Brian was born and raised in Illinois where both he and his older sister graduated from Waukegan High School. Brian’s parents are retired educators; his father is a retired K-6 school principal, elected school board member and World War II veteran who served in the Army Air Corp in New Guinea. His mother is a retired reading teacher and homemaker. Growing up, Brian learned the value of hard work and community service as a paperboy, YMCA junior camp counselor, and cook. He was confirmed at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Waukegan, Illinois, and graduated high school during our nation’s bicentennial. As a child from a family of modest means, Brian earned money toward his college education during the summer after high school graduation by going door-to-door painting home address numbers on curbs in Waukegan. That summer really taught Brian the value of an education.
Brian attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and received a degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1982. During his years at Illinois he followed Big Ten football and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In addition to engineering, he studied German language and received a one year exchange scholarship at the Technical University of Münich in West Germany. He received a student work permit while there. As a means to support his education and to enhance learning the language, Brian took part-time jobs as a furniture mover, doorman, and janitor. While at the University of Illinois, he also participated in a work-study program where he worked summers, two semesters and, following graduation, full-time at Sargent and Lundy Engineers in Chicago on the licensing and design of nuclear power plants and radioactive waste management.
Brian began study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 and received the Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering in 1984 and 1990 with biomedical specialization. His education was supported through a National Cancer Institute grant and a five-year M.D.-Ph.D. scholarship from the Lutheran Brotherhood administered by the Life and Health Insurance Medical Research Fund. To further make ends meet, he worked as a test preparation instructor for students studying for their high school achievement, business school, and medical school entrance exams.
Brian’s medical education at the University of Illinois included clinical rotations at the Cook County and Veteran’s Administration Hospitals in inner-city Chicago. After graduating medical school he spent his intern year at Evanston Hospital/Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He completed his specialty training in Radiation Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Brian met his wife Lori in medical school. Brian and Lori have been married 15 years and have lived in Rochester for 11 years, where they are both employed as physicians at the Mayo Clinic. They have four children, ages 4 through 13, and are members of the Hosanna Lutheran Church in Rochester.
Brian currently serves as Vice President of the American Brachytherapy Society (www.americanbrachytherapy.org), a 1,200 member medical organization, and will serve as President in 2008 - 2009. He also serves as Co-director of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Mayo Clinic and is a recognized leader in medical research with current or prior funding from the National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Aging and private medical industry. The majority of his clinical schedule is spent treating and counseling cancer patients.
In the winter of 2007, Brian was elected as the Olmsted County Republican Party treasurer. He was invited to participate in the National Republican Congressional Committee candidate school in April after expressing an interest in running for the Congressional seat. His medical practice is now reduced so that he may campaign for the Republican endorsement in the First District of Minnesota.
Like many in the medical field, Brian has delivered babies, counseled patients with life-threatening and incurable conditions, taken care of homeless patients, and patients with HIV/AIDS. He has firsthand experience and knowledge of both the successes and limitations of our healthcare system. More perspectives like his are needed in the federal legislature so that our taxpayer dollars are used wisely.