He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo., from 1985 to 1989, where he studied journalism and mass communication. He attended medical school at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences-F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, in Bethesda, MD and received his MD degree in 1993. After serving three years as a carrier air wing flight surgeon, he completed general surgery residency at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, CA in 2001. Following residency, he was assigned as a staff general surgeon in Okinawa, Japan and at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego. He completed a research fellowship and a clinical fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic and joined the staff in 2007. His clinical interests include bariatric surgery, laparoscopic surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, hernia repair and endoscopy.