After graduating from Grove City College, I went to the University of Cincinnati to medical school and graduated in 1998. I chose to pursue a residency in family medicine and went to the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in Boise from 1998-2001. That program focused on training rural family physicians to do a broad scope of practice.
I returned to Ohio after residency to join a group practice in Millersburg, Ohio in 2001, and that is where I remain. Millersburg and the surrounding area are home to a large Amish community and that cultural aspect has been an interesting part of my practice. I married Andy Barr, '94, in 2001 and we have two boys James and Ian.
Practicing in a rural community provides many professional challenges, and I do a broader scope of practice than I would in a larger area (i.e., I delivered babies for the first five years of my practice). I also provide a lot a mental health care due to lack of availability of psychiatrists. I managed anxiety, depression, OCD, and bipolar disorder. I also have patients with more complex mental illness that I co-manage with psychiatry (i.e., schizophrenia and eating disorders). My psychology degree has definitely helped me as I work with those patients, but it also has helped me in my approach to my patient interactions in general.