Hi, I’m Mollie and I’m a third-year medical student from Portland, Oregon. I went to the University of Notre Dame where I majored in Spanish and Sociology and spent two years working as a social worker. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2016, I did a year of service at a Family Medicine residency program.

I chose to come to Vanderbilt for medical school because I loved the supportive and welcoming community/culture that students have built here, and I was excited for the first-year preclinical curriculum, which leaves time for personalization in the third and fourth years.

Highlights from my time here so far have included being a social worker at Shade Tree, having my first-year continuity clinic at Siloam Health providing primary care to uninsured immigrants and refugees, and of course College Cup (go Chapman!). This fall I took an advanced clinical elective in the Pediatric Primary Care Spanish Language where I got to spend a whole month conducting clinic visits entirely in Spanish, as well as help care for unaccompanied minors who recently arrived to Nashville (undocumented children who crossed the U.S. border without their parents and are here by themselves).

I’m currently one of the Co-Presidents for VUSM’s Social Mission Committee — a student-led committee dedicated to promoting health equity by creating opportunities and initiatives in the areas of education, service, mentorship, research, and recruitment. For my research immersion project this year I am studying health care barriers and experiences among patients at Vanderbilt’s new Clinic for Transgender Health.

After graduation, I will most likely do my residency in either Family Medicine or Med/Peds. I plan to become a Primary Care Provider (for both adults and kids) specifically for patients who are marginalized, uninsured, or otherwise underserved. In my free time I love to have game nights with my friends, play intramural co-ed flag football with my fellow VUSM M3s, pet my cats, and watch Netflix!