Dr. Jodi Casados

Jodi Casados grew up in a tiny town in northern New Mexico, Tierra Amarilla, camping, riding horses, living a simple life. Her grandfather was a sheepherder, her father a teacher. Her mother was the administrator of the local community health clinic. Casados saw firsthand how difficult it was to get and keep a physician in an area where 12 small communities in a 60-mile radius account for barely 3,000 people.

When Casados left for college, she never expected to move back. But when she found herself in medical school facing the decision of which specialty to pursue, family medicine rose to the top. Her personality reflects the circle of caring and compassion of which family doctors are the center.

Casados gained rural practice experience during her family medicine residency at the UNM School of Medicine and then completed the circle of education and service that is a foundation of the School. She returned to her small community to take over as the sole physician in Tierra Amarilla.

“I knew going in what a huge commitment it is to be the only physician in the area,” Casados says. “But I didn’t really appreciate how rewarding it would be to care for the people who have mattered in my life, from my family to my teachers to the people I grew up with. UNM didn’t just change my world; the School also changed the world for the people in my community by getting me excited about rural practice, enabling a homegrown provider to return to offer dependable local care.”

With the nearest hospital 75 miles away, a day of practice for Casados can encompass everything from emergency care to cardiology to psychology to little kids with sore throats. This is both the challenge and the reward—the circle—of rural practice, and she is back home in the middle of it all.

How many worlds, small and large, will the School of Medicine alumni transform, and will yours be one of them? With your vital support, the answers are “many” and “yes.”