MEMBERS
DR. Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
GIAVONNE RONDO, MD
Aaron Burch
B
efore her interview began, Internist Dr. Giavonne
Rondo took a moment to provide a small tour of the
Shawnee Christian Healthcare Center. She introduced
each member of her team in excited fashion, proudly
explaining what they did and why they were essential to
the care of patients. It was a welcoming and immediate statement.
“It takes a village to treat patients, and here is mine.”
Nestled in Louisville’s West End, just a hop, skip and jump from
Dr. Rondo’s childhood home, the Center is a place of strength and
hope for a community becoming more susceptible to illness and
affected by violence.
“I’d like to see this area improve, and I think a local health
care center is a start to that process,” Dr. Rondo explained as
the interview began in the Center’s Prayer Room. Designed as a
place of quiet and contemplation, the intimate setting allowed the
Louisville native to meditate on how she arrived at this moment
in her life.
“I was born and raised in West Louisville. I lived here for the
first 11 years of my life before my family moved to the Buechel
area. That’s where I went to middle and high school,” Dr. Rondo
began.
As the youngest of eight siblings, with 11 years between her
age and the next oldest, Dr. Rondo grew up with a whole village
looking after her. “We were really big on family events, dinners,
going bowling. Some of my favorite memories are playing out in
the yard with nieces and nephews near my age. We had lots of
dogs, we rode bicycles all through the neighborhood.”
Dr. Rondo’s father was a Renaissance man. He was a mailman,
who started his own paper route as a side job and worked as
associate pastor for a local Baptist church. Her mother served as
a clerk for the VA Hospital and then as an assistant teacher before
staying home to take care of the family. They instilled in their
youngest daughter a dedication to the ones you love, a drive to
help others and an enduring faith in a higher power.
“As I was growing up, my mother started to become ill. She
suffered from high blood pressure and congestive heart failure,”
Dr. Rondo said. “We’d go to doctor’s offices quite a bit when I was
in high school. I absolutely loved our family doctor. His name
was Prospero Ishkanian, and he was the best. He was such a kind-
hearted and knowledgeable person.”
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Dr. Rondo's extended family.
The Rondo’s family doctor was a true family friend. Over the
next few decades, Dr. Ishkanian would treat not just her mother,
but her father, several aunts and her grandmother as well. “If
there’s anyone who influenced me, it’s him.”
In the back of her mind, as she accompanied her mother on
hospital visits, Dr. Rondo became fascinated with the world of
medicine. She thought being a nurse was right for her. Or, she
did until a friend said, “Why not go the extra mile and become a
doctor?”
“At first, I wasn’t thinking about that. I didn’t see black doctors.
I didn’t really see female doctors. But, those words resonated with
me. I realized being a doctor WAS possible, and I wanted to prove
that I was up to that challenge.”
After her graduation from Manual in 1989, Dr. Rondo traveled
to Spelman College in Atlanta, an African-American, all female
college. Spelman provided a perfect atmosphere for personal and
professional growth. However, life intervened.
“A week into my time at Spelman, my mother died,” Dr. Rondo
explained. “It was a life-altering moment, and it put a damper on a
lot of things. However, my professors, classmates and dormmates
at Spelman were so supportive. I was in a wonderful cocoon which
gave me a lot of love through that time.”