Medical School: Louisiana State University
Masters Degree: Johns Hopkins
Undergraduate: Princeton Unversity
I grew up in a small town in Mississippi, where, contrary to popular belief, I learned to read and wear shoes. I went to Princeton for undergrad and worked in Africa for a year before getting a Master’s degree in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins. I then had the good fortune to run into the most wonderful man in the world and the even better fortune to marry him.
While I was in medical school at LSU in New Orleans, we had 3 and 8/9ths children. The last 1/9th arrived in July of my intern year. Clearly, I’m more of a ‘wing it and hope for the best’ type. It’s been working out great so far. J I love good Scotch, great books, and coming home to a swarm of bear hugs shouting “Mama!”
I chose emergency medicine because it is fun. I chose this residency because it creates the type of doctor that I want to be. This is a program that teaches you to do it yourself instead of just calling a specialist. This is a program where the faculty attitude is “Go for it! I’ll help if you need me.” This is a program where the residents have a blast together and support their own when someone needs help. I met the confident, competent upper level residents on my interview day and thought, “I would love to be like you in three years.”
When I was on the interview trail, a program director told me, “If your residents aren’t miserable, it’s probably not a very good residency.” If you believe that, this is not the program for you. If you don’t, come visit!