While there are many factors that have influenced my professional growth, due to my involvement with NASS, the single most important is the primacy of multidisciplinary care. All disciplines involved in spine care are represented amply within NASS, and this is one of the many traits that make our group unique. There is no doubt that multidisciplinary care improves all aspects of spine care—clinical, academic, and educational. We are a diverse, dedicated, and insightful team.

Be generous with your time, diligent in completing your tasks, and enjoy the personal and professional company of the most extraordinary group of people with whom you will ever be.

During my residency at Yale, I began to explore other specialties such as ENT and neurosurgery. My department Chair and mentor, the late Dr. Wayne Southwick, suggested a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Manohar Panjabi in the biomechanics lab. The year that I spent with one of the fathers of spinal biomechanics, Dr. Panjabi, was one of the high points of my training and indeed my career. After that, I never looked back.