Department of Surgery

Hometown: Racine, Wisconsin

Undergraduate: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 

Medical School: Wayne State University School of Medicine

Why did you choose Brown:

Among the number of things that stood out about Brown for me was what an intellectually variegated group the program seems to attract: Dr. Harrington has a background in history, my interviewers had backgrounds in anthropology in one case and comparative literature in another; there was a resident who, like me, majored in English; a narrative surgery program started by the program’s former wellness chief, and so on. Combine this with the numerous opportunities for research in the sciences available both within the Department of Surgery and elsewhere within the broader Brown community, and you begin to see what I mean when I tell you how perfect a place Brown seemed to be for someone looking for exposure to a multiplicity of perspectives and ways of thinking about life.

Favorite things about Providence and RI:

The proximity and profusion of things to do here is exciting enough on its own right, but especially so for a surgery resident! My house is a short walk to everything: downtown and its restaurants and shops, parks and the river flowing out to the ocean, Brown’s beautiful undergrad campus, Rhode Island Hospital, etc. Whether I want nature, food, art, books, a bar for drinks with friends, or just a quick commute to work and back so I have time to relax after my shifts, it’s all within comfortable reach in Providence.

Plans for the future:

Although I’m not committed to a future in any single sub-speciality so far, I do know that satisfaction with my work depends heavily on my ability to see that work as fulfillment of a social need. I envision (but, again, am not fully committed to) a trauma-focused, academically-oriented practice in which the stories my patients tell me help me learn and advocate for new and better ways to ameliorate the burden faced by the surgically underserved.

Academic surgery: My research thus far has centered around the molecular biology of vascular disease. I’m hoping to find a way both to carry this forward (or at least the skills it has allowed me to cultivate), and to integrate it into the interests I also possess in surgical trauma and global public health.