Administrative Director, Sleep Disorders Center
Diplomate, American Board of Sleep Medicine
More About Me My interest in treating sleep disorders dates back to 1979 when I finished a postdoctoral training fellowship at UC San Diego in the Department of Neuroscience and joined the faculty at UC Irvine. There, I worked full time in the sleep center until establishing the Sleep Disorders Center at St. Joseph Hospital in 1990. Early on, I had studied the mammalian brain as I earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Princeton University in 1976. I had done a lot of animal research and wanted to do something more directly related to helping people. Sleep disorders medicine allowed me to blend my interest in how the brain works with my desire to become a clinician. While at UC Irvine I trained both in sleep disorders medicine and in clinical psychology and became an accredited sleep specialist in 1981 and a licensed psychologist in 1988. Although I have been treating sleep disorders patients for well over 20 years, I have been fortunate to be able to conduct research simultaneously on the brain and sleep disorders and contribute over 40 original articles to the scientific literature.
Today, however, all my effort goes into treating people with sleep disorders. Being a sleep specialist is incredibly rewarding because sleep problems are usually so treatable. This means my clinical practice is overall quite upbeat - patients are happy with the results, so I am, too. Our Sleep Disorders Center at St. Joseph Hospital is absolutely first rate and allows me to be proud every day.
On a personal level, I think of myself as a very serious person because I think a lot about "big" issues like human and animal rights, world peace and taking care of the environment. However, my philosophy about every day living is to find as much humor in life's challenges and disappointments as possible. I also strive to let my belief that everyone has something to teach me, guide my interactions with others. My free time is focused largely on my family and my passion for ballroom dancing, and yes, I do from time to time have trouble sleeping. Life is pretty complicated for most of us these days, and it is perfectly normal to suffer sleep disturbance on an occasional basis.