( continued from page 29) and disease and how bodily things go wrong. In pathology, you can see and touch the disease. It isn’ t a moving target. Instead, it’ s a lot of pattern recognition and putting puzzles together, which I loved.”
Dr. Coventry graduated from Rutgers in 1989 with her specialty in mind, but many miles still to go before her career was set. Luckily, she wouldn’ t travel alone. She met her husband while studying at college and they balanced their careers ably, moving to Chicago so Dr. Coventry could attend residency and he could pursue grad school.
“ When I was in medical school, my husband was working in New York City and I was studying. We never saw each other,” she said.“ We had a lot more fun in Chicago, living in Hyde Park. It was more manageable and more affordable than the New York area. Plus, I was focusing on something I really enjoyed.”
While working through four years of residency at the University of Chicago, Dr. Coventry came to realize her interests lay, in part, in developmental pathology.
“ I had practiced a lot of kidney pathology and really enjoyed it. But I also wanted to look for a program to pursue developmental and pediatric pathology. When I was finishing up my anatomical pathology rotation, I didn’ t feel like I’ d gotten much of that. I figured while I was young and didn’ t have a lot of responsibilities, that was the time to learn what I really wanted to learn.”
Following what she loved led Dr. Coventry to a fellowship at Brown University-Rhode Island Hospital. She spent just a year at the facility before pursuing a developmental / environmental toxicology research position in Seattle, in part to be with her husband who had been offered a job in Puget Sound.“ I was invited to study environmental teratogens and their effects on hamsters. We found it was very easy for us to find places to go while we were in training. It was only once we got out of training that it was tough.”
When both their positions were complete, the couple moved to Philadelphia where they would take the next steps in their careers and welcome both children to the world. Dr. Coventry began practicing at St. Christopher’ s Hospital but received a job offer from Kosair Children’ s Hospital Chief Pathologist Dr. John Buchino shortly after she arrived. She turned him down. After all, they had just arrived in Philadelphia.
“ So three years go by, and there’ s a lot going on. Actually practicing was a great experience, but the hospital system went bankrupt while I was there. It seemed that all we were doing was going to meetings about this crisis and people were leaving in droves. So everyone is deserting the sinking ship and then I remember John Buchino.
“ Right as I send him an email asking if he was looking for a pathologist, my phone rang. It was him asking if I was looking for a job. I asked if he had just seen my email, and he said‘ What email?’ It was just perfect timing.”
After just a few years in Philadelphia, and quick moves through Seattle, Rhode Island and Chicago, Dr. Coventry and her family, now doubled in size, came to Louisville and made their home.
“ I love Louisville. It was a really good place to bring up our kids. There’ s not 12 of everything like Chicago but there is one or two of everything. It’ s always been manageable and friendly.”
Now both children, Lila and Lucas, have headed to college.
In her free time, Dr. Coventry reads whenever she can and is also an author herself. She wrote a historical novel, The Queen’ s Daughter, about the life of a daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, of Southwestern France in the late 12 th century, and saw it published in 2010.
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“ I love history, particularly medieval history, and that was really a rewarding process. I’ ve started a new novel, but it ' s a slow process.” she said.
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