High performance athletes are attracted to careers in the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine, according to a recent survey. Our neurosurgery team of 167 includes multiple former collegiate athletes. Coincidence? We don’t think so.
Drive, discipline, and teamwork are all required of members of our department, according to Chair Greg Zipfel, MD. These are many of the same qualities required of competitive athletes.
Our faculty and staff who were collegiate athletes agree. In an unscientific survey conducted in May, they shared with us what they learned as a collegiate athlete that they apply to their work today.
Athletes in our department
Ashley Dunbar, MD
PGY3 Resident
What sport did you play in college/university? And at which college/university and location?
Ice hockey at Yale University in New Haven, CT
What did you learn as a collegiate athlete that you apply to your training/work/life today?
Playing ice hockey provided me with invaluable skills that have prepared me to be successful in my neurosurgery training. Hockey is a team sport, just like medicine, so I have experience interacting with different personalities in order to achieve a common goal. In order to play at the Division I level, I also had to be dedicated. Many hours spent training on and off the ice taught me to be disciplined. Through dealing with injury and loss, I became familiar with adversity and grit.
Anything else we should know?
I was part of the USA Hockey Olympic development program 2010-2014.
Eric Filiput, BSN
Operations manager of the Gamma Knife Center at the Siteman Cancer Center
What sport did you play in college/university?
Rugby
What college/university did you attend where you were a collegiate athlete?
Northeast Missouri State now called Truman University, Kirksville, MO
What did you learn as a collegiate athlete that you apply to your work and/or life today?
There is a lot to learn. In life there will be pain. Oh yes.
Jennifer Strahle, MD
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery and Pediatrics
What sport did you play in college/university?
Lacrosse, Track and Field
What college/university did you attend where you were a collegiate athlete?
Bates College, Lewiston, ME
What did you learn as a collegiate athlete that you apply to your work and/or life today?
Balancing multiple responsibilities, time management, team work, hard work through practice to master skills.
Joe Walsh, PA
Physician Assistant
What sport did you play in college/university?
Volleyball
What college/university did you attend where you were a collegiate athlete?
Quincy University in Quincy, IL & Truman State, Kirksville, MO
What did you learn as a collegiate athlete that you apply to your work and/or life today?
I learned how to work as a team, how to effectively communicate and lead, and the importance of efficient time management.
Pat McAllister, PhD
Professor of Neurosurgery
What sport did you play in college/university?
Football
What college/university did you attend where you were a collegiate athlete?
I was captain of the Earlham College football team, and yes, we did wear helmets back then!