I remember my first exposure to natural medicines as a child when my mother created a hot dough infused with turmeric to put on a sore ankle. To my surprise, spices from my mom’s kitchen, used to cook Indian food on a daily basis, had healing properties for common ailments! This realization started a lifelong fascination with healing and medicine. Feeling a deep connection to women’s health and female empowerment based on my domestic violence work and exposure to the Women’s Clinic at UC Berkeley, I started my career as a nurse-midwife. My first position was in inner-city Los Angeles working with pregnant women, and I realized that providing holistic primary and OBGYN care was essential to a healthy pregnancy and postpartum period. After completing a Post-Master’s in Family Practice, I fell in love with family practice and my goal became to help and empower women, their families, and communities. In 2004, I moved back to the Bay Area to be closer to my parents. In the last 24 years, I have worked in a variety of settings with diverse populations, always dedicated to promoting integrative techniques including the use of wholesome diet, movement, herbal medicines, and supplements to enhance health. On a personal note, I suffered through PCOS, infertility, and weight issues with little help from conventional medicine, which influenced my decision to become an expert in integrative health care based on the functional medicine model. I know what it is like to be a mother and wife with a busy career and I want to support other women in their aspirations to become their best self. A life-long learner, I recently graduated from a doctoral program at UCSF to refine my skills as a leader and educator, and I'm finished training programs to become  functional medicine and natural fertility provider. I am thrilled to create Lotus Integrative Health & Nursing DBA Lotus Fertility to continue my work in integrative health to serve women and their families.  I have also stepped into the world of entrepreneurship to help and guide femtech companies and lead the way into improving health care for women. I'm a limited partner in Coyote Ventures, a fund dedicated to making this happen. I dream of a day when every person on the planet gets the healthcare they deserve!

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I love my profession, but the heart of my life is my family.  I'm on my own healing journey and I've learned the hard way that self-care is vital. The pandemic was a great motivator and I now exercise daily, meditate, and have a yoga practice. I'm a Zumba dancer, an 80's music fan, good in the kitchen, and love traveling.  A Cal graduate, I love talking all things Bears and Berkeley! 

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