My Mission

Caring for children with complex heart disease and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible for them

Children can be born with hearts that are wired differently — chambers that didn’t fully form, valves that leak, vessels that connect in the wrong places. Every one of these hearts is unique, and the way we care for each child has to be just as unique. As a pediatric cardiology fellow, I’m still learning every day — piecing together how each child’s heart works down to the mechanics of blood flow and pressure, and figuring out how to use that understanding to guide their care alongside a remarkable team of surgeons, nurses, and other specialists.

What draws me to this field is the intensity and the complexity of the decision-making. Caring for children with heart disease requires pulling together data from echocardiograms, catheterizations, and the bedside to make high-stakes decisions — often with no clear textbook answer. It also demands a deeply trusting relationship between families and physicians, because the decisions we face together are some of the most difficult in medicine. I find that combination — the scientific rigor and the human connection — deeply rewarding, and it pushes me to keep growing as a trainee.

Pediatric cardiology is also a rapidly evolving field, and the progress happening right now requires extraordinary teamwork across cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, perfusionists, bioengineers, researchers, and more. Teams are building virtual models of a child’s heart to rehearse surgeries before stepping into the operating room. Researchers are working to 3D-print organs and grow new blood vessels from a patient’s own cells. We are increasingly able to identify genetic causes of heart disease and work toward tailoring treatments to a patient’s specific condition. I want to be part of creating and implementing these innovations — finding individualized solutions that give every child the best chance at the best possible outcome.

My Path

From a small-town farm to the front lines caring for children’s hearts

I grew up in a small town in Ohio. I’ve always been motivated to understand how things work, something I partially attribute to growing up on a farm where success depended on things we couldn’t fully predict or control. I was also an avid athlete, playing four sports in high school and competitively water skiing during the summers, eventually becoming women’s captain of the Ohio State waterski team and competing at the national level.

At Ohio State, I studied chemistry and started volunteering at the local children’s hospital. I was immediately drawn to pediatrics — the atmosphere was unlike anything I’d experienced, and the people were so dedicated to improving the lives of children through quality care and innovative science. I headed to New York for medical school, where I explored nearly every specialty before doing a pediatric cardiology rotation that changed everything. Every patient’s heart was different in ways that dramatically affected their physiology and management. The complexity, the collaboration, the relationships with families — I was hooked.

I came to Stanford for pediatrics residency, where one of my first cardiology patients was a child with a failing single-ventricle heart who needed a mechanical heart pump as a bridge to transplant. Caring for this patient — learning the anatomy; researching management strategies; watching the team of intensivists, transplant physicians, and surgeons collaborate — crystallized what I wanted my career to look like. I’m now a pediatric cardiology fellow at Stanford, rotating through the various subspecialty fields (imaging, catheterization, electrophysiology, clinic, cardiac intensive care) to see where my journey in medicine might take me next. When I’m not in the hospital, you’ll probably find me outside trail running, biking, or rock climbing. Otherwise, I’ll be at home dialing in my espresso technique or perfecting my pizza recipe.