DR. WHO?
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT SUSAN COVENTRY, MD
Aaron Burch
Dr. Susan Coventry has practiced anatomic pediatric pathology in the Louisville area for almost 20 years, using her years of study to diagnose brain tumors, neuroblastoma and Wilms tumors in addition to countless other childhood( and some adult) illnesses.
In 1999, good fortune brought her to Louisville and Norton Children’ s Hospital, then known as Kosair Children’ s. It is here she has raised two children, Lila and Lucas, with her husband, Brad Asher. Until that move at the turn of the century, they had never visited or called Kentucky home.
The first 25 years of Dr. Coventry’ s life were spent in Middletown, New Jersey. Her father, Bill Coventry, served as a minister for the Middletown Reformed Church while her mom, Linda, was a civil engineering secretary. The second of four children, and 15 months between an older brother and younger sister, Dr. Coventry grew up with a large but close group of friends.
The Coventry family lived in the church parsonage and their children were always on hand for odd jobs including setting up rooms for worship, folding church bulletins, cutting the grass and more.
“ We were so close in age that there was an assembly of friends who were always around and involved in the church also. So we’ d play kickball or go to the park. There was a lot of land around so we had room for everything,” Dr. Coventry said.
She took an early interest in medicine, and was encouraged to become a doctor by her 6 th grade teacher. However, Dr. Coventry also loved language, and she double majored in French and Biology as an undergrad at Johns Hopkins University.
For six weeks in the summer after her junior year, Dr. Coventry had the unique opportunity to study in Avignon, France.“ I remember how beautiful the city was, walking to class through the winding streets,” she said.“ I stayed with an older woman, a widow. She had owned a restaurant when she was younger and would make the most incredible food each night.”
While there was consideration of pursuing French into graduate school and becoming a professor, medicine was calling Dr. Coventry and she ultimately answered by attending Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
“ Medical school was intense. College had been hard but I had French, which was more relaxing, to break up the tougher subjects. Medical school was just more volume, at more speed, was more concentrated,” she said.
Dr. Coventry is quick to admit she’ s an introvert, one of the reasons that her initial choice of family practice wasn’ t ideal.“ I liked the variety, but once I started clinical rotations I realized that asking a wide variety of people very personal questions every day wasn’ t for me. I was getting through the days but I was exhausted.”
At the suggestion of a friend, she gave pathology rotation a try.“ I did a rotation and fell in love with it. I think one of the interests that brought me into medicine was that I was interested in health
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Editor’ s Note: Welcome to Louisville Medicine’ s member spotlight section, Dr. Who? In the interest of simply getting to know each other as a society of colleagues, we’ ll be highlighting random GLMS physicians on a regular basis. If you would like to recommend any GLMS physician member to the Editorial Board for this section, please e-mail aaron. burch @ glms. org or 736-6338.
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