Team Member

As a mover and shaker and a life-long athlete born and raised in New York City, in a tight-knit immigrant community where herbal medicine, food therapy, and hands-on healing were part of how we survived and cared for each other. This upbringing taught me that health isn’t just about treating illness—it’s about prevention through our daily practice, staying connected to community and culture.

Even though I grew up surrounded by Western medicine and attended a university where most people were headed toward conventional medical careers, I knew early on it wasn’t the path for me. I was studying chemistry and public health and was driven by a belief that health should be preventative, not reactive. One night, I stumbled across “naturopathic medicine” and “integrative medicine” and felt, for the first time, like I had found something that matched the vision I had for healthcare: something community-centered, culturally grounded, and built on the body’s natural wisdom. I completed my application to naturopathic school, ready to dive in.

But life took me in another direction. My path in fitness, movement, and trauma-informed healing work unfolded organically. I spent the next several years working as a traveling athlete and international ambassador, fitness professional, and guide — empowering people as they moved through their own limitations – physical and mental emotional, and recovery. During this time, I also went through my own intensive healing process, shaped by the realities of growing up in poverty and navigating systems never designed for people like me. This lived experience continues to inform how I practice and who I show up for.

Eventually, I returned to medicine—this time through the doorway of East Asian traditions. I earned my Master’s in Classical Chinese Medicine from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon, where I trained in both Chinese and Japanese acupuncture, East Asian herbal medicine, and food therapy. I worked extensively with low-income populations and spent a full year in a detox and rehab facility, primarily caring for Black, Latino and Indigenous folks navigating addiction, trauma, and systemic harm. That work reminded me of the communities I grew up with, and I continue to serve individuals in recovery today.

My practice weaves together everything I’ve lived and learned: East Asian medical traditions, movement as medicine, trauma-informed care, and a fierce commitment to community. I work with people navigating pain and injuries, chronic illness, recovery, and disconnection from their bodies —often folks who have been overlooked or dismissed in other systems. I meet people where they are, honoring the real conditions of their lives and resources, and offering care that’s rooted in respect, resilience, and relationship.

I’m currently completing my doctorate in East Asian Medicine, continuing to deepen my work in service of healing justice, ancestral wisdom, and collective care. My work is an offering—to my communities, my ancestors, and everyone who has ever been told that healing was out of reach.