I grew up in small-town Alabama and ran track and cross country at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!). I was able to participate in a rural family medicine exposure program during my senior year of college and immediately knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I chose UNC because of its strong reputation as a rigorous training program but I fell in love with the people in the program I worked with as well as my patient population and thus wanted to stay on as faculty here to launch my career. I found my true passion in teaching residents, inpatient medicine, as well as performing procedures. My love for procedures and teaching prompted me to pursue the Family Medicine Procedure Fellowship where I trained to do advanced outpatient procedures such as vasectomy, excisions with multilayer closures, etc. I still love caring for the family unit and the continuity of care that family medicine clinic provides. When not working you can always find me hiking the Appalachian Trail, running, playing basketball, watching football, or back home visiting my family in Alabama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"