I am Mexican American and Native American. I think my most important characteristic as a doctor is the fact that I listen, when so many others don’t have the time or worse, don’t take the time. I take tremendous pride in what I do, and this is my story.

Believe it or not, my undergraduate degree was in music education and my first career was as an elementary school music teacher. I went to music school in New Mexico, where my parents are from, and later taught on the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana, then ended up in the DC
metropolitan area until I moved to Richmond, Virginia, to attend the Medical College of Virginia. I ended up in Missouri by matching for residency training at Truman Lakewood, formerly called Truman East. I graduated in 2002 and became a board-certified Family Physician. I worked for 5 years at the Samuel Rogers Community Health Center in Lexington, Missouri, then opened my own practice, first in Grain Valley in 2007 and now in Blue Springs. I have basically spent my career being the “Family Doctor Near You.” During this time, I also became a board-certified obesity medicine physician.

But that is just the geography of it all. How did I get from music teacher to family doctor? It was sudden when my mother called me on Halloween 1993 and asked me why I wasn’t in medical school, but within a week, I was enrolled for the next semester taking prerequisite coursework. Operating at the same breakneck speed, I took the MCAT exams in 1994 and started medical school in 1995. Basically, my mother’s question was asked at the right time in my life, and it suddenly made perfect sense. I am a Sun Dancer, and I had never understood why I was called to be a dancer with I was doing in my secular life. Then it dawned on me - the Native American Sun Dance is a healing ceremony. After that realization, becoming a doctor just fit that spiritual context and seemed like the natural culmination of my life. And I realized at that time that my career was going to be dedicated to providing medical care to underserved people.

Now how I got to the dedication to caring for the underserved is kind of roundabout. My dad was in the Army, and that kept us moving when I was young, so really I am from everywhere. I started public school in Germany and finished it in Alaska. My parents both came from poor Spanish families in northern New Mexico. My dad was the first member of his family to graduate from college. My mom was not the first on her side of the family, but she graduated too. Their careers after dad got out of the Army have been dedicated to helping the underserved communities in other arenas besides medicine. They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary before my father passed on last year at the age of 92. I was greatly influenced by them. You could say my desire to care for underserved patients was born in me. I was raised with it.

So there it all is. Right here in Blue Springs, near you, you have a family medicine physician, an obesity medicine specialist, a compassionate primary care physician, a board-certified family physician, a Mexican American physician, and a Native American physician—all at one convenient location.

As a Direct Primary Care (DPC) physician, I am proud to offer a patient-first approach to medicine—one that eliminates the barriers of insurance, provides affordable membership-based healthcare, and ensures my patients receive the time, attention, and personalized care they deserve. My mission is simple: to listen, to heal, and to serve.”