A Pennsylvania native and went to the University of Pennsylvania for veterinary school. After working for a year in private practice, JD completed a rotating internship at the VCA Norwalk/Shoreline referral hospitals in Connecticut. Thereafter he completed an internal medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin.

Upon becoming a board certified internal medicine specialist, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania as faculty, where he spent 4 years running the hemodialysis and blood purification service. JD has completed a long-distance nephrology and hemodialysis fellowship under the training of Dr. Larry Cowgill at the University of California, Davis. JD joined the FHA team in September of 2016. In 2018, and he became President of the American Society of Veterinary Nephrology and Urology.