Legacy of Excellence Digital Flipbook

LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE: M. JENNIFER DEREBERY, MD PRESIDENT FROM 2003-2004

D eciding she would go into science in second grade, M. Jennifer Derebery, MD, shared, “My teacher pointed to an empty drawer and asked me what was in it. I said, ‘nothing.’ She told me it was full. I stared at her blankly. She told me, ‘it’s full of air.’ Something clicked: from that point and continuing to the present, science to me was always a form of alchemy, magic.” A physician and surgeon, a wife, a mother, a leader in her profession, she has reached the pinnacles of success. Dr. Derebery describes her career as “often circuitous, but much more interesting than taking a defined path, at least from my perspective.” It consisted of hard decisions, willpower, advice, the support of many, and love for the work she does. Her early childhood was in Sweetwater, Texas, and on the family cattle ranch in Colorado. Living in wide open spaces instilled a lifelong love of the outdoors and horses. “There was not much else to do there except think that a drawer full of air was somehow magical.” She received a National Science Foundation scholarship to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, majoring in physics. “Point charges in space began to lose their allure,” leading her to a decision to go into medicine. However, she had no clear idea of where or to what area that choice would lead. In the late 1970s while in medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Dr. Derebery realized that her temperament was more suited to surgery than a purely medical specialty. She hoped she could do both. Knowing nothing about otolaryngology per se, she was introduced to the specialty during her medical school program by a resident there. Dr. Derebery felt she’d found her fit. “Otolaryngology to me was ideal in that one could have both a surgical

as well as medical experience. Its almost unique subspecialty ability appealed to me.” She was accepted to Oregon Health Sciences University residency program in Portland. As a resident, she loved doing facial plastic surgery, but her program had a primary focus on head and neck. Dr. Derebery faced another directional choice, knowing by then that she preferred plastic surgery and rhinoplasty surgery to a concentration in head and neck surgery. She felt that a focus on sinus and rhinology would enable both a private practice career as well as some facial plastics. “We had no exposure at all to allergy in my residency, and I realized if I

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