I am the mother of three children ages 26, 17, and 9 – they are my greatest achievements.

I am the Medical Director of Neuro-Oncology, leading a new multidisciplinary brain tumor program at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Phoenix, AZ. I am also involved in trainee education as an Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and an adjunct Associate Professor of Neurology at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, PA.

I completed my undergraduate work at Indiana University before going to The Ohio State University (OSU), where I became the first Black person to complete the dual doctorate MD and PhD program. My PhD was focused within molecular virology, immunology, and medical genetics with a major emphasis on neuro-immunology).

I stayed at OSU to complete an internal medicine transitional year, neurology residency, and was the first person within the Department of Neurology to be awarded a fully funded enfolded NIH/R25 neurosurgery research post-doctoral fellowship. I then moved to Houston, TX where I completed a neuro-oncology fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Today, I am one of only five Black Women in the United States to lead a career in neuro-oncology and I am driven in this career based on my mission to preserve the essence of what it means to be human (thought, speech, movement, sensation, and emotion).

Academically, I enjoy population science, brain tumor imaging, medical education, and the Neuro-Oncology of Women (N.O.W.).  Personally, I enjoy my family, creative medical writing, traveling, weightlifting, and the performing arts.