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Kyle Dijon HillPeer

Kyle Dijon Hill always felt medicine would be her calling. During high school, she trained as an emergency medical technician, nursing assistant, and pharmacy technician. She spent summers home from college volunteering as an EMT and mentoring at-risk elementary school students. She completed her undergraduate degree from Trinity University in Speech Communications with a concentration in public speaking/debate and a minor in Biology. Throughout college, Kyle remained engaged in various community service projects, implementing school blood drives, tutoring science for underprivileged high school students, and even highway clean-ups.

Seven months after graduation, while studying for the MCAT, she was involved in her second near-fatal car accident which fractured her C-1 and C-2 vertebrae, in what is referred to as a hangman’s neck fracture. The impact of the vehicle severed her femur at the joint, smashed her pelvis, broke her collarbone and fractured most of her ribs on the right side resulting in excessive internal bleeding which required an emergency laparotomy. Four and a half months in a halo provided Kyle with a unique perspective on mortality and medicine. Her dreams of applying to medical school were placed on hold as her health became the highest priority.

After regaining the ability to walk, she began to seek out other passions, working as a Zoo Ranger at the Houston Zoo, a laboratory technician for Quest Diagnostics and �nally traveling to South Korea to teach English and Science. Kyle’s travels throughout Asia and her many experiences reawakened her passion for medicine. She believed strongly in the idea that patients should have a more active role in how they wish to be treated. She desired to be a compassionate physician able to provide well researched allopathic and alternative options for patients.

Kyle is a current 3rd-year medical student at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her �rst two years of medical school were completed on the island of Curacao where she provided free health screens for the local community. To expand on her passion for research, while abroad, Kyle completed a Master’s of Science in clinical research from Walden University. After completing basic sciences in Curacao, she returned to Houston to become an active advocate for medical Cannabis. She often spoke with representatives at the capitol in Austin, Texas on the topic of medicinal cannabis, its safety pro�le, and how and why it works for patients with limited treatment options. She interned and later worked for Vyripharm, a biopharmaceutical company researching cannabinoid-based compounds. At MD Anderson in Houston, Texas she studied CBD and its e�ects on refractory lymphoma cell lines. Her extensive research into various cannabinoid compounds and their ability to be a non-toxic therapeutic option for those struggling with various forms of chronic pain brought her to the Institute of Cannabis Research at Colorado State University in Pueblo. Her presentation on “Cannabis as a therapeutic option for pain Management, Curtailing the Opioid Addiction and Overdose Crisis - a patient and medical perspective” created many opportunities for collaboration. She passionately continues to advocate and educate colleagues in the medical �eld as she works towards �nishing medical school.

“Cannabis as a therapeuticoption for pain Management,

Curtailing the Opioid Addiction and

Overdose Crisis - a patient and medical

perspective”