Fixing the World Around Us
Dr. Risa Siegel (’11) Puts Her Beliefs into Action
This clinic is in Minneapolis. There's a large Somali community here. And there is a large urban underserved community. And part of having this clinic in this neighborhood is to serve the underserved and to serve people who wouldn't have the best access to care. I do feel like I'm serving the community that Touro has wanted me to serve.
The reason I wanted to go into family medicine is because I want to help prevent disease. And that's where my passion is. As a physician, when I see a patient, my role is not to dictate what you must do. My role is to educate patients and let them make informed decisions. But it's really an informed decision-making process that is together.
TouroCOM gave me the foundation in order to be a compassionate doctor who likes to educate patients and listen. With that foundation, I am able to teach my patients what they will be able to use to make informed decisions on their part. And I try to be as compassionate and caring as possible as well. The most rewarding part of my job is seeing someone smile in response to changes that they've made, to barriers that they have overcome.
Dr. Risa Siegel has a simple answer as to why she became a doctor: Tikkun Olam.
“Part of being Jewish is the idea of Tikkun Olam,” said Siegel, a member of TouroCOM’s first graduating class. “It means fixing the world. That value has always been instilled in me: we have to help those in our community who are struggling, whether it’s a health struggle, a mental health struggle, or whether it’s just helping them through a tough day.”
Siegel graduated Columbia and then attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Afterwards, she worked for three years in biomedical research, but said she felt a calling to become a medical practitioner. After living in Harlem for six years, Siegel concluded that her end-goal of serving the underserved coincided with a new osteopathic medical school in the neighborhood.
“All of our faculty members wanted us to succeed and we did,” she said. “I’m still in touch with members of the faculty.”
After doing her family medicine residency in Milwaukee, she moved to Minneapolis, MN, an area with a large urban and immigrant population. Each day, she puts her beliefs into practice.
“Part of having the clinic in this area is to serve the underserved and to serve the people who don’t have the best access to care,” Siegel explained. “I feel like I’m serving the community that Touro wanted me to serve.”
“I want to help prevent disease. That’s my passion,” she continued. “When I see a patient, my role is not to dictate what they must do; it’s to educate them and help them make informed decisions. TouroCOM gave me the foundation to be a compassionate doctor.”
