January 2026 marks my 1-year anniversary of practicing in Albuquerque, and I think my surgical volumes are already higher than they've been in my 16-year career.

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This is both because I wanted this growth opportunity and because my team at Lovelace has fully engaged with entrusting my years of clinical and practice/program management experience to build this.  This month--January--we will be onboarding our new colorectal nurse practitioner, Kacee Child, and we look forward to recruiting a colorectal RN soon.  I want to give a shout out to our outstanding St. Jo's General Surgery Clinic team.  These are the folks that keep clinic moving so we surgeons can take care of YOU.  I'd like to give a special shout-out to Monique Otero, my medical assistant who keeps stepping up to new processes, tools, and ideas, all to try to make clinic time with me as accessible and efficient as possible.  When I see you in clinic, she is the reason I have all your external reports and imaging so we can make the most out of your appointment.

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This first year in New Mexico has been amazing, both in professional opportunity and in personal enjoyment.  I climbed Wheeler Peak, Gold Hill, Mt. Taylor, and Sandia this year.  I went to my first International Balloon Fiesta and saw my first Native American Hoop Dance.  I smelled green chilis roasting as the cottonwoods turned yellow and the sandhill cranes returned for the winter.  I visited the Very Large Array and contemplated the vastness of the Universe.  No wonder you folks love it here so much!

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A brief history of my career:

I am a colorectal surgeon, teacher, and bioethicist. For the first 12 years of my career (2009-2021), I served as core faculty with the ACGME-accredited ​St. Mark's Hospital Colon and Rectal Surgery Residency.  In 2020, I confronted a double whammy of the pandemic and a breast cancer diagnosis.  From late 2020 into early 2021, I had surgeries and chemotherapy for breast cancer, disruptions which ultimately led to my exit from my Utah private practice.

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I spent three years in Bellevue, Washington, just east of Seattle.  During my tenure there, I completed my fellowship in surgical ethics with the Washington University, St. Louis, Center for Humanism and Ethics in the Surgical Specialties (CHESS Fellowship).  Additionally, I served as Clinical Associate Professor with the Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University, with which I will continue to engage, as permitted by my clinical commitments in Albuquerque.

 

In December 2023, I elected to take time to regroup, to focus on being the CEO of my own life.  Words insufficiently express my gratitude towards so many of my friends, colleagues, and coaches who helped me clarify that serving patients remains my greatest calling, as well as how that looks different after "paying the tuition" of the first half of my career.

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I look forward to meeting you and offering you the perspective of my decades of immersion in the field of colorectal surgery.

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If you are having difficulty getting an appointment, please consider our referral review process.  For all clinical concerns, please contact me through the St. Joe's General Surgery Clinic or your MyChart account.

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​I continue to aim to keep my website updated and plan for some fun additions in 2026.

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Namaste,

Jill

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