He was born and raised in Minnesota, completed his undergraduate education with a Bachelor of Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, later completed medical school through American University of the Caribbean, and spent 3 years in Salt Lake City for his internal medicine residency. After 4 years in Columbus, OH, he and his family were drawn back to the beauty of the Wasatch Front, and he joined the Division of Hematology to continue his career as a clinical trialist focused on the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies.