Member Spotlight: Carissa Monroy, MD, MPH A Bit About Dr. Monroy I grew up a local Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City kid. I like to point out that my daughter will be going to the same high school that I went to and that my dad went to. I am the oldest of four and grew up as a typical firstborn — high achieving, motivated and not much of a risk taker. I attended Stanford University (I joke those were the best four years of my life ... it might still be true) and graduated in Human Biology. I did one semester in Spain with NYU and minored in Spanish, too. I have had many different interests and hobbies over my life. I like to try lots of different things and then get frustrated that I am not very good at them and either quit or just accept my mediocrity. I am currently trying to stay upright skiing and mountain biking. I just started to take up tennis, and we will see how that one goes. I also love to read and try to read 50 books a year — usually, I don’t quite make it, but I get close! The Journey to Becoming a Physician After graduating from college, I took a year off to work at a spa in Santa Barbara, work at a ski resort, and travel solo in Australia for a few months (ok, maybe that was the best year of my life). I went to the University of Utah Medical School where I met my husband, Franz Monroy, who is also a family medicine doctor! We married at the end of our third year, then couples matched into two different programs — Franz at the University of Utah and me at McKay Dee. We had our first child at the beginning of the second year of residency and now have three school-aged kids. Choosing Family Medicine I entered into medical school with an idealistic view of becoming a physician who could provide care to patients who are marginalized and underserved. I obtained my Masters of Public Health (MPH) concurrently with med school and developed a broader view of public health, which fit with family medicine. I also loved every single rotation along with volunteering at the Fourth Street Clinic on Saturdays. I remember asking the medical director of Fourth Street Clinic how I could have that job someday! I also met many amazing family physician mentors, including Cami Collette, Kurt Rifleman, Sarah Woolsey, and Carlos and Paula Guerra, to name only a few, who all helped me to see that family medicine at a community health center could be just what I was looking for! Choosing to Care for Underserved Populations Franz and I came very close to taking jobs in Ventura, California, near where he is from. But we ultimately decided on a better cost of living and full-time babysitters (my parents) in Utah, along with great job offers that fit with what we were both looking for. I took a job with Midtown Community Health Center, which I was familiar with from residency, and joined the small group in Clearfield with a couple of amazing women physicians. Midtown then opened up a new clinic in South Salt Lake, so after six years of commuting up north, I was able to finally work a couple miles from home. I worked part-time (three days a week) for a couple of those years, and I loved that schedule. I really loved Midtown and felt like I was able to use a lot of my family medicine skills in medical care and procedures, along with keeping up on my Spanish. As I hit the 10-year mark in my career, I was starting to want to try something different, and I particularly wanted to be involved in leadership if the opportunity arose. I wasn’t actively looking but would hint at my interests occasionally to different people and it led to an invitation to interview for the Medical Director position at Sacred Circle. I realized that Sacred Circle was just what I was looking for, an organization with a clear mission to serve all groups who are marginalized and underserved, particularly the Native American population and the Goshute tribe. I started out working half-time in inpatient care and half-time in administrative | 18
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