity (Move), stress management (Inhale and Exhale), social interactions (Love and connect), and nutrition (Eat to nourish)). We completed a pilot study among patients with cancer and are in the process of writing up and publishing pilot data with plans to further study this tool in randomized trials. Future interests of testing this tool among clinicians. 2) Young-Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers. Current project: Creation of a new program (working title, "The IUSCC Center for Young-Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancer"), with aims of providing personalized and comprehensive care to patients younger than 50 who are diagnosed with colorectal and other gastrointestinal malignancies. We plan to: 1) Create an online landing page to increase patient awareness of program and potential resources, 2) Delineate a clear and accessible referral process to necessary support services (ideally with the option for patient self-referral to needed services), 3) Acquire funding for a program coordinator to serve as a communication point for patients, sharing with them potential resources and support services, as well as managing data and coordinating program events and patient evaluations. Would also include community engagement and collaborations to help raise awareness for early detection and increase colorectal cancer screening, especially among populations with racial and socioeconomic cancer disparities. 4) Create a registry of patients on REDCap with goals of identifying patients eligible for research at the IUSCC, and 5) Build a biorepository that houses patient data, samples, and genomic information, and collaborate with researchers to better understand and treat young-onset colorectal cancer and other gastrointestinal malignancies. 3) Narrative medicine. Current project: Co-founder of the Department of Medicine's newly launched "Writing for Wellness" program. Our aims are to create a space to help us share our experiences, learn from each other, build community, and strengthen our narrative writing and narrative medicine skills. Participants will engage in exercises to aid in writing and reflection which may include responding to prompts, free-writing, group discussion, and hearing from speakers on salient topics. Those interested in publishing their writing will have the opportunity to work with the group's leaders and peers to prepare it for publication. We will evaluate how this program benefits participants and will also publish narrative essays.

Fellowship - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 2022

Residency - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 2020

M.D. - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 2017

M.P.H. - University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 2013