49. I Had To Keep Going! w/ Dr. Marsha M. Peart, Family Medicine Physician

Marsha M. Peart, MD, MPH Dr. Peart is a native of Bronx, NY. She is the second of three daughters of Jamaican immigrants who exemplified faith, love, and family, believed in education, and valued the importance of hard work. She knew very early that she wanted to practice medicine. Developing a strong work ethic at a young age, she excelled academically and this afforded her acceptance into the A Better Chance Program, through which she earned a scholarship to attend the Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in Kingston, Pennsylvania. Thereafter, she matriculated at the Johns Hopkins University where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health, Premed. After college, she served as a medical volunteer at the Enrique Sotomayor Maternity Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador. During that time, in addition to gaining experience in Obstetrics and Gynecology, she also became proficient in Spanish. Upon return to the United States, she continued pursuit of a career in medicine and earned a Master of Biomedical Sciences at the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers University). She was subsequently accepted to the SUNY Upstate Medical University wherein she earned a Master Degree in Medical Technology followed by a Doctor of Medicine. After a year of research, she was accepted into the accelerated Public Health graduate program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and earned a Master of Public Health Degree. While at Columbia, she worked for the Project STAY organization, providing mobile STD testing and counseling to various high schools in New York City. She continued with this organization and also participated in a Pediatric obervership until she began residency. Whether assisting in research, volunteering as a youth mentor, earning a degree, or working in various health care settings, Dr. Peart continued to advance her way towards practicing medicine and ultimately matched into the St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program in Upstate, NY. Through unyielding faith, some 18 years after graduating from Johns Hopkins, following a long and at times arduous journey, Dr. Peart completed her medical training and is currently board certified with Diplomat status in the American Board of Family Medicine. She believes that every setback was God’s way of preparing her for a lifetime of service to Him and to her community. As she embarks upon the next step into a career in Medicine, she understands that being a Physician is one of perhaps several manifestations of her purpose and she eagerly anticipates the unfolding thereof in myriad possibilities that her life, in partnership with God, will afford.