RESIDENTS Eric GR Kim, MD, PhD – UH Track Wayne State University School of Medicine Home for me has been many places in the U.S. through the years. More recently(ish), I completed high school in Northwest Ohio and college at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The nine years I spent in Detroit working on my MD and PhD (in biomedical engineering) was one of the longest periods I’ve ever spent in one place! There I worked with homeless and drug rehabilitation patients in a volunteer clinic, with an evidence-based, student-run clinical question journal, and with the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians as a student representative on the education committee. I also got to engage with my love for medical technology, completing my dissertation in medical microtechnology in the College of Engineering. My time there had a profound impact on me, and wherever I find myself, I will always be a Detroiter at heart. My passion for medical technology makes me a bit of an oddball. That said, I see this interest in a similar light as the central tenants of family medicine. Alongside our skills or our relationships, our tools play a large part in shaping our practice. The more we experience firsthand, the greater and more whole our perspective, and the more we can help our patients. For residency, more than anything else, I wanted a program that reflected this interdisciplinary attitude, and I am so happy to have found it here! I am excited to work in the complex, progressive environment that is the Denver community and to collaborate with the diverse and exceptional people who make up this program. I’m also eager to engage with the local historical martial arts and fencing communities, since there’s no denying the nerd inside me.
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Franklin Niblock, MD, MPH – UH Track University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hi All! Congratulations on your decision to become a family physician and thanks for your interest in practicing medicine in Denver. I am originally from Concord, North Carolina and I attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) for undergrad (Go Heels!). At UNC I majored in Health Policy and Management through the Gillings School of Public Health and spent a lot of Saturday mornings building homes with Habitat for Humanity. My education in public health fostered an interest in primary care and, specifically, underserved care. After undergrad, I worked for the North Carolina Office of Rural Health before returning to UNC for medical school. My time with the Office of Rural Health showed me the impact a family physician can have in a rural community and ultimately prompted me to pursue a MPH, as well as help start a service year organization for recent college graduates interested in underserved medicine. I was fortunate to be educated in North Carolina surrounded by strong primary care role models, and I was drawn to Colorado for similar reasons. The University of Colorado has an incredibly robust Department of Family Medicine filled with supportive faculty and residents. Each person I met on interview day was someone I felt I wanted to spend time with inside and outside of the clinic. Not to mention, Denver is a short drive away from some of the most gorgeous country in the United States. In my free time, I enjoy hiking and camping with my wife, Shelley, and our Labrador companion, Julep. When Julep and Shelley are busy, I try to explore the trout streams of the Rockies.
Lauren Oberle, MD – UH Track University of Colorado School of Medicine I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri (Go Cards!) and went to the University of Missouri for undergrad where I studied biology and Spanish. I came to the University of Colorado for medical school after a gap year working as a scribe and traveling, and I have loved being in sunny Denver. I always thought I wanted to work in some sort of primary care because of longitudinal patient care and the variety. I also became interested in preventive care through healthy lifestyles and empowering patients. During medical school, I worked with a local NGO to teach health care workers in rural Peru; helped organize preventive health lectures; and helped teach a student-run, medical Spanish class. My special interests are sports medicine, women’s care (especially gynecology), and geriatrics. The CU Family Medicine Residency program was exactly the fit I was looking for in a residency: innovative, integrated, and intellectually challenging with diverse patient populations. Plus, I get to work with an awesome group of people. Colorado has also been the perfect place for all of my favorite activities outside of medicine: running, hiking, biking, skiing, eating ice cream and just being outside in the sunshine. I cannot express how happy I am to get to join this amazing program, and I am excited to see where the training takes me!