After the completion of my SFS program, I decided to prolong my stay in Australia. I backpacked around the eastern shores of Australia experiencing sailing, snorkeling, surfing and camping on Hinchinbrook Island. When I returned to the U.S. I took several semesters off to explore more of the natural environment. I became a mountaineering guide in Colorado where we had to become EMT’s for safety. That is where I realized I really enjoyed Anatomy and Physiology.

At that time, I returned to college in Durango, CO and obtained a Cellular and Molecular Biology degree with a minor in Chemistry. I went on to receive my nursing education at Regis University where I obtained my BSN. After several years in the profession, I attended the Kaiser Permanente School of Anesthesia in Los Angeles, CA.

I have been practicing Anesthesia in the rural mountains of Western CO and Southern OR, where my wife Carrie and our 9-year-old daughter Alice can ski, ride bikes and climb mountains together. I am most fond of the non-profit organization my wife and our dear friends created, Ashland Devo. We aim to inspire wellness in youth through mountain biking, building grit, resilience, and camaraderie. I am most stoked in life about creating passion in the kids through movement and sports.

Favorite SFS Memory: I think fondly of my time in the Atherton Tableland of Queensland at the School for Field Studies. My favorite memories sitting deep in the rainforest listening to the dawn chorus, we would record the sounds for 5 minutes at each site. After the 5 collection sites we would spend the rest of our mornings trying to identify the birds so we could measure the diversity of birds at each location. To this day, I have never felt so grounded. I actually yearn for retirement where I’ll be able to join an organization such as SFS and have these types of experiences again.