Fall '23 Newsletter

Dear Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence Community,

This is your CPCCE Program Manager, Claire Perry, taking over the Letter from the Director.  Erin gamely allowed me to "interview" her with a set of AI generated icebreaker questions in order to introduce her to the community beyond the scope of her extensive professional background.  We hope you enjoy, learn something new, and feel a growing sense of connectedness to our leadership team.

Where did you grow up? How long have you been in Seattle?
 
I grew up in Clinton, IA, which is a town in Eastern Iowa on the Mississippi River.  Clinton has a population of about 25,000 people and I went to a very small Catholic high school there with a graduating class of seven students.  My parents both grew up in Clinton and returned there after college and graduate school.  My mother is a retired teacher and my father is a retired attorney.  I have two younger sisters, Colleen and Megan.  After leaving Iowa for my undergraduate education at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, I returned to attend medical school and residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.  My parents and many other family members still live in Iowa, and I love visiting when I can.  I moved to Seattle in 2005 having matched here for my fellowship training pulmonary and critical care medicine.  At the time I thought it would be a 3-5 year adventure to the PNW but over time Seattle has become my new home

Have you ever met a famous person?
 
I haven’t had many encounters with famous people.  I had the opportunity to meet Hillary Rodham Clinton when she visited Wellesley College, her alma mater, in 1996 for her “It Takes a Village” book tour.  My sister likes to remind me of a time when we didn’t meet Joel McHale.  I was new to Seattle, and we were out to lunch downtown.  She was convinced he was sitting at a table near us, and I was not convinced it was him.  I learned later that he grew up in the area and so she was probably right!

What is something that you love that people wouldn’t expect?
 
This won’t surprise most people who know me, but ... 

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