I received my M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. My surgical residency was completed at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and my plastic surgery residency at UC Davis Medical Center. I was a Research Associate at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France and the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at OHSU where I performed research on adult derived stem cells for tissue engineering. My research was presented at national and international meetings, and I am a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.