After Burroughs, Nicole attended Vanderbilt University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry, graduating summa cum laude. She went on to receive her medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. She then completed her internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center. While in fellowship, Nicole received funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to earn a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and health services research. After completing a gastroenterology fellowship, Nicole pursued a subspecialty fellowship in transplant hepatology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Irving Medical Center. During that time, she learned to take care of some of the most critically ill patients in the hospital. These experiences — from St. Louis, to Nashville, to New York — exposed her to many different patient populations and health care delivery platforms while teaching her to critically analyze the healthcare field.

Looking at the healthcare landscape, Nicole became inspired to create a different approach to outpatient GI care and founded Easy Belly. Nicole and her team are on a mission to help patients find streamlined, personalized relief through comprehensive gastrointestinal care that encompasses medical, lifestyle, nutrition, and fitness interventions.

One such fitness intervention offered at Easy Belly is yoga. After reading many publications emphasizing yoga as an effective treatment for common GI problems, including constipation, and for disorders of the gut-brain interaction such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Nicole completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training program. She is now working on different ways to make the research-backed data on yoga more accessible to interested patients.

Nicole’s dual passion for science and self-care is a hallmark of her practice philosophy: that small, personalized steps can lead to lasting health transformations. Nicole credits her Burroughs education with instilling in her curiosity, compassion, and a love of learning across disciplines.

“Burroughs taught me to see challenges through multiple lenses — scientific, creative, and human,” she says. “That mindset still guides me in every patient conversation and business decision.”

When she’s not caring for patients or building her practice, Nicole enjoys mentoring young clinicians, traveling, and having dance parties with her family and friends in St. Louis. As Easy Belly grows, she hopes to continue blending medicine, technology, and mindful living to help people feel — and live — better.