DR . WHO
“ fellowship in life ,” taking a leap and moving to Oregon . Adventure is in her blood - with parents as teachers , their family traveled for nearly every school break .
“ Every time the school doors would close , my dad would put us in the car and take us somewhere ,” she said . “ Every summer we traveled cross country for four to six weeks from the time I was an infant until my third year of medical school .”
This new venture took her to a place that she considers a second home - a place that always has a piece of her heart - a small town called Yachats that is home to less than 700 people on the Central Oregon coast . During her fourth year of residency before she moved , she took the necessary steps to make sure she was set up for success - the old school way . She mailed out hard copies of her cover letter and CV to anywhere locally that had inpatient or outpatient mental health facilities . She landed a position at Peace Health , a multispecialty group scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest . After two years , she realized that while she loved the challenges and experience of working in a new place , she missed the comforts of home and decided to move back to Louisville .
In 2009 , Dr . Hettinger joined the UofL faculty as an Assistant Professor , while also serving as the Associate Residency Training Director for the Department of Psychiatry . As a daughter of two educators , being able to teach residents was vital to her . “ At the university you get to wear a lot of different hats . I really loved that
because you got to look at different systems , how to implement things to help the residents , lots of different things at one time .”
Now gratis faculty , she only does a few guest lectures per year , but she sees every day in her practice to be a teaching opportunity . “ Part of our role as physicians is to educate our patients . I ’ ve framed for myself that it ’ s a way that I ’ m able to teach these days even if I ’ m not doing lectures in the classroom .”
Shortly after moving back to Louisville , she met Brian Hettinger online and it was an instant connection . Just one year later , they were married . For the last 20 years , Brian has been one of the “ elephant guys ” as a zookeeper at the Louisville Zoo . After two decades of elephants , he transitioned about two years ago to reptiles ( despite Dr . Hettinger ’ s extreme dislike of snakes ).
“ He ’ s the entertainment division of our family . He ’ s a joyful fun person who loves art , and movies , and culture and travel . He is very much the yin to my yang .”
In 2015 , she was hired as a psychiatrist to help support the women ’ s health aspect of Norton Healthcare and currently practices with Norton Women ’ s Mental Health Services . She provides outpatient psychiatric care with an emphasis on pregnant and postpartum women . “ For me , my clinical interest has always been mood and anxiety disorders . I really enjoy psychotherapy in addition to medication ,” she said . “ A lot of what I taught at the university was cognitive
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