My Path to Medicine: A Personal Story

Patients ask about my background, so here’s how I got to medicine. It took a while, and I came at it sideways.

I grew up in a small town in Middle Tennessee and played football until I got hurt and landed in the office of Dr. David Schmidt, a hand surgeon. He was my first close look at what doctors actually do, and it stuck with me.

College didn’t settle the question. I started in biology, switched to chemistry, and spent every spare hour outdoors.

After college I worked for years before I came back to medicine. I worked with Mountain Challenge, traveled through Central America, served as a house parent at the Milton Hershey School, and worked as a development officer at Maryville College. As a pharmaceutical rep for Eli Lilly, I spent my days in OB-GYN offices, which turned out to be my first real pull back toward medicine. None of it was a detour. Each job taught me how to be with people.

I studied for the MCAT, applied to medical school, and graduated from the Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia. Then came clinical rotations in Asheville, an OB-GYN residency at Indiana University, and a fellowship at the University of Louisville.

Now I practice in Green Bay. Those years of work and travel weren’t beside the point; they’re how I learned to see the whole person sitting across from me.