Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Education and Clinical Professor of Medicine, UAA/WWAMI 
Endocrinologist, University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) 
Retired, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Former ACP Regent

Molly (right) and the late Pam Pierce with maktak 
on sleds; Barrow, AK; (−13.8°C).

Employer: UAA (part-time); volunteer teaching for a community nonprofit, Anchorage, AK
Medical School: Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 
IM Residency: UWSOM, Seattle, WA
Fellowship: Geographic medicine and infectious disease (partial), CWRU, Cleveland, OH Fellowship: Endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition, UWSOM/Seattle VA, Seattle, WA
MPH: University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle, WA

Dear Early Career Physician,

Welcome to a career in internal medicine! I hope that you will find your work interesting and fulfilling and that it will allow you space for your personal life. Based on my experience, I have several tips to offer, listed below; but first I’ll describe the experiences that led to these.

Following my internal medicine residency, I was interested in what we now call global health, but this concept was not yet in vogue nor were global health fellowships yet available. After pursuing a volunteer opportunity involving travel to Asia and some time for personal reflection, I started a fellowship in geographic medicine and infectious disease working with an enthusiastic and renowned researcher who welcomed me into his lab. The lab bench work was fascinating but the return to the Midwest and overall situation were not a good fit for me. It was a gut-wrenching decision to change paths, but that I did and found work in the development of a male contraceptive and clinical endocrinology in the Pacific Northwest to be a better fit. So, my related advice would be that if you find yourself on a path that doesn’t fit, make a change and find a path that fits better!

My next step was also a difficult choice: I had to decide whether to seek grant funding, go into clinical practice, or find work overseas. I recalled a med school rotation I had done in Kotzebue, Alaska, with the Indian Health Service (IHS) and gave the IHS a call. Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to Barrow (now Utqiagvik) and became the first internal medicine physician on staff at Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital! I ended up spending most of my career in the Alaska Tribal Health System, doing what I call “local global health work.”

Back when my first child was born, I was sometimes working a required 98-hour week; there were no part-time positions or positions with a consistent schedule, no childcare options that I found acceptable, and my husband often worked out of town. I faced another gut-wrenching decision: should I quit my job? That I did, but I found I could teach Alaska’s medical students in the University of Alaska Anchorage/Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (UAA/WWAMI) Program, where a colleague loaned me his office for a few half-days per week. And a friend with small children helped me with mine. I have ended up being involved with the UAA/WWAMI class to this day, I raised three children, and I returned to the Tribal System when the time was right.

So here are my take-home bits of advice:

  • Find the right fit for you.
  • Be brave: try new things.
  • Try to give back: consider volunteering.
  • Make time for your personal life.

I wish you a wonderful life and career, and I thank you for all you are doing. 

Sincerely,
Molly