12/18/2025
Congratulations, Dr. Um!! American College of Rheumatology
What inspired you to pursue a career in rheumatology?
I moved often throughout my adolescence, and that experience made me gravitate toward a field where physicians become long-term constants in their patients’ lives. As a med-peds rheumatologist, I have the privilege of following my patients across developmental stages and life transitions, grounded in durable and trusting relationships. I was also drawn to the way rheumatology rewards deliberate, integrative thinking. I like threading the clues that surface across different visits, organ systems, and moments in a patient’s story to arrive at a unifying diagnosis (although not always!).
What areas of rheumatology are you most passionate about?
I’m passionate about the intersection of pediatric and adult rheumatology and how childhood-onset diseases parallel and diverge from their adult counterparts. As a med-peds rheumatologist, I want to bridge the two systems and advocate for adolescents and young adults with rheumatic disease. My specific interest is in juvenile and adult spondyloarthritis and how their mechanisms relate or differ, how current nomenclature complicates comparisons, and how emerging T-cell-directed therapies may help reduce disease burden across age groups. Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to explore these questions through translational immunology in Dr. Michael Paley’s lab.
What advice would you give to someone just starting fellowship?
Welcome new relationships. Most of fellowship is exciting, but there are certainly hard days, especially if you are navigating major life transitions at the same time. For me, becoming a new fellow and a new parent simultaneously made me appreciate the importance of supportive colleagues. Med-peds rheumatology is a long journey, and having friends matters even more. Also, welcome multiple mentors. My pediatric rheumatology clinical mentor introduced me to my current lab mentor, which opened an entirely new side of rheumatology that I’ve grown to love. At the ACR Rheumatology Research Workshop, I learned about CARMA and gained another mentor who has been helping with career planning. At this past ACR Convergence, I met some of my mentors in person for the first time after months of virtual meetings. As an early fellow, I was intimidated by the networking aspect of the annual meeting, but I’ve come to appreciate how it gives space to build these connections that shape your career.
What do you enjoy doing outside of medicine?
I love baking and incorporating Asian flavors (like miso, gochujang, black sesame). Our fellowship has an annual holiday cookie contest, and my yuzu poppyseed Linzers winning “most creative cookie” was a proud moment. I also enjoy running. In the past, that meant running half marathons. Now it mostly means keeping up with my very energetic three-year-old.
