A good mentor can help you find your path and passions

AAFP Director Elisabeth Fowlie Mock, MD, MPH, FAAFP, left, stands with her mentor Lisa Letourneau, MD, MPH, FACP.

Sept. 25, 2025

For Women in Medicine Month, women on the Academy’s Board of Directors are sharing about the women mentors who influenced their careers.

In part one of this three-part series, we heard from AAFP President Jen Brull, MD, FAAFP, and President-elect Sarah Nosal, MD, FAAFP. In the second installment, four Board members reflected on the mentors who inspired them to lead. In this final post, three leaders describe the women who influenced their training.

A couple of years after residency, I returned home to Maine and shortly afterward enrolled in a multidisciplinary, one-year health care leadership course. One of the requirements was to identify and meet with a mentor. I approached Lisa Letourneau, MD, MPH, FACP, who was leading a statewide quality improvement program that she had built from the ground up.

One thing she said has never left me: “There is plenty of room in the leadership sandbox for you, so get in.”

In my early days of being a mentee, it took me a little time to realize that I did not need to have leadership and organization styles identical to hers. I learned I could take everything that worked for me and emulate it, and my leadership style could be my own.

A few years later, Lisa offered me an opportunity to work as a consultant on a project. I had no interest in the project initially, but I said yes because I wanted to be sure she would offer me future projects. That first project changed the trajectory of my career and led me to a passion for addiction medicine and public health interventions to support the overdose crisis.

Years later, we both work as clinical consultants for the state department of health, so I have the privilege to watch my mentor up close and in action to this day.

—AAFP Director Elisabeth Fowlie Mock, MD, MPH, FAAFP

I wasn’t planning a career in family medicine when I entered the University of Missouri School of Medicine. But at every activity or opportunity that drew my interest, family physicians were leading the way.

Natalie Long, MD, is a perfect example.

I first met Natalie as a first-year student at the MedZou Community Health Clinic, which provides free primary care, prevention and education to those who are uninsured in the Mid-Missouri area. Natalie was one of the physician advisers leading the clinic, and she was always there to answer questions and show what it meant to treat the whole patient.

She taught some of my preclinical classes, and later I would see her precepting in multiple settings during my third and fourth years, including inside the hospital, at outpatient clinics and at the school’s federally qualified health center.

I also saw Natalie, who is president of the Missouri AFP, at the state capitol on our advocacy days, fighting for patients outside of the clinic room.

Natalie was patient, kind, and always found space in her life to help the underserved, teach medical students and be an advocate for all. Everywhere I turned, I found family medicine, and I found Natalie, modeling the kind of physician I hope to become.

—Mikala Cessac, MD, student member of the Board of Directors

As a medical student at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, I was fortunate to be surrounded by amazing women. Kim Chosie, EdD, LPC, counseled me through bouts of anxiety, wrote letters of recommendation and never failed to make me smile by the time I left her office. Linda Goodson, RN, welcomed me into her office with open arms every time I had a wild idea for our mentorship program. And Ronda Carter, MD, showed me the blueprint for becoming a family physician.

Ronda, my primary care clerkship director, is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. She is patient, compassionate and understanding, qualities I soon realized make for a stellar family physician.

When I was a first-year student, we learned skills like how to use a reflex hammer, how to percuss an abdomen and how to listen for murmurs with a stethoscope. When I couldn’t hear my classmates’ heartbeats, I was distraught and convinced that I had an undiagnosed hearing issue. But Ronda said not to worry and that she would help me schedule a hearing test. Halfway through the lab, I accidentally flipped the bell of my stethoscope around … to the working side. I went straight to her, mortified that instead of being afflicted with a new medical concern, I just didn’t know how to use a stethoscope.

Ronda did not laugh or tease me. She said how happy she was that we were able to figure it out.

During my second year, we had objective structured clinical examinations. Professionalism was emphasized, but one day I was late. I was incredibly upset that she would see me as unprofessional, so I went to her office later to apologize. She was more concerned by my response to being late than she was about my tardiness. She provided reassurance, rather than admonishment, and taught me that professionalism was more than just a single moment.

During my third year, she wrote a letter of recommendation for residency programs.

Ronda showed up for me, not just in these big moments but little ones, too, by exemplifying qualities I would need to care for my own patients. Now, as an attending physician, I try to practice what she taught throughout my training. A good family physician understands medicine, but they also understand people.

—Aerial Petty, DO, resident physician member of the Board of Directors