Member Profiles

Tell us about your career and how you became interested in geriatrics? 

I am a geriatric oncologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. My clinical and research focus is on older adults with blood cancers, specifically myeloid cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. I’m dual-trained as a geriatrician and a hematologist-oncologist. 

My journey started back in 2012 when I did my residency at Baystate Medical Center. During that time, I was able to connect with my mentor, Maura Brennan, an active AGS member who really nurtures residents’ interest in geriatrics. Maura and the strong presence of geriatrics at my institution during my residency sparked my interest in the field. That strong presence has led me to believe that it is critical for institutions and programs to invest in geriatrics experts and staff so that we can spark an interest in younger generations to train to take care of a population we know will be increasing over the next few decades.  

My interest in cancer was challenged by the complexity of treating older adults early in my residency. Initially, I didn't feel prepared to care for this population, but I quickly realized that being a good doctor meant being adept at managing these complex cases. Older adults are often the most complex patients, and mastering their care prepares you to handle almost any medical challenge. I've always been passionate about oncology, and so combining oncology with geriatrics during my residency seemed like a natural path. Combining geriatrics with oncology allows me to pursue both my passions without compromise, which is incredibly fulfilling and satisfying. This dual focus led me to Rochester for further training, where I now specialize in improving outcomes for older adults with blood cancers and I absolutely love being on this path that I have forged. 

When did you join the American Geriatrics Society and why?

I joined AGS in my first year of residency in 2012 as a trainee member and then I became a full member in 2019. My residency program had a local AGS chapter, and my senior residents encouraged me to get involved. The chapter organized visits to senior living facilities, where we planned and engaged with residents in activities and games, which is something that I found very enjoyable. This early involvement with the AGS led to deeper engagement, including participating in the Residents’ Section and eventually becoming its president in my final two years of residency. My involvement has only grown from there, including leading the Cancer and Aging Special Interest Group as Chair and Vice-Chair and joining the AGS Research Committee. 

What has your experience been as an AGS member? What are your favorite benefits, resources, or activities?

AGS has provided an invaluable network of colleagues in geriatric oncology. The Society offers unique opportunities to learn from geriatricians, which is something I don't find in other organizations. Attending the Annual Meetings is particularly beneficial, exposing me to new ideas and research methods that I can adapt for the cancer field. Being part of AGS committees has allowed me to contribute to symposiums and engage deeply with the community. This involvement has been a significant part of my professional development and inspiration.

What is important to you in your career now?

In the next few years, I aim to successfully transition to an independent research career, focusing on supportive care interventions for older adults with blood cancers. There's a significant gap in this area, and I hope to find resources to support these projects and implement them in clinical practice. Mentoring the next generation is also very important to me. I want to inspire and support those interested in geriatric hematology and supportive care, focusing on improving quality of life and decision-making for older patients with cancer.

Currently, I mentor several individuals interested in blood cancer and geriatric hematology. There are only a handful of us in the country doing this work, so I try to be a resource for as many people as possible. This includes giving career advice, helping with grants or papers, and sharing best practices. My clinic, which focuses on older adults with blood cancer, attracts many visitors who come to learn from our approach. I find this work to be very important as it helps disseminate valuable information and practices to a broader audience.

Do you have any advice for other AGS members?

Join AGS and take full advantage of its benefits! Attend the Annual Meeting, network with others, and consider joining committees to contribute your ideas and gain inspiration from others. The AGS community is kind, humble, and always willing to engage. If you're ready, propose ideas for symposia! Networking, especially at the Annual Meeting, can significantly broaden your professional circle which is something that has been really beneficial to me. 

My early interest in math and science led me to a career in pharmacy, but it was watching my parents care for their parents that attracted me to a geriatrics specialty. My parents accompanied my grandparents to doctor appointments and trips to the pharmacy, and questioned the use of various medications and treatments. Children becoming caregivers for their parents is more than just a trend—it’s a new reality that I see every day. Knowing that I help older patients who may not have someone like my parents caring for them brings me great satisfaction and pride.

I teach my students that when you care for an older adult, you can’t look at one health problem and offer a routine prescription or treatment—you must consider all of the patient’s health issues, and make sure what you’re about to recommend doesn’t cause an adverse drug reaction, discomfort, confusion, or unnecessary harm. The AGS is a place where people who share the desire to help older adults come together to improve and strengthen public policy issues, training, and delivery of quality care to patients. Attending the society’s annual meeting, and reading the weekly listserv are ways that I stay involved with the AGS. I’m proud to belong to a multidisciplinary organization that supports the collaboration of people with different skillsets and backgrounds.

The benefits of an AGS membership are extremely valuable to my work, which is why I renew my membership each year. In 2011, I became an AGS Fellow. This distinction gives me the opportunity to network with people who have made tremendous contributions to geriatrics education, clinical care, and research. The fellows are a diverse group of geriatricians, surgeons, urologists, endocrinologists, nurses, researchers, and, of course, pharmacists.

Though I’m not a fellowship-trained geriatrician, I’ve been an AGS member since 2002. What can non-geriatricians like me derive from AGS membership? The answer is plenty!

I’m a researcher who specializes in aging issues, and who is also an emergency medicine specialist, so membership affords me excellent opportunities to become involved in the science and policy behind caring for medically complex older adults. What’s more, my membership ensures that I’ll have a seat at a table where like-minded professionals can help impact the policies and regulations that focus on providing emergency care for older adults.

Beyond those benefits, I reap rich personal rewards, too. I enjoy the lively information sharing that occurs between emergency medicine researchers and other interprofessional AGS members in the various forums we share as a community. At the AGS Annual Scientific Meetings, for example, I have a great time running around and reconnecting with geriatrics professionals I’ve met over the years.

I’ve always had an affinity for older adults. As a little girl visiting nursing homes to play piano for the residents, I was so impressed that such a small thing, like playing a simple song (usually with a handful of wrong notes!), could bring such joy to the residents’ faces and light up their lives–even if just for a moment. In college, Lewy body dementia took the best of my Puerto Rican poet grandfather’s mind. Being hundreds of miles away, unable to help besides phone calls, I volunteered locally in Boston at a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, who offer the neediest elders a home, caring for them as family. While visiting with residents weekly, I was inspired by the love that the sisters put into their care and by the great impact they had on residents through small acts of service and companionship. As I progressed through my medical training, I kept coming back to the older adults and the impact that small acts with great love could have on their lives. I learned that by stepping back and taking a 50,000-foot view I can often see small things to tweak that would greatly enhance their quality of life. I became more and more interested in geriatrics from a cognitive standpoint through my education, but I can say that it originally started in the heart and out of an affinity for serving older adults. 

Why did you first join the AGS? I first joined the American Geriatrics Society during my first year of medical school because of my mentor, Dr. Jim Powers. Jim, still an active AGS member today, was my research mentor and a model physician. He brought the opportunity to start an AGS student chapter to my attention and that is where my involvement with the AGS began. With his support, I started a student chapter at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The chapter held a few events a year, learned about geriatrics together, and got to meet with different geriatricians. 

My favorite aspect of being a member of the AGS? When I was a Fellow, I attended my first AGS Annual Scientific Meeting. There, I was exposed to many of the offerings that the AGS provides and was able to meet people like me, who were in a similar place in their careers, education, and development as well as meet experts who were presenting about different innovations and cutting-edge advancements in the field. The AGS Annual Scientific Meeting is one of my favorite parts of being an AGS member because it gives you the opportunity to connect with others and experience how wonderful the geriatrics community is— friendly, warm, supportive, and collaborative. Being able to connect and learn with others is so important, especially in our field, where there are so few geriatricians that we are often isolated and without a community of peers or mentors. The AGS Annual Meeting brings together geriatricians and geriatrics professionals alike for an incredibly edifying and communal experience. 

My second favorite aspect of being a member of the AGS is the online community. I belong to a few different AGS online communities, where I get regular updates on recent posts through the Daily Digest email. I find these online communities to be a really great feature because not only can you ask a question and receive responses from others, but you can learn from other people’s questions. It is a great way to regularly receive new information right to my inbox. When COVID-19 first hit, I posted a question in the ADGAP online community looking for anyone who wanted to explore shared didactics for fellows. A response to that post connected five programs that together would start what would become Geri-A-FLOAT (GeriAtrics Fellows Learning Online And Together) with Anna Goroncy, MD, of the University of Cincinnati; Ryan Chippendale, MD, of Boston University; Josh Uy, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania; and Colleen Christmas, MD, of Johns Hopkins University. Geri-A-Float brings together fellows and faculty from across the country virtually to learn and to support each other. Geri-A-FLOAT makes cuttingedge knowledge accessible across programs by providing an opportunity for fellows to connect with experts and leaders in geriatrics from all over the country and sometimes the world. We’ve had participants from places like Africa, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey! GeriA-FLOAT might not have ever come to be if it weren’t for the AGS online community connecting me to others. 

The teachers’ section is great too. I always enjoy learning what other educators are doing across the country through their educator spotlight feature and their sessions during the annual meeting. I also enjoy AGS resources such as the Geriatric Review Syllabus (GRS) and JAGS, the premier journal for clinical aging research. 

As a fellowship program director, it has been beneficial being able to connect with other fellowship program directors from across the country through the ADGAP online community. That group does a pre-conference before the AGS Annual Meeting and attending those sessions has enabled me to learn about different ways to improve our local fellowship program. Folks share best practices that they have implemented, and we learn from and support each other. 

In closing.. Geriatrics is the best specialty. In my experience, geriatricians and geriatrics professionals are the most compassionate, holistic physicians that I’ve met, and the community is inviting, warm, and friendly. It has been neat to see the field advancing and becoming more embedded in other areas of medicine and the spread of initiatives like the Age-Friendly Health Systems. All of this coupled with meeting bright and driven learners from all over the country through Geri-A-FLOAT have made me very optimistic about the future of geriatrics.

When I applied to medical school, one of my first tasks was to write a personal statement. Mine, like many others, was a version of “I want to help people.” I soon discovered that helping people is the most meaningful part of my work. Geriatrics offers the opportunity to enjoy deep relationships with older adults. In geriatrics, we don’t just ask about someone’s symptoms, we dig a little deeper—asking folks about hobbies, families, what sports teams they like. We develop a complete picture of the person in our care. Because so many older adults live with multiple chronic conditions, few randomized controlled research trials exist to guide our treatment strategies. That makes certain aspects of geriatrics care that much more important. We’re often asking a person what their goals of care are and what “quality of life” really means to them. 

Creating personalized care becomes a reality in geriatric medicine. And that’s why my AGS membership is so valuable. The networking that members enjoy allows us to connect with experts in many fields and discuss our practices. We connect in person at the Annual Scientific Meeting, online through outlets like MyAGSOnline, and in print through our info-packed quarterly newsletter. Another key way AGS membership has enhanced my practice is through its generous support. I get a free AGS e-membership as a resident, I’ve enjoyed travel stipends for my last two trips to the Annual Scientific Meeting, and I received reduced rates for meeting registration—essential support for an emerging geriatrician.

The Annual Scientific Meeting allows people early in their careers to have eye-opening experiences, meeting some of the leading experts in our field. At the 2015 meeting, for example, I presented a paper on gun violence, and the case triggered a fascinating dialogue about a hot and often ignored topic for our country and older adults. It was a tremendous opportunity to shed light on a topic that we don’t often get to talk about! More broadly, I’ve also volunteered as chair of the Resident Interest Group for AGS. Our goal is to help design events for the Annual Scientific Meeting geared specifically toward residents. We’re planning to promote networking opportunities for fellows and residents during the Annual Scientific Meeting, and to connect resident and student chapters across the country.

Beyond my residency and my work with AGS, the home life I share with my wife, Rebecca, is incredibly fulfilling. We have two sons—Zach was born last August and Eric is three. It’s a roller coaster, balancing home and career, and I’ve had discussions with my peers about navigating residency while raising a family. My system: I block out family time when I come home. We enjoy dinner together and have our bedtime routines with the kids. As a family, we go the beach, the zoo, and the children’s museum—things we can all enjoy. And, I just finished the Game of Thrones series. No spoilers!

My grandmother’s battle with progressive dementia made an enormous impression on me as a teenager. I saw first-hand how the disease and its behavioral disturbances affected her and my family as we coped with the inadequacies facing older adults in our health care system. The unhelpful doctor visits and unnecessary trips to the emergency department were particularly difficult for all of us. The awareness I developed during this experience triggered my interest in a career as a geriatrician. I see geriatrics as a personalized form of medicine, and I appreciate the way trainees are exposed to many different medical specialties, including neurology, psychiatry, and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

I joined the AGS when I began my private practice in 2016. As a board certified geriatrician, I have found that my membership helps me stay abreast of the latest advancements in our field. For example, AGS helps members learn the intricacies of CPT-coding (Current Procedural Terminology) and helps prepare them for chronic care management, annual wellness visits, and advance care planning. There has to be continual change in how geriatricians in private clinics practice medicine. Value-based medicine is the future. Where is the value in geriatric medicine? AGS is essential to us all for maintaining the focus on the value of caring for older adults. The AGS mission aligns with my professional mission: to meet the health needs of our older adult population and to focus on their independence and quality of life. I hope to contribute more to this great cause in the future as a leader, sponsor, and partner. The benefits of my AGS membership are many: attending the annual scientific conferences, exchanging ideas on the AGS website forum, and contributing as much as I can to improving the health and wellness of older adults. AGS has certainly contributed to my personal and professional growth and for this I am forever grateful.

One major benefit of my AGS membership is attending the annual meetings. I particularly enjoy meeting new colleagues and exchanging ideas. The lectures are excellent because they present various specialty fields I might not otherwise be exposed to. I take that information and create my own subspecialty clinics to assist homebound patients who cannot physically see specialists but who benefit immensely from new clinical approaches. I am working on improving the operations of the clinic from a chronic care management standpoint. I am working on a mobile and cloud application that is doctor-friendly to help better manage offices. This calls on my understanding of chronic care management in our older-adult population. Finally, I believe that the culture of how medicine is practiced has had many challenges. The cloud-based application I’m working on will hopefully mitigate many of these challenges in our office. Chronic care management is instrumental in my clinic but requires months of work in training staff and understanding systems/standard operation procedures. I believe that staff education in our outpatient offices is key to allowing our physicians to focus on patient care. Work/family balance is essential to me. I am blessed to have a wonderful wife and two great kids, Camila, 5, and Diego, 8. I enjoy my time off by exploring the world with my family and taking part in outdoor activities. I’m actually writing this from Europe, where we’re visiting places like Anncecy, France and Gruyere, Switzerland.