How would you describe your job?
I am a certified Prosthetist-Orthotist, and I make a lot of artificial limbs. I work in a family business with my mother and father, and we really try to get people back to their normal lives.

Did you always want to work in the family business?
Absolutely not. I woke up one morning in the sixth grade and said, "I'm going to go to the Olympics!" It was 1976, and I had just seen Franz Klammer do his downhill run in Innsbrook, Austria. So that was my initial dream, and I was lucky to be able to fulfill that dream because of my parents. They were extremely supportive of me, so there was probably a little guilt on my part. I thought I owed these guys something, so I decided to give prosthetics a shot. Lucky for me, I loved it.

How did you prepare for this profession?
I went to school at Northwestern. They have a program for orthotics and prosthetics. First, I went to orthotics, and worked with my mom here after doing residency elsewhere. Then, I went back to school for prosthetics. Mom does orthotics, so this was my chance to find my niche and we went from there. I do my thing, she does her thing, and everyone gets along.

What makes a great day?
It feels really good to know that you are changing people's lives. A great day in this business is when someone has walked out of here with all the confidence in the world, knowing that they can do whatever they want.

How do you interact with your patients?
When someone first walks in the door, obviously I am concerned with what has happened to them, and I want to know their story; however, my focus is not so much on the past. It is about the future. I want to know where the patient wants to go from this point forward. I want them to understand from our first meeting that I am going to help them on that journey. It is going to take some time, but I am going to help them get where they want to be. So, I want a person to work through their inhibitions and tell me what they want. We are going to talk about what they are going to do, and then prosthetically we go from there. If they say they want to run, we are going to talk about a running leg. Whatever they want to do, we can design accordingly.