He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in English Literature. After completing a post-baccalaureate pre-dental program, he went onto New York City to graduate from Columbia University, College of Dental Medicine followed by a 3-year residency program in Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University. There he trained in Anatomic Pathology in the Pathology Department at Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons before transitioning to focus primarily on Oral Pathology. Subsequent to his residency training, he pursued a year-long clinical research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City.