Learning is the best kind of group project.
My favorite playtime prop growing up was a little wooden desk my mom picked up at a garage sale. The desk wasn’t for me to sit in, of course. It was for my student—my little brother—who was compelled with Halloween candy bribes to sit down, crayons in hand, as I taught him how to color and write his ABCs in my classroom of one.
Back then, my parents could have told you what I now know very well—my passion lies in sharing what I know with other people. Today, as a pediatric emergency medicine fellow deep in the weeds of medical academia, I enjoy teaching medical students and residents, patients and their families, and high school students in the community.
I firmly believe learning is not just done by the student and instructing is not just the job of a teacher. Together, my students and I find our way to lessons we teach each other through curiosity and vulnerability. My learners—from my patients to my med students—all inspire me and make me believe in a bright future for medicine. My greatest successes are the “Aha” moments when everything finally clicks and my greatest joy is watching students shine.
Dr. Ebbens received her medical doctorate from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency training at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband Robert, their two children Eve and Esme, and their dog Cece. In addition to teaching and doctoring, she enjoys serving in the teenage ministry at her husband’s church, hiking tall mountains, and making music.