At the age of six, Dr. Mara Schenker began training in the Korean martial art of taekwondo. She continued studying and competing in taekwondo through college, reaching impressive milestones such as becoming a black belt as well as a world champion in the sport, before being sidelined by orthopedic injuries, ultimately requiring three separate hip surgeries. She endorses a longstanding peripheral interest in the sciences and medicine, but it was this exposure to orthopedics that ultimately influenced her to pursue medical school herself — she describes the research behind orthopedic surgery as “the first thing that I ever found that I liked as much as taekwondo.”
After completing medical school at the University of Chicago, residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and fellowship at Harborview Medical Center at the University of Washington, Dr. Schenker now focuses on the trauma side of orthopedics. She is the current director of Orthopedic Trauma Research at Grady Memorial Hospital and oversees dozens of current research projects at the level 1 trauma center. Listen in to this WISER podcast episode to hear her insights about surgical proficiency, confidence in the workplace, and the rewards of being an orthopedic surgeon, excerpted below:
“I can’t imagine doing anything more satisfying than what I do. There’s such an incremental improvement from somebody who’s flopping around on the bed with a broken femur to coming in two weeks later walking with a cane. It’s about as gratifying in a short-term sense as any career could be.”
Links to publications in order of mention:
“The Paradox of Excellence” by Thomas J. DeLong and Sara DeLong, Harvard Business Review, June 2011.
The Confidence Code by Katty Kay & Claire Shipman.
“How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business Review, July-August 2011.
HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself
Association Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. (requires Emory login)
