Denise FitzSimon, MD has been coming to Oregon every year for over thirty years to visit close friends until she bought a house in the Gorge in 2005. She married her husband who was working in Condon, Oregon in 2007. They have six children between them and she also has a set of twins she fostered who call her mom who are now grown. She is originally from Texas where she spent sixteen years in academic medicine as a pediatrician and most recently associate professor of pediatrics/regional chair of pediatrics. She and her husband love hiking and snowshoeing and she competes nationally in fencing