Dr. Beth Alexander

Dr. Beth Alexander 

I have always liked frogs…. I currently have five in a small pond outside my kitchen that I count each day. When my children were small, we watched Kermit on Sesame Street nearly every day. Much later, I got to meet Kermit and check out his heart, when he was the Grand Marshall at MSU Homecoming a few years ago. It is a great memory! I’ve met many people in my career at MSU: celebrities, governmental officials, including President Obama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and both good and not-so-good administrators. Much of my real work has been with patients, some sharing heartbreaking stories, with students who were struggling to figure out their lives and their futures, with students who have graduated and gone on to do amazing work in the service of a better world, many who remain honored privately in the hearts of those they help. There are patients who have trusted me with their care and their secrets. All these people have taught me a great deal, and I hope that our learning has been reciprocal, as we learn best when listening together. 

Almost all of my career in teaching and medicine has also had surprises, like listening to my favorite frog’s heart or delivering a baby llama out in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico (no vet nearby), delivering 2,200 human babies, and witnessing over 700 deaths, some expected, some not. These are the things I value as I near the end of my career. 

I view being present at major and sometimes minor events in people’s lives, and carefully listening to their hearts, their stories, their fears and joys as more important than all my degrees, awards, and academic positions. It is these stories that go into my scrapbook. I also have loved being a member of the RCAH community, because I watch the students, staff, and professors engage collaboratively in learning, in witnessing other important events, in having conversations about things that matter, and in learning the value of discovery and service in both the formal and informal curriculum, all in the context of a community. I feel hope while watching this RCAH educational adventure, knowing that the students will launch, and go on to make a difference in the world, in a world that desperately needs them.