Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors Student Director Olivia Dhaliwal was recently featured in the American Academy of Family Physicians’ #FamilyDocFocus.
Olivia’s grandfather, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 90, practice family medicine in Pennsylvania for more than three decades. After he retired, he continued to serve his community by volunteering at a free clinic until he was well into his 80s. “He practiced until he couldn’t walk,” Olivia said. “He was incredible, but his legacy was so much more than the work he did with his patients. It’s also the work that he did in his community. When my grandfather died, the whole community showed up at his funeral.”
As Olivia prepares for residency, she shared what her leadership path in the Academy has meant to her. “Family medicine has supported and nourished me every step of the way,” Olivia said. “And I think the biggest takeaway from my leadership experiences has been more love for the world of family medicine and gratitude for the fact that our specialty insists on having a voice in all of these spaces. I appreciate that in these discussions, it always comes back to, ‘What do our communities need? What do our patients need?’”
Read more about Olivia and the impact her grandfather had on her path to family medicine.