MEET LOCAL LEGENDS: By State

"The most rewarding part of my work is seeing patients diagnosed with really serious problems overcome their illnesses after surgery. Years later they are going to college, working and living normal lives."

"I was the middle child of five and then lost a brother and a sister. I felt helpless but came to see that medicine could give me the information and power to battle illness."

"I started working at the local hospital when I was fourteen or fifteen and, at sixteen, I decided I wanted to be a doctor — I wanted that relationship with patients."

"I love the opportunity to build new programs and recruit faculty here in the medical center. I enjoy the energy and challenges of the job. It's a way to make a difference."

"When I was a child, I had open-heart surgery followed by complications. I was in the hospital for nearly four months, and the thing I remember most is all those people trying to help me. I decided then I'd try to pay them back by helping others like me"

"A woman far ahead of her time, she represents the ideal of what women physicians can do and accomplish."

"I was nine years old-as surveys show, the 'normal' age for deciding when to be a doctor-when it hit me. Don't ask me why, but it did. With my grandmother's help, I saved my pennies until I could buy Dorland's Medical Dictionary and Gray's Anatomy from a chiropractor's widow. Then I trudged a mile-and-a-half home with them!"