The plan was always to be a rural primary care physician. The dream didn’t exactly come from watching “Doc Hollywood,” but I remember thinking that’s exactly the kind of doc I want to be: I want to deliver babies in cars!
I was always interested in biology. As a high school student, I thought about a career in medicine. But the idea of med school, then a residency, all that time … I figured maybe other interests would be more fun. The Jacques Cousteau lifestyle sounded really wonderful, so I went to study marine biology. When I started working for a microbiologist, my interest in medicine picked back up.
Life in New Jersey isn’t exactly like a Bruce Springsteen song, but it has its moments. I was born in New York City, and we moved to “rural” northern New Jersey when I was 2. It was a bedroom community for New York. It was easy to pop up route 80 or take a train into the city. But we spent as much time every summer at the Jersey shore.
I always loved small towns. Every summer we would go to the next town over, which was a rural farming community that had a country fair. I always wanted to enter something I had grown. My mom called me her little farmer.
Glasgow is such a great community. People take care of each other. They leave their doors unlocked. I do the job I want. I’m taking care of people from the cradle to the grave. I deliver someone’s great-grandchild, then take care of them when they get pneumonia. It’s extremely rewarding.
I always liked to teach, ever since my residency. The first student I had here was from the University of Hawaii. She’s now an OBGYN in Billings. A few years ago the WWAMI program asked if I would be interested in working with students in the TRUST (Targeted Rural and Underserved Track) program. I tell everyone who comes here that they’ll be quite busy!
Don’t ever think rural physicians are out here because we’re stuck here. We’re out here because we want to be here. We get to do a little bit of everything in terms of medicine. You have to know a lot to be here.
I have no interest in living in a city ever again. Too many people, too much traffic. I like to fish and garden and go camping. I’m just not into nightclubbing.
As told to Jake Siegel
