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INFECTIOUS
DISEASES

complishments — everything is a part of work with a team. I am couldn’t keep up with it. I remember sitting on my dorm room
very proud of the work that we’ve done in the Dominican Republic, floor reading about it and feeling overwhelmed, but so impressed
helping to understand the challenges people with HIV face there by the scientists who were working to stop the epidemic. The sec-
and the results of antiretroviral treatment expansion in the country. ond game changer was that I went to Mexico to study indoor air
Right now, I’m incredibly proud to be a part of the End Stigma pollution and fuel-efficient stoves as a part of my senior thesis
End HIV Alliance here in San Antonio. We’re a diverse group of project. That project then became a Fulbright Scholarship. I came
people living with HIV, activists, social workers, nurses, physicians back from Mexico fluent in Spanish and committed to working
and public health professionals who came together last year in with underserved populations. It clarified that for me, my passion
response to rising rates of HIV in young people in San Antonio was to practice medicine and serve, rather than work in a lab.
— a trend that unfortunately is occurring across the Southern
U.S. and Texas. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar What do you want patients to know about you?
County Judge Nelson W. Wolff support our efforts, and on Nov. That I care about them as human beings and will listen.
30, 2017, San Antonio became the first “Fast Track City” in
Texas, a part of an international effort to end the HIV epidemic. What makes UT Health San Antonio a special
The mayor committed to specific goals for the epidemic in San place to practice?
Antonio by 2030: 90 percent of people in San Antonio with HIV Everyone is incredibly collaborative. I can pick up the phone and
should know their diagnosis, 90 percent of those should be on speak with surgeons, dentists or cardiologists about my patients and
treatment and 90 percent of those should be virologically sup- they all want the best for my patients.
pressed. We’re working with every HIV service organization in
the community to help reach these goals, and in the past few What is special about practicing in Bexar County?
months, we’ve set metrics and targets for 2018. It is exciting to In talking to my colleagues in other places, it is unusual for an
be a part of such a dynamic and passionate group. I believe we entire community to be willing to collaborate to end the HIV epi-
can end the HIV epidemic in our community. demic, which gives us the tools to make a difference. Working
with the community here is one of the most rewarding things
What drove you or inspired you to go into that I do.
medicine?

As a kid I loved science. Science fairs, physics class, volunteer- What do you do to relax outside of the office, lab
ing in a lab on the Texas A&M campus, even science fiction, were or clinic?
all things I enjoyed. When I went to college, I was sure I would I still read a lot of science fiction. I have two daughters, so I spend
get a Ph.D. and become a laboratory scientist, but two things hap- time watching them do the things they love: soccer, ballet folklorico,
pened to change that. First, I was studying molecular biology and track and piano. Finding time for fitness is important to me. I do
took a virology course. It was 1993, and our understanding of CrossFit, run on the southern reach of the River Walk near my
HIV changed monthly. There was no treatment, and the virus home and do yoga.
mutated so rapidly that the human immune system and vaccines

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