Page 26 - COM Outlook - Spring 2013

26 COM Outlook . Spring 2013
By Scott Colton, B.A., APR
NSU-COM/HPD Director of Medical Communications and Public Relations
to my alma mater and start an academic career. When I became a
faculty member in 1996, it was the happiest day of my life and marked
the beginning of my dream-come-true career at NSU-COM.”
Jill Wallace-Ross, D.O, a 2007 alumna who joined the college
as an assistant professor of family medicine in 2010, had a similar
response when asked about her deep and abiding NSU-COM bond.
“I have felt very connected to NSU-COM since becoming a student,”
she said. “I wanted to work with other physicians who I knew and
trusted so I could continue to learn in an environment that was safe
and welcoming. With my emotional attachments to the NSU-COM
faculty and staff members, the only place I wanted to work was here.”
For Paula Anderson-Worts, D.O., M.P.H., associate professor of
family medicine and public health and program director of the NSU-
COM/Broward Health Family Practice Residency, giving back to the
college that had given her so much, including a full-tuition scholar-
ship, proved to be a compelling reason to return. “As a resident, I
loved teaching the medical school students and interns,” said Dr.
Anderson-Worts, who graduated in 1994 and became a faculty mem-
ber in 1997 after completing her family medicine residency.
“I received positive feedback on being able to explain and simplify
information,” she added. “On a few occasions during my senior year,
Currently, 20 full-time faculty members are
NSU-COM graduates. In the following article,
a number of alumni discuss why they chose to
return to their beloved alma mater.
edical school is generally construed—especially by those
students studying within its cozy confines—as a challenging,
exhausting, and all-consuming experience. So why then do so many
NSU-COM alumni enthusiastically return to the college in the ensuing
years to accept faculty positions in the same institution that relent-
lessly challenged their bodies, brains, and spirits?
While some may joke it’s because they possess a predilection
for the masochistic, the truth is they simply had a desire to go home
again based on a combination of respect for NSU-COM’s educational
program and true affection for the college’s collegiality and culture.
That was certainly the case for Kenneth Johnson, D.O., FACOOG,
a 1991 alumnus who serves as associate professor and chair of the
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “As an NSU-COM student,
I was elected class president and basically fell in love with the school,
the profession, and especially the faculty,” he explained. “I decided
before I left to do my OB/GYN residency that I wanted to come back
From Alumni to Faculty Members:
The Allure of NSU-COM
M