He has a subspecialty practice in pain medicine and is medical director of the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the National Pain Foundation. He has authored numerous scientific articles and lectured extensively on the problem of chronic pain. He is a native of Rochester, Minnesota and a graduate of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX), and the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine (Rochester, MN). He, his wife Sharon and their family enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities and have a particular affection for the beauty of Northern Minnesota, especially the area in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.