2024 Tillman Scholar
Max graduated from California Polytechnic University – San Luis Obispo, CA in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in economics before becoming an emergency medical technician in San Diego, CA where he worked on critical care teams. It was here that saw the impact medicine could have on the people of his community.
He joined the Air Force in 2013 as a logistician with a desire to bolster humanitarian missions around the world and was stationed at Scott AFB, IL where he liaised with Air Force Special Operations Command and the Navy at the Air Force’s Global Logistics Center maintaining the global readiness of the CV-22 fleet. He continued to serve his local community as a civilian paramedic and Red Cross CPR instructor in St. Louis, MO.
To further understand the macroeconomic effects behind the medical and social disparities he saw as a medic, he earned his Master’s degree in Econometrics while serving with the Joint Communications Unit at Ft. Liberty, NC. He deployed with a Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2018 and became the 310th Airman to graduate from Ranger school in 2021. He was selected for the Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program (EMDP2) where he earned a Master’s degree in Biology from George Mason University. He commissioned in 2023 upon entering medical school at the Uniformed Services University to become an emergency medicine physician.
Armed with the expertise and desire to help medically underserved communities across the globe, Max plans to continue serving the Air Force and pursuing a career in humanitarian and austere medicine. He is married to Veronica, a trauma therapist. They have two children.