BA, Pomona College
MD, UC San Diego
Maine Dartmouth Family Practice Residency
Board Certified, Family Medicine

My first physician role model, my scrappy female New York-trained pediatrician, inspired me back in my early teens to want to become a family physician, so it is fitting that I have come full circle in joining Bayside''s pediatricians as part of the family practice division. Since joining Bayside in 1997, I have found that combining family practice and pediatrics in one large practice benefits our patients all along the age spectrum, and certainly enriches my own experience, since about a quarter of my patients fall into the pediatric age group.

Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, I spent the first 26 years of my life living in Southern California, except for the two months I worked in Belgium and the ten weeks I spent doing medical research in Nairobi, Kenya. I have a B.A. degree from Pomona College, where I graduated Magna Cum Laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. From there, I proceeded south to U.C. San Diego School of Medicine, and then northeast to the Maine Dartmouth Family Practice Residency. I enjoyed three long East Coast winters, but I had wanted to live in the East Bay ever since my annual spring break visits to my brother at U.C. Berkeley in the early 80''s, so I came back in the fall of 1992 to start my family practice here.

In a time when the managed care environment has forced many physicians to change their practices in ways that oppose their dedication to taking good care of their patients, I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to build the practice I wanted and to deliver the level of care I wanted to deliver. I offer the full range of family practice services including (but not limited to) health maintenance for all age groups, internal medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, travel medicine, gynecology, and obstetrics. I speak Spanish and French (and a little Swahili); this and our travel medicine services have resulted in a practice that includes people embodying all of the ethnic, social, and philosophical diversity that make the East Bay such a fascinating place to live and work. This variety has allowed my practice to grow despite the constraints of managed care.

Bayside's philosophy stresses the importance of family and community involvement in the care of patients, and as a family physician I strongly support this philosophy. I love the challenge of taking care of entire families, particularly in today's world where families can take so many different forms. I’m grateful that despite the powerful sources in our society who obstruct our efforts to deliver health care, I remain able to do what I’ve always wanted: practice the full range of family medicine.

I am also fortunate to have a wonderful family. My wife teaches elementary school here in Alameda, and together we have three daughters who keep us very busy. I play soccer and tennis, and am a devoted Oakland A’s fan.