MEET LOCAL LEGENDS: By Medical Specialty

"I enjoy helping and making a difference in people's lives, if I can."

"I enjoy family medicine. You are at the intersection of science, medicine, and families and there is a real excitement in caring for a person. I wanted to be a doctor since I was in the second grade. I owe a lot to my parents for listening to me and caring about what I said way back then, and then encouraging me."

"I still feel sadness from seeing so much unnecessary suffering… This country still needs to make a much more fundamental commitment to care for all its people."

"A major motivator was my concern that too often patients were not included as a central core of their own health care team, so I decided I would be willing to pursue seven additional years of medical education and residency to become a part of the solution...as a doctor."

"I remember going to a health fair at a school that was predominantly Hispanic, and one kid told me, 'I look at you and see that your skin is the same color as mine. If you made it I can make it too.' A lot of times we don't even realizing that we're sending a message and serving as both a symbol and a family physician"

"Christ, Kennedy and Albert Schweitzer got me going in this direction. When I found out what was really in this direction, my stubbornness kept me here."

"I wanted to do something of service to others which, at the same time, would be constantly challenging and useful wherever I happened to be. I ultimately chose medicine because I thought I might spend more time in developing nations, but that wasn't the way it went."