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Dr. JoAnn Galakatos is an anesthesiologist with Mercy Hospital. An obviously brilliant individual, JoAnn started out as an engineer, before transitioning to medicine. She and her husband are both doctors and have 6 children. JoAnn’s life has been a delicate balance of juggling her career and parenting duties, and she did a remarkable job prioritizing her family while sustaining her career value.
She talks to Cynthia about how she became a doctor and the struggles she and her husband faced as they were both doing their residency. She goes into detail about the early challenges she faced as a female doctor, especially when her children were young, and the nuances of managing a household where both parents are doctors. JoAnn offers great advice to anyone who wants to pursue to pursue their purpose without sacrificing their self-worth.
1 – Introduction 00:25
2 – Current Role 01:42
3 – More details 02:13
4 – Why become an anesthesiologist? 02:57
5 – Transition from Engineering to Medicine 03:50
6 – What about engineering wasn’t clicking? 08:18
7 – What is the time commitment of medical school 09:13
8 – Do you feel differently about suggesting a medical career? 11:22
9 – Challenges you faced along the way 12:57
10 – Would you do anything differently, looking back? 16:55
11 – Accommodations came after working hard and proving worth 18:45
12 – The offenses are not mean spirited but they occur 22:01
13 – Why more female physicians 23:10
14 – Speaking up 24:21
15 – How do you juggle house duties with two doctors 26:38
16 – What role do we play in our own frustration with family responsibilities 29:01
17 – Men seeing family behaviors modeled for them 31:44
18 – Are your kids impacted by changes in the world? 33:53
19 – Do a great job and earn special accommodations 35:30
20 – Story being really sick, but coming in 35:58
21 – What advice would you give your younger self or daughters 37:31
22 – Would mentoring help these young female doctors 40:08
23 – Younger people advocate and find introductions to potential mentors 41:43
24 – What is it like to take oral boards? 43:56
25 – Would you change anything about your path? 46:08
26 – How did you get through training with 2 toddlers? 58:19
27 – Achievement and finding the right role 59:25
28 – Career woman with mom guilt 1:02:03
29 – Tweaks to deal with mom guilt 1:06:22
30 – Importance of one parent with flexible schedule 1:07:29
31 – It’s training the schools that times have changed 1:10:02
32 – Kids want mom more than dads 1:13:50
33 – Figuring our what arrangement works for you 1:14:49
34 – What has been modeled for us more recently 1:15:46
35 – Some of the best things you ever did. 1:17:30
36 – How do you view roadblocks? 1:19:25
Content Notice
This podcast and all She Lift Project content represents the opinions of Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her guests. The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice – financial, legal, medical, or otherwise.
Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and across all She Lift Project media channels are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
“You have to be cautious and mindful of the board of directors you invite into your head. And we as women especially listen terribly to that board of directors. And if you have one bad seat on there, one bad teacher, one bad classmate, one whatever from your history that you are listening to, it can really sabotage you.”
“You just have to do it, come back and face what is new and different and learn and grow. You can’t stop thinking. You have to keep thinking, how can I go forward with this. Nothing has to be the way it is. It isn’t going to be a straight line, it’s going to take its own path, and you have to be ready to follow that path and move forward.”
“Everybody has a light inside of them, and you have a choice. You can either use lighter fluid or an extinguisher. Same thing goes with everything. Same with people’s talents. You can either light it up or you can extinguish it.”
“If you follow this methodology, if you follow the pattern, the outcome is inevitable. You cannot mess it up because it’s just calculated moves that are in writing.”
One of the things I love to do if the opportunity presents itself as coach people, because I feel like that is the most, wow, fun, enriching thing that you can do for people. Because what happens is I believe that people behave for reasons, and you got to figure out what’s the root cause. So if someone reacts in a certain way, whether it’s anger, emotion, or whatever, there’s a reason why they’re reacting that way. And so I don’t think that people really want to react that way. They want to be their best self.
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