The daughter of a general surgeon in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Styblo was no stranger to the world of surgery during childhood. While her father was logging long hours at the hospital, she matched his commitment as an aspiring dancer, practicing classical ballet throughout her youth and young adulthood. However, she turned down a scholarship at Joffrey Ballet School in New York City to instead attend Stanford University, where she earned a combined bachelors/masters degree in biochemistry with a research focus on tumor markers. She also spent time studying marine biology, spending a summer at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, before attending her father’s medical school alma mater, St. Louis University School of Medicine.
She continued at St. Louis University as a general surgery resident before completing a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Surgical Oncology in Virginia. Years later, she became a leading surgical oncologist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and joined faculty at Emory University. The family legacy of surgeons was still to continue, though: in 2016, Dr. Styblo’s daughter joined the general surgery residency at Emory University. Listen in to hear Dr. Styblo’s advice to her aspiring surgeon daughter, as well as her reflections on the similarities between surgery and ballet, excerpted below:
“I think about the parallels between ballet and surgery a lot. They both require a lot of physical stamina and a lot of discipline. Also, with corps de ballet and pas de deux, you have a partner. Some partners you click with, they anticipate your moves, and you know they’re going to be there when you jump, versus not, which doesn’t work out well.”
“In many ways, with the type of surgery I do with immediate breast reconstruction, first with Dr. Bostwick and then with Dr. Losken, it’s the same idea. You work with someone enough that you think alike, you approach problems the same way, and you know that when you’re ready for them, they’re going to be walking in the room because they can anticipate what you’re going to be doing. You’re also on your feet a lot and you have to learn to work with other members of the team… and technically, you’re in a theater for both.”
