As a medical student, I had spent years doing research and shadowing in neurosurgery and was preparing to commit to the field when I was introduced to breast reconstruction and the DIEP flap procedure. I was immediately captivated. The surgery combined anatomy, microsurgery, creativity and technical precision, but what stayed with me most was the impact it had on women after breast cancer. I realized that plastic and reconstructive surgery was where I was meant to be.

Breast reconstruction is about so much more than achieving a technically successful operation. I often meet women at one of the most frightening moments of their lives. They are processing a cancer diagnosis, facing mastectomy and trying to understand what their body may look like afterward. Over the following months, I get to watch that story change. Women who initially arrive anxious and overwhelmed often reach the other side of treatment feeling confident, beautiful and restored. Seeing that transition from "I have cancer" to "I feel like myself again" is one of the most meaningful parts of my work.

Northwest Arkansas was never part of a carefully constructed career plan. During my final year of residency, I came here with my now husband, Joey, largely as a reward to ourselves and a chance to ride mountain bikes before I started fellowship.

Instead, we fell in love with Arkansas, the outdoors, the culture of Northwest Arkansas and the people. We started imagining what a life here could look like. At the same time, I realized there was no practicing breast microsurgeon in the entire state.

While completing my microsurgical fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, I began working toward building a program here. With microsurgery, simply showing up and performing the operation is not enough. You have to build the systems around it and plan for success, and education is a huge part of that. I worked closely with the hospital and operating room teams to coordinate specialized instruments and supplies, develop imaging protocols with radiology, and train staff across the OR, ICU, PCU, physical therapy and occupational therapy teams in the care of microsurgical patients. I graduated in June 2023, and just a few months later, in September, we performed our first breast free flap in Northwest Arkansas.

That experience ultimately led me to found ARBRA Plastic Surgery. The philosophy behind ARBRA is simple. The patient should be at the center of every decision, and women deserve to know all of their reconstructive options.

When I first began practicing here, many patients did not even know reconstruction using their own tissue was possible. I met women living with failed implant reconstructions, radiation damage, scar tissue and chest wall deformities. Others with the means were leaving Arkansas to find microsurgical reconstruction elsewhere. I wanted to change that.

In our first year, ARBRA cared for 415 patients, and we now perform approximately eight microsurgical flaps each month for women traveling from four states. As we grow, we plan to add additional fellowship-trained microsurgeons and continue our dual-microsurgeon model. Our goal is to continue raising the standard of breast reconstruction in our region while allowing women to receive advanced reconstructive care close to home.

This season has also changed me personally. Becoming a mother has brought a softness, connection and perspective I did not know existed. I understand vulnerability and caregiving differently now, and I think more about the family surrounding the woman sitting across from me.

I do not feel that motherhood and surgery compete for my identity. I cannot imagine one without the other. Microsurgery gives me focus, challenge and incredible satisfaction. Motherhood gives me softness, perspective and a different kind of purpose. My ambition has not diminished. I have simply become more intentional with my time. My daughter has been to meetings and building walkthroughs, and I have pumped between surgeries and clinic blocks. The two identities coexist, and I would not have it any other way.

Someday, I hope she understands why I built ARBRA. I hope she sees that when you find your passion, you should nurture it, pursue excellence and use it to make things better for the people who come after you.

For ARBRA and breast reconstruction in Arkansas, this is only the beginning.

To learn more, visit arbraplasticsurgery.com