UChicago EM

I’m Atilio (Tito) Atencio, a recent graduate from Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philly. I’m originally from Valera, Venezuela but moved to Miami at a young age. I went to college at the University of Florida where I studied biochemistry and Portuguese. My interests in emergency medicine include medical education and global medicine. Outside of the hospital I enjoy taking my dog out for hikes, struggling to learn new languages, scuba diving, and traveling (doesn’t usually mater where as long as its somewhere new). I’m looking forward to spending my next three years training at the University of Chicago and learning as much as I can.

Hey, I’m Nicole! I’m originally from the suburbs of Chicago. Growing up, I spent most of my time playing club soccer and dabbling in music and the arts. My first exposure to emergency medicine was as a pediatric patient, and I think this experience—along with my love of all things active and social—primed me for emergency medicine.

Prior to medical school, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology. During my time in Champaign, I volunteered with Illini EMS and had the opportunity to study the Italian universal health care system in Rome. I arrived at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine with my heart set on emergency medicine with a health equity and advocacy lens. In medical school, I was heavily involved with Illinois Heart Rescue and assisted with bystander CPR trainings along with cardiac arrest disparities research that I presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine 2019 conference. I also was a medical student ambassador at FemInEM’s FIX19 conference (with Dr. Coker!), a co-founder of GetMePPE Chicago, and a VotER medical school team captain.

I had a strong feeling that the University of Chicago was the place for me even before I applied for residency. With its reputation for unparalleled clinical training and dedication to diversity, social emergency medicine, and caring for an underserved patient population, U of C aligned with all of my career goals and interests. My interview day more than reaffirmed my initial inclination. I witnessed a unique camaraderie among the faculty and residents (which was even more impressive over Zoom), and I immediately clicked with the fun, down-to-earth people I met. U of C defined fit to a T for me.

Outside of the hospital, you can usually find me brunching (and 100% ordering pancakes) with friends or running on the Lakefront Trail—not necessarily in that order. I also love to play tennis and piano, paint, and explore Chicago’s neighborhoods. I am incredibly honored and excited to train with passionate patient advocates and serve the community here at U of C.

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Hey everyone! My name is Emmanuel Cordova and I am excited to join the University of Chicago Emergency Medicine family. I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and came to the US when I was four years old. My interest in emergency medicine comes from having lived as an undocumented immigrant for over 20 years and experiencing health inequities for most of my life. Through witnessing all the numerous, intersection inequities, I wanted to pursue a profession that would provide me with the ability to fight for health equity, medical and social care among the most vulnerable.

To start my journey, I first attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and then transferred after two years to the University of Pennsylvania. I double majored in Health and Societies and Hispanic Studies with a minor in Latin American and Latino studies. After college, I worked at an incredible health equity research lab at Northwestern University on a randomized controlled trial focused on increasing smoking cessation rates among low-income patients attending federally qualified health centers.

Beyond the opportunity to care for the most vulnerable and connect patients to social resources within the ED, I am passionate to being able to treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay, immigration status, or whatever barriers they may face. I hope to one day use the emergency department as a way to conduct health equity research as a physician and use community-based research to incorporate voices from the community.

I feel incredible blessed to be a part of the UChicago community! The people, incredible diversity among the residents and patients, and the ability to care for the most vulnerable are all exciting elements of what makes this place truly unique. I hope to further my professional interest in social EM, immigrant health, and social justice while attending this incredible program.

Outside of medicine, I love to play with my newly adopted corgi named Lobo, watch all the newest Netflix shows/movies, drinking iced coffee at all hours, and hanging with the wife at local restaurants and bars. After living in the east and west coast, I look forward to finally being at home and serving the local Chicago community!

Hi everyone! I’m Sarah. I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago, and then headed east to attend Wellesley College where I majored in Economics and Psychology. It was there that I first developed an interest in medicine. Throughout my coursework, I was captivated by the neurobiological effects of trauma and early childhood stress. At the same time, I also loved economics which led me to my first career in finance in New York City.

After college, I began working at Barclays Capital as an investment banking analyst. I then transitioned to working for Ann Inc (Ann Taylor Corporate). While working in NYC, I had career-changing experiences precipitated through volunteer work in a homeless shelter, an inpatient psychiatric unit, a school for kids with developmental disabilities, and at substance use treatment centers. I also regularly volunteered at New York Presbyterian – Columbia’s Pediatric Emergency Department. These experiences stimulated my desire to practice medicine, and served as important catalysts that led me to complete a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program and begin medical school.

Medical school at The Pritzker School of Medicine was a wonderful experience because of my amazing classmates and the learning environment created by residents, faculty and staff who are passionate about teaching and their commitment to patients and families in the community. As a first year medical student, I participated in a longitudinal clinical experience in the emergency department where I fell in love with emergency medicine. The breath of medicine, collegial atmosphere, hands-on nature of the work, and ability to serve as safety net providers for vulnerable patients solidified my choice to pursue a career in emergency medicine.

In addition to patient care, I am interested in public policy, addiction medicine, toxicology, and psychiatric emergencies. I also enjoy participating in quality improvement and medical education projects. During medical school, I helped implement a naloxone distribution protocol in the emergency department, which included a curricular innovation for medical students that focused on substance use disorders and harm reduction. I hope to continue to stay involved in helping patients with substance use disorders because they represent a particularly marginalized and misunderstood group. I am also interested in improving medical education with respect to victims of trauma including victims of community violence, domestic violence, and human trafficking. During medical school, I helped develop an OSCE for victims of sexual assault, which reinforced the importance of making trauma-informed care more integral in medical education particularly because trauma plays an important role in overall health outcomes.

When not working in the hospital, you will find me outside with my two dogs Ellie and Teddy. You can often spot us along on the lakefront trail, at Promontory Point, or in Jackson Park where the dogs love to chase squirrels and sniff for fish! I also love true crime podcasts and documentaries, aspirationally watching HGTV, brewing boba tea, and taking road trips to national parks. I am really excited to be staying in Chicago for residency, and cannot wait to begin this next chapter!

Hey, I’m Josh! I’m a first-gen college graduate and physician. I consider the Midwest and all its small talk during elevator rides, ‘opes’, and flat landscapes my home. I was raised just outside of St. Louis, went to Missouri State University (Bear Up!) for my undergraduate degree, and returned to St. Louis for my doctorate degree at St. Louis University School of Medicine. I married my high school sweetheart along the way and we adopted our lab mix named Miley. Now the three of us are ready to join the UofC family and call Chicago home!

In the first quarter of my life, I’ve held many jobs to help fund my journey. I’ve been a waiter/host/dishwasher at Cracker Barrel, a childhood model/actor, a Resident Assistant, and medical scribe. However, I believe I was always meant to be a physician. After my time as a scribe in the ED during my undergraduate years, I was drawn to Emergency Medicine. I loved the acuity, the variety, and the opportunity to workup the undifferentiated patient. More importantly, over the next several years I realized the ED also provided me the unique opportunity to pursue several of my passions including providing care for patients that fall through the cracks in our healthcare system, helping overcome social determinants of health, and directly engaging in the community I serve.

During interview season, it became easily apparent (even virtually) that the UofC EM team all share in these same values and are fully committed to creating a workforce that reflects and represents their community. After the interview, I was certain this was going to be the family away from family I was searching for during residency. I knew that these were my people and when I opened that e-mail on Match Day, I was overwhelmed as I knew my dream had become reality.

Outside of medicine, I have plenty of hobbies. I am passionate about brunch, rooftop dining, gaming, fantasy football and basketball, golf, music, taking too many pictures of my dog, and obviously binging shows from all the streaming services I can afford.

Hello, I’m Catie!

I grew up in Redwood Valley, a small town in rural Northern California that’s located a few hours north of San Francisco. I was a Waldorf kid through the 8th grade, then moved to Ukiah High, the closest public high school. Growing up surrounded by Redwood trees, oak-covered mountains, and the ocean nearby gave me a deep love for fresh air, green spaces and water. When I go home now, I love to go free-diving for abalone with my dad – a fact that makes me sound way more outdoorsy than I am.

At Mount Holyoke, a historically women’s college in Western MA, I became the first-person in my family to attend college. During my time there, I learned at least as much outside the classroom – from my friends and classmates – as I did from my coursework.
I also encountered some incredible mentors who helped me to see a brand new world of possibility. I majored in Neuroscience & Behavior, and after graduation in 2014 I moved to Boston to work as a clinical research coordinator for Parkinson’s disease studies at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2015, my now wife Kelsey started the MD/PhD program at Vanderbilt University, and in 2016 I was fortunate to follow her down to Nashville.

While at Vanderbilt, I had the chance to continue with my passion for mentoring and working towards educational equity for first-generation and low-income college graduates. I nurtured a growing interest in medical education, humanism, and medical ethics. Early in my clerkship year I found myself excited by the pace of the emergency department, and with more exposure it became the place in the hospital that felt most like home. Between the down-to-earth style of emergency physicians and the incredible diversity of the patient population, I am often reminded of the working-class community that raised me. Emergency medicine also combines the acute/critical care I love with a uniquely close connection to systemic social issues and health inequities. Since I knew I wanted both of those things in my career, it was quickly clear that the specialty with the ethos of “anyone, anything, anytime” was the perfect place for me.

Similarly, I was convinced that UChicago EM was the place for me even before I was offered an interview and despite having never set foot in Chicago. UChicago had it all – the patient population, the volume, the incredible faculty. And all these opportunities existed in an academic program where it was clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion were an action as well as an ideal. I’m so excited to become part of this community, dive deeper into the very best specialty, and get to know the city of Chicago!

Hey everyone! My name is Cece. I was born and raised in Denver, and I am truly a Denver girl at heart. I love to hike, bike, ski/snowboard, play volleyball… basically be outside.

I knew I was going into some type of medicine early on in life. Originally I wanted to be a vet because I love animals, but quickly realized my future house would be full of sick animals because I would want to keep them all. Having a mom who is a cardiac nurse helped me find my way into medicine. She literally painted a sinus beat on my playroom wall as a kid, labeled P-Q-R-S-T, and would draw anatomically correct hearts on my mirror with dry erase markers. Couldn’t ask for a better mom.

I completed undergrad and medical school at the University of Colorado. I then pursued a Internal Medicine residency at Northwestern. About half way through my intern year I noticed that I missed seeing the variety of acuity the emergency room provides as well as the fast pace. I completed my IM residency this year and now I am here at University of Chicago to complete my second residency in Emergency Medicine. I chose University of Chicago for Emergency Medicine for a plethora of reasons, but particularly because of their dedication to the community outside of the emergency room and their focus on advocacy for the underserved. The faculty were so down to earth and easy to talk to, and each of them seemed so dedicated to their role in resident development and education. They all seemed like people I could hangout with, while each being extremely accomplished, which is a quality I was looking for in a program.

If I could do it all again, I would take the same path through IM to EM. I feel that my IM training will give me a unique perspective in the emergency department and will allow me to understand the inner workings of the inpatient wards and outpatient clinics on a deeper level. Not to mention I made some of the best friends I have ever had in my life through my first residency.

I love taking advantage of life outside of work. I own a 35 year old horse who I brought with me from Denver. I have had her for 19 years so there was no leaving her behind. I love finding new ways to be eco friendly: shampoo bars, toothpaste tablets rather than the tube, composting services in the city… really whatever I can find. I hang out with my family, my boyfriend, and my friends any chance I get. I love to cook at home. I have everything needed for outdoor volleyball (grass or beach) so I have taught many of my friends how to play. I am ready to take advantage of the Chicago summers

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Hi all, I’m Sally! I was born and raised in Botswana, where, at a very young age, I developed a desire to work with vulnerable and underserved populations. I moved to Cleveland, OH in senior year of high school as an exchange student and stayed in the U.S. after to attend Occidental College, where I majored in Biochemistry.

My dream was to get a PhD in Biochemical engineering, and to have a lab in the basement of my house (not sure that anyone does that, but that was the dream nonetheless). However, during my sophomore year, I met a female physician of color who was a leader in her field. Learning about her journey, and along with my experiences growing up, I became interested in medicine, and I have not looked back since. After college I spent some time as a 3rd and 4th grade science teacher, research assistant and then as a Fogarty Fellow doing HIV research at the Harvard Chan School of Public health.

At the UC Davis SOM, I fell in love with medicine even more. I became actively involved in community service through SNMA and student run clinics. Being involved in student run clinics reminded me of the reasons I wanted to go into medicine and allowed me to serve the community I was a part of. A medical mission trip to Honduras and an AAMC survey introduced me to EM, and after spending the summer of my first-year shadowing faculty in the EM department, I decided I wanted to be an emergency medicine physician when I grew up. Although I enjoyed all my 3rd year rotations, it wasn’t until my EM rotation that I felt at home. I loved the teamwork, the diverse patient population and pathology, and the idea of being able “to serve anyone, anywhere, anytime”. I wanted the opportunity to be the first point of care for patients, and to practice both social and procedure-based medicine.

I fell in love with the University of Chicago EM program after a friend mentioned that it might be a great fit for me. I was looking for a program that values diversity in all its forms, and a place that serves vulnerable and underserved communities while having the resources to train me to the best physician I can be for my patients. I left my University of Chicago interview feeling like this was the place for me, the values embodied by the residents and program leadership aligned with mine, and I was excited for an opportunity to work with cool and fun people who were so passionate about serving their community.

I am excited to move to Chicago (hopefully the winters will be forgiving!) and to start my career in Emergency Medicine at the UofC, where I hope to explore my interests in Global Health, Critical Care and Social EM.

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Hi, I’m Annie! I am so honored and excited to be joining the University of Chicago family and to serve the South Side community.

I am a Midwesterner, born and raised and haven’t found a good reason to leave. I grew up in Columbia, Missouri with at least 12 pets, including a couple horses, at any given time. Though I don’t horseback ride much these days, getting outside to run or hike is still important to me.

I went to William Jewell College (a very small liberal arts college) to study Molecular Biology and play horn (colloquially known as the French Horn). There I completed the Oxbridge Honors Program and spent a year studying at St Edmund Hall at Oxford University where I rowed, played horn for the Oxford University Wind Orchestra, did wet lab research with the Biochemistry Department, and became involved in LGBTQ+ activism. Back in Missouri, I continued LGBTQ advocacy as a leader in the Student Senate and our LGBTQ organization and volunteered in a Needle Exchange Clinic. I joined City Year Kansas City during my gap year and taught Algebra at Central High School. I learned a lot about the disparities in our public school system, housing policies, and criminal justice system and how those intersect with health. I loved working with my students, though so many challenges they faced felt out of my control.

From Kansas City, I moved up to Ann Arbor to start medical school at University of Michigan. I stayed involved in LGBTQ+ leadership and continued to find opportunities to work with teens. I also started tutoring medical students and became invested in improving medical culture. Thinking I wanted to pursue trans health through IM or Peds, I was surprised by how much I loved the Emergency Department – the organized chaos, medical mystery, procedures, and social determinants won me over. I had finally found my people. More than anything, I wanted a specialty with a strong sense of community within the field and the patients we serve. Now I have an interest in Social Emergency Medicine. My capstone project studied Emergency Department usage to evaluate the impact of motivational interviewing on opioid use behaviors.

I was drawn to University of Chicago because of the people, the values, and the patients. The program’s commitment to diversity and wellness put it over the top. I cannot wait to explore Chicago with my co-residents, play some volleyball, and run/bike/rollerblade on the lakefront with my partner and willful dog, Geraldine.

Hi! My name is Coralie. I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and my parents migrated to the states when I was 2 years old. I grew up in both Miami and Broward County and am fortunate to have been able to visit Haiti periodically since leaving!

I studied Mathematics at Amherst College. Though I was interested in medicine throughout college, it was not until my senior year that I solidified my decision to pursue medicine. I volunteered in the ED at Bellevue Hospital in NYC that summer, which showed me how to bridge my interests in social justice and medicine. I finally found where I fit! After college, I worked at Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter in NYC, and then attended Rush Medical College.

Over the years I have come to learn that I am passionate about service and health equity work and that I thrive in diverse environments. I was drawn to EM because of the people, the opportunity to care for underserved communities, and the potential to tackle systemic healthcare issues through ED initiatives. I chose the University of Chicago because of their commitment to diversity and to their community!

When not at the hospital, I love a good beach (and no the Lake is NOT a beach by my standards). I enjoy caring for my plants and gardening during summer months. I also love game nights and hanging out with friends!
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I am originally from Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!) and grew up traveling with my family’s carnival throughout eastern Pennsylvania. This way of life ingrained in me a love of people and community. I am the first person in my family to enter medicine, and I feel privileged to serve the people of Chicago.

After completing an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience (with an additional focus on Medical Ethics) at the University of Pittsburgh, I moved to Virginia for medical school. At Eastern Virginia Medical School, I continued pursuing research in quality improvement and social emergency medicine. I cannot wait to find new ways to help my future patients through clinical practice and discovery.

My background and training showed me that Emergency Medicine is my link to the unique, diverse people that made me fall in love with medicine. The University of Chicago embodies my values with its dedication to advocating for the underserved. After visiting Chicago, I knew that it was the exact place that I wanted to be. I am so excited for a new adventure and the opportunity to work alongside the amazing team at the University of Chicago.

My professional interests include quality improvement, social emergency medicine, and ultrasound. Outside of medicine, I frequently play soccer, basketball, and golf. I also enjoy anything outdoors, including traveling, hiking, fishing, and camping.

Hi All! I grew up in Sonoma in Northern California, and attended undergrad at University of California Santa Cruz — go Banana Slugs! Upon graduating, I had a plan to pursue academic research because I loved the scalability and incredible impact that basic science discoveries could have on people’s lives, but I found this to be too far from the front line impact I wanted to make on people’s lives. I switched gears to become a medical student at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. While there, I was taken by the incredible environment and community enrichment that Emergency medicine offers, and I am so excited to be a part of the University of Chicago EM family! In addition to clinical work I’m interested in sustainable global health capacity building through education and innovation, and I see this as a means to apply the scalability and exponential impact I liked so much to the doorstep of real world problems. Outside of medicine, I am an avid reader, hiker, and experimental cook.

What’s up, everyone! I’m Sean and I’m from the northern suburbs of San Diego, CA in a very “California-stereotypical” beach town called Encinitas. I didn’t stray too far from the beach for undergrad and attended UC Santa Barbara (truly the best college experience). When I wasn’t busy in class, coordinating our campus’s Dance Marathon, or biking around eating our best local burritos, I was taking my first dive into everything EM by working as a scribe. I loved college and working in the hospital so much, I ended up taking two gap years learning about the administrative side of running a scribe program and an emergency department. After that, I ventured back down south to Orange County to go to medical school at UC Irvine. I tried to keep an open mind when exploring specialties but naturally found myself drawn back to EM: I loved the pace, the breadth of medical complexities, the commitment to and challenges of serving a diverse community, and most of all, the people.

Throughout medical school, I built upon this base interest in EM and began to find my own path within the field, particularly with an emphasis on innovations in medical education. Whether through developing POCUS curricula in the Ultrasound Interest Group, advocating for LGBTQIA+ inclusive education in our eQuality organization, or taking charge in our student government, I took great pride in my commitments, all while working towards my goal of entering a diverse, high-volume academic training program in a large city. For this reason, I really couldn’t be more excited to be at University of Chicago. I was drawn to UoC because of its strong reputation as a leader in diversity, quality training, and care for the surrounding South Side community. Despite numerous zoom-related blunders on interview day, here still felt like home!

My professional interests include POCUS, Social Emergency Medicine, and Medical Education. Outside of the hospital, you can catch me lake-side (no surprise there, this California boy needs a beach) doing anything and everything sand and water related, at the hottest new bar or restaurant in the city, or live tweeting my latest reality TV obsession.

Hey everyone, I’m Kaley and I’m thrilled to be starting my emergency medicine career in Chicago! I grew up in San Diego, CA and spent my childhood exactly as you would picture it: swimming at the beach, going to summer camp at the Zoo, and roller blading with my cool older sister.

After high school, I traded my wet suit for cowboy boots and moved to Dallas, TX, where I studied mechanical engineering at Southern Methodist University. After graduation, I spent the next four years living in San Francisco and working as a design engineer at Stryker Endoscopy, all while slowly deciding to go to medical school. I eventually enrolled in UCSD’s PRIME-Health Equity program, which exposed me to the health disparities in greater San Diego and specifically to the needs of migrant and immigrant communities. Through work at our free clinic and border projects, it became clear that I was most passionate about providing safety-net medical care while simultaneously tackling systemic issues of inequity. I was fortunate to take two years during medical school to live in Singapore and further explore the intersection of healthcare delivery, health policy, and human rights. I am forever indebted to the migrant community there, who graciously taught me that some inequities are universal.

I chose U Chicago for residency for the same reasons I chose emergency medicine as a specialty: the people. This extends beyond the medical staff, who are intelligent, humble, and dedicated, to the patients, who are seeking care from a system that has historically failed them. I was immediately impressed by the relationship the department has with the community they serve, and the dedication to improving health, both in and out of the hospital.

When I’m not absorbing everything EM, I enjoy traveling with my husband, attempting to recreate my favorite Asian dishes, open water swimming, and hiking with my dog, Taco. I never did get the hang of roller blading.