About
My Medical Journey
My path to medical school has definitely not been a traditional one. I studied music and Indigenous Studies and spent much of my adult life in New York City working as a singer-songwriter, actor, writer and teaching artist. For many years, much of my teaching work was with children with disabilities, and I also had the opportunity to teach songwriting to children with serious illnesses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Somewhere along the way, I also rather unexpectedly became a professional Lady Gaga impersonator and created and performed my own theatrical work in New York and Toronto. Later, I became a solo mother of two after going through years of infertility treatment, IVF and third-party reproduction. I wrote publicly about that experience and was featured in the EMMY-nominated documentary Vegas Baby, which followed people undergoing fertility treatment. My experiences as a mother, a patient, an educator and an advocate all contributed to my decision to finally pursue medicine—a dream I had thought about for many years but had not believed was realistic for me earlier in life.
Once I made the decision to pursue medicine, I returned to school to complete my premedical sciences while raising my children and ultimately matriculated at the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine in August 2024 as a member of its inaugural class. What I have loved most about medical school is finding ways to combine medicine with the parts of myself I already had before I arrived—the writer, artist, advocate and storyteller. I founded OCOM’s Medical Student Pride Alliance and became involved in research and advocacy around LGBTQIA+ health, reproductive medicine and women in medicine. I have also become interested in how osteopathic medicine can contribute to women’s health, including working on and presenting a case involving breastfeeding-related postpartum chest pain that was ultimately identified as first-rib somatic dysfunction and successfully treated with osteopathic manipulation. Through a grant I received from the American Medical Women’s Association, I wrote and produced a song about the experience of being a woman in medicine, which I later presented at AMWA’s national conference and which is now being discussed as a possible theme song for the organization. Experiences like these have made me realize that I do not have to choose between being an artist and being a physician. I hope to build a career in women’s and reproductive health where I can combine clinical care with advocacy, creativity and the ability to make patients feel genuinely seen.
Medical Milestones
August 2024
Began medical studies at the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine as part of the inaugural class.
January 2025
Founded the Medical Student Pride Alliance chapter at OCOM and served as Treasurer of the OB/GYN Student Chapter.
March–April 2025
Presented LGBTQIA+ healthcare equity research at AMWA Region 4 and the OCOM Research Symposium; related poster publication appeared in Cureus.
April 2025
Presented “Beyond the Heart: Osteopathic Diagnosis of Postpartum Chest Pain — First Rib Somatic Dysfunction Following Breastfeeding-Related Strain” at the Florida Academy of Osteopathy Annual Conference in Orlando.
June 2025
Published “Pride, Pulse and the Power of Being Seen: A Queer Medical Student’s Reflection” through AACOM, reflecting on LGBTQIA+ visibility, belonging, and medical student identity.
July 2025
Published “Alan L. Hart: An Innovative Pioneer in Radiology and Transgender Rights” in Cureus, indexed in PubMed
August 2025
Began second year of medical school, presented at the Women in Medicine Conference, and received the Women in Medicine Leadership Scholarship.
October 2025
Presented a CME-accredited workshop at the GLMA Annual Conference in Minneapolis and an osteopathic case-based poster at the ACOI Student Poster Contest in Marco Island.
March 2026
Presented the accepted video/song deliverable from the Ko Iki Alpha Centurion Prize project at the American Medical Women’s Association National Conference in San Francisco. Link to music video here.
August 2026
Published the ScholarRx medical education Brick, “Beyond Infertility: LGBTQIA+ Family Building in Reproductive Medicine,” developed through the 2025 ScholarRx Brick Builder Grant.
September 2026
IRB-approved LGBTQIA+ healthcare professional experiences research scheduled to move forward with expanded data collection and analysis.
RECENT PRESS
Watermark Out News
Featured in “One Person’s Journey Through IVF and Into the Health Care Industry,” a health profile on solo motherhood, IVF, medical school, and LGBTQIA+ healthcare research.
Orange Observer
Featured in “Lady Gaga Impersonator Studying Medicine at OCOM.”
Heritage Florida Jewish News
Featured in Jews in the Land of Disney: “Athena Reich: From Lady Gaga to Dr. Gaga.”
J Life Magazine
Featured in CHAIM Society profile.
Selected Writing
AACOM
“Pride, Pulse and the Power of Being Seen: A Queer Medical Student’s Reflection”
Watermark Out News
“Beyond the Line: How Do We Cross the Great Divide?” — Viewpoint column, February 2026.
For a complete list of presentations, publications, and academic credentials, please download my CV below.