Biography

Education and Training

Board Certifications

• American Board of Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine - General)
• American Board of Internal Medicine (Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
• American Board of Internal Medicine (Medical Oncology)

About Me

Born in Jamaica, I became an American citizen when I was 19.  I attended Yale University as an undergraduate, majoring in music and comparative literature, and then attended Harvard Medical School. After medical school, I completed research fellowships in genetics and molecular immunology and a clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology in Boston and New York City.  Early in my career, I ran an NIH-funded laboratory studying precursor B cell development at the University of Rochester in upstate New York, published in peer-reviewed basic science journals, served as Director of the Cellular Therapy and Apheresis service, and cared for patients with hematologic malignancies. I joined Cooper University Health Care in 2016 as an Associate Professor, and am Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology, Palliative Care, and Hospice Medical Director. I am board eligible for certification in Addiction Medicine.

My clinical activities have centered on the care and support of patients with poor prognosis cancer or living with a high symptom burden.  Currently, I am privileged to practice in the Addiction Medicine program at the Cooper Center for Healing, where I take care of high-risk patients with substance use and complex pain syndromes who often have dual diagnoses such as cancer or mental illness. 

My other professional passion is teaching communication skills at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University through the Center for Humanism, supporting the development of medical students and junior colleagues into physicians who confidently practice medicine with compassion and skilled person-centered care. In this digitally focused and busy environment as medical students and physicians, high-order and compassionate communication skills are essential to establishing trust and a meaningful therapeutic relationship with patients, as well as enhancing professional fulfillment. I am certified as a Faculty Facilitator in the nationally recognized Vital Talk Communication Skills program and use this very effective experiential learning-based approach to teach and facilitate the practice of navigating difficult conversations. I focus on topics often neglected in medical education, such as recognizing and navigating mistrust, conflict resolution, recognizing and managing the cumulative grief that can burden physicians caring for critically ill patients, recovering from errors associated with patient harm, and how patient spirituality and religious affiliation can impact their experience and decision-making. 

I am also deeply involved in committees and initiatives at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University focused on addressing issues impacting diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging in our learning community.

Outside of my professional activities, I am an amateur musician in my ‘spare’ time and enjoy our cranky 140-year-old Victorian home which is full of musical instruments, plants, impasto paintings, and too many books.