A native of Port Huron, MI, she earned a BA in Health Education with a minor in Nutrition from Northern Michigan University. Those long cold winters sent her packing to medical school in Glendale, Arizona, where she graduated magna cum laude from Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009. She spent her two years of clinical rotations traveling the country: from Yuma, Arizona to Rhode Island, from southern Florida to the UP. During an elective rotation she fell in love with Traverse City.