MUSCULOSKELETAL RESEARCH CENTER
Faculty Updates
Welcome
Nathan Howell, MD Originally from Georgia, Nathan“ Nate” Howell, MD, attended medical school in Augusta at the Medical College of Georgia, completed residency training in pediatrics at the University of Colorado and continued with a fellowship here in Primary Care Sports Medicine. His professional interests include medical education and musculoskeletal ultrasound. In addition to seeing patients at several of our campuses, Dr. Howell will also care for young athletes on the sidelines at schools throughout the Denver Metro area. His research interests include utilization and impact of ultrasound on the pediatric orthopedic and sports population as well as the influence of patient healthcare experience and expectations on outcomes related to injury and pain.
Steven Thorpe, MD Steven Thorpe, MD, graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy with a degree in biochemistry and earned his medical degree at Vanderbilt University. He completed his Orthopedic Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a fellowship in Musculoskeletal Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. After serving as an orthopedic surgeon in the Air Force, he joined UC Davis, where he helped build a musculoskeletal oncology program and launched a multidisciplinary sarcoma clinic. Dr. Thorpe is now Chief of Musculoskeletal Oncology at the University of Colorado, partnering with the CU Cancer Center and Children’ s Hospital Colorado. His clinical focus includes limb-preserving surgery for bone and soft tissue sarcomas and complex pelvic and reconstructions. An active researcher, he explores emerging technologies such as fluorescent-guided surgery and 3D-printed cutting guides to improve sarcoma care.
Erika Valentine, MD Originally from New York, Erika Valentine, MD, joins us from Children’ s Hospital Los Angeles where she completed a pediatric orthopedic surgery fellowship in July 2024. Dr. Valentine’ s current research interests include pediatric trauma and disorders of the hip, and her recent work aims to clarify the underlying factors that predispose a subset of patients with developmental hip dysplasia to develop coxa valga, leg-length discrepancy and / or residual acetabular dysplasia.
4 2025 Annual Report