Family Medicine

Helloooo! My name is Ashley! I am a child of Vietnamese refugee immigrants that settled in Orange County, CA. I attended California State University, Fullerton for my undergraduate education majoring in Biochemistry and minoring in Music (I play classical piano!). I then moved to DC where I was part of the federal workforce advocating for science equity at a funding agency. A couple of years later, I matriculated to Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, VA and admitted to the Family Medicine Scholars Training and Admissions Track (fmSTAT) and elected to Gold Humanism Honor Society and student body President in my final year.

I have always wanted to pursue Family Medicine since having a FM doctor of my own growing up. I was drawn to the specialty because of its longitudinal nature, ability to treat patients of all ages, and just the freedom to mold your career however you want at any point. Further, I saw it as a way to connect to social justice through my work. In true FM form, I am interested in so many things-- abortion care and reproductive justice, gender-affirming care, refugee medicine, street medicine, palliative medicine, and public policy being my largest interests right now.

I chose Brown to further my training for many reasons: proximity to partner, its emphasis on gender-affirming care and abortion care, to be among others with shared goals and values, and the opportunities to make lasting positive change through legislation as Providence is the capital city of Rhode Island. Although those are my clinical reasons of choosing Brown, there are also non-clinical reasons! BEACHES and the river (I’m from SoCal and beaches were a large part of my upbringing and I have been too far from one for too long!), art scene, great food, queer inclusivity, and accessibility to a large airport to visit my family in CA and to travel. I’m excited to be with my fiancée (long distance for 2 years) and hopefully adopt a dog, take long walks along the river, and go to the beach whenever I can! Lastly, I’m excited to become the doctor I’ve always wanted to be and be supported to reach those goals by my co-residents and faculty!