COM Outlook Winter 2020

22 | DR. KIRAN C. PATEL COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE Career Path As a child growing up in the genteel city of Charles- ton, South Carolina, T. Lucas Hollar, Ph.D., pursued a laundry list of interests that included playing sports, immersing himself in the latest local and underground music, exploring the woods, and wading through the nearby marsh. Hollar, a KPCOM associate professor of public health who is the youngest of three siblings, enjoyed a happy childhood thanks to his parents, especially his mother, Deborah, who “was my advocate and my catalyst to do pretty much everything, particularly sports and art,” he recalled. “It was also my mom’s doing to put us kids into cotillion classes—a southern rite-of-passage where one learns party etiquette, ball- room dancing, and, since it was Charleston, the shag.” Although socialization and fun were primary themes throughout his childhood, so were other important aspects, such as academic accomplishment. “Dedication to, and success within, school was always expected and reinforced in us,” said Hollar, who developed an affinity for soccer. “I was captain of my club teams, captain of the men’s varsity team all four years of high school, and captain of my college soccer team as a junior and senior. I even played on South Carolina state teams as part of the U.S. Soccer Olympic Development Program.” Punk Rock Valedictorian Hollar did well academically during his formative years, but he’s the first to admit that schoolwork didn’t always take precedence over more fulfilling pursuits. “I actually hated school throughout elementary and middle school,” said Hollar, who channeled his eclectic interests into an array of activities beyond soccer, such as painting and music. “I got into the punk rock scene when I was 14. I played guitar and sang in three bands that released albums in high school, college, and gradu- ate school. I also played trumpet in a punk ska band during high school,” Hollar recalled of his artistic pastimes. “My friends were a motley crew of brilliant, simple, engaged, detached, passionate, ambivalent, conserva- tive, liberal, religious, irreligious, anti-religious, mainstream, and iconoclastic kids,” he added. “We had all the makings of what could have been a pretty fantastic coming-of-age movie, including the tragedies of suicide, vehicular deaths, and divorce, including my own parents when I was in high school.” Although some teenagers are laser-focused on the career they want to pursue, Hollar wasn’t one of them. “I considered broadcasting and filmmaking when I was in high school, but my pragmatic side suggested there might be more prosperous alternatives that offered a greater likelihood of sufficient earnings,” he explained. “A career in politics or psychology also danced around in my mind.” When it came time to pursue his college education, Hollar stayed in South Carolina to attend Erskine College, where he double-majored in psychology and Spanish and graduated as class valedictorian. While at Erskine, Hollar mulled the possibility of a career in industrial/organizational psychology, but his vocation- al path remained unclear. “I still didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up,” he admitted. Teacher, Coach, and Ph.D. Student After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000, Hollar decided to give teaching a shot, spending two years as a Spanish teacher and the department head of foreign languages at Woodmont High School in Greenville, South Carolina. “I also coached men’s and women’s varsity cross country and men’s varsity soccer. It was a rough and tough school desperately in BY SCOTT COLTON, B.A., APR A PASSION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH Clarity (continued on page 24)