fisher article

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in part to help pay o her student loans.

Serving as the chie medical ofcer and

medical director or the Plain View

Health Center in Greenevers, North

Carolina, with the National Health

Services Corps, she was the only physician

doing obstetrics in a county o 50,000

residents. It was during this service

obligation that she witnessed frsthand

the desperate state o healthcare in rural

areasand the isolation that can make

such areas seem like less than attractiveplaces or physicians to locate.

That experience helped me to see

that there are many people who are not

receiving medical services who could be

i the money was spent dierently, she

says. She was moved to earn a Master

in Public Health degree rom the Johns

Hopkins University School o Hygiene

and Public Health (now their Bloomberg

School o Public Health), and entered

health services administration. She

recently was able to apply some o those

public health lessons oering medical

assistance in Mississippi ater hurricanes

Katrina and Rita.

But it wasnt Fishers medical career

that frst taught her to reach out to

her larger community. Growing up in

Durham, North Carolina, as the daughter

o a Baptist minister, she learned early on

the importance o amily, community and

service to others.

She also knew that she would have to

learn to see beyond her amiliar world

and extend her vision. And so, ater

earning a bachelor o arts degree rom

the University o North Carolina in

Greensboro, Fisher moved to Wisconsin

or medical school (thanks, in part, to

Cornelius Hopper, MD, an Arican

American neurologist at UW, who helped

recruit her to Madison).

It was as ar away rom home as Icould get. I knew I needed to broaden

my experience base, she says. UW was

looking or black students, and I wanted

to be a doctor. It was a decent trade-o.

The transition wasnt always easy. In

addition to the shock o encountering

a new culture, Fishers ather and

grandather died during her frst semester

away. Whats more, her frst-year studies

proved to be a challengeespecially or

one who struggled to see what she now

calls the big picture in medicine. Shewrestled with gross anatomy, oering

that she was petrifed o dead olks, even

though my brother runs a uneral home.

I was struggling every day to keep

up, so Id return at night, Fisher recalls.

And I tell you, there is nothing more

rightening than those anatomy labs at

two in the morning, with those rows o

cadavers in tanks. Every little sound was

unnerving!

Furthermore, Fisher says, she ound

it highly ironic that racism could existin Madison, known to be a bastion o

liberalism, while small communities

beyond the capital, where she spent

FishertobeFeaturedatJulyReunion

AdaFisher,MD75,MPH,willbe

thespecialguestspeakeratareunionoftheAfricanAmericanalumniofthe

SchoolofMedicineandPublicHealth

thissummer.

OrganizedbyRev.RonaldV.

Myers,MD85,thereunionwillbe

heldinconjunctionwiththeUW

DepartmentofAfro-AmericanStudies.

Severaleventsarescheduledfor

ThursdaythroughSunday,July20-23,

2006.

FisherwillspeakonFridayinthe

HealthSciencesLearningCenter,the

schoolsnewhome.Toursofthenewbuildingwillbeheld,andcurrent

AfricanAmericanmedicalstudents

willbeonhandtogreetreturning

alumni.

Aconcertfeaturingthe

ExperimentalImprovisationalBlack

MusicEnsemble(EIBME)isplanned

forSaturdayevening,July22,

beginningat7p.m.intheUnion

TheatreatMemorialUnion.The

concertwillhonorJimmyCheatham,

formerUWprofessorofmusic,and

JeannieCheatham.Thereunionwillkickoffafund-

raisingcampaignfortheWisconsin

African-AmericanAlumniCenterin

Madison.The$10millionproject

wouldhouseaperformingartscenter,

livingspaceforhistoricallyblack

fraternitiesandahistorycenter.

22

As a second year medical student, Fisher tooknotes in the medical microbiology laboratory.


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AdaM.Fisher,MD75,MP

23Spring 2006


4/424 QUARTERLY

a good deal o time, could be more

receptive to minorities.

But in the midst o these challenges,

there were individuals who recognized

her abilities and tenacityand reached

out to her.

Among them, Fisher names June

Osborne, MD, now a national medical

leader, who then taught virology and had

sat on Fishers admissions committee.

When Fishers grades altered, Osborne

took her aside, and together they worked

to fnd solutions.

Not only did Fishers grades steadily

improve, but she also began the clinical

portion o her education, where she

could really excel. Im a people

person, she explains, so it was thenthat I got some idea o how it all hangs

together.

Working with patients gave Fisher

the opportunity to do what she did

bestcare or people in distress.

Coming rom lie as a preachers kid, I

could deal with lie and deathId sign

up or the cancer services when others

didnt, or example.

Similarly encouraging or Fisher were

her summer externships. She spent the

summer ollowing her reshman year inthe small town o Baldwin, Wisconsin.

The ollowing year, the schools Family

Medicine Club asked her to share

her experiences with ellow members

who were about to embark on similar

externships. The address was adapted or

use in The New Physicianjournal, with

Fishers portrait appearing on the cover.

The summer externships were

arranged by pediatrician Mark Hansen,

MD, and with the monetary support

o community beneactors Mr. andMrs. Wayne Brown, who were aware o

Fishers fnancial constraints. Thanks to

them, she happily worked every summer

ollowing a handul o patients through

their pregnancies.

They were delightul people, she

says o Hansen and Brown. In act,

it was partially Fishers wish to visit

with Hansen that brought her back to

Madison last July to attend the 30th

reunion o her Class o 1975.

Fisher also drew inspiration and

got encouragement rom UW cancer

researchers who were prominent

nationally during the 1970s. These

included Charles Heidelberger, MD,

who invented the cancer drug 5-FU, and

Nobel Laureate Howard Temin, MD,

who discovered RNA-DNA polymerase.

Looking back, it is clear that both

the challenges in Fishers medical

education and her early clinical

experiences encouraged her to serveas an advocate or otherswhether

patients, ellow black students, veterans

or the multitudes o corporate employees

and common citizens she has reached

as a health administrator. She regularly

receives letters rom ormer patients

who have benefted rom her care, and

she dotes on pictures o the babies she

delivered who are now grown.

Fisher says that though she had

challenges in medical school, on balance

the experiences were lie changing andenriching. Wisconsin was pivotal in my

intellectual growth and I will always be

grateul and appreciative to the people o

Wisconsin or giving me, an out-o-state

student, a chance to ulfll a dream.

Fisher has been grateul since the

beginning.

The frst money I made ater

graduating rom medical school I

spent on a lietime membership in the

Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association,

she says. I always wanted to be a doctor,and Wisconsin gave me that chance.

Fishers account of her summer externshipspent in Baldwin, Wisconsin, appeared as thecover story in the journalThe New Physician.

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