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saw an opportunity to introduce Dr. Miller to a new world.
“She came up to me and said, ‘If you like asthma, I think you’d
really like allergy.’ I didn’t really even know what allergy was, but
she told me to come to her clinic to shadow her, and I was hooked
immediately,” she said. “Even when I graduated from residency,
the pediatric pulmonologists still jokingly said that allergy stole
me away from them.”
After discovering her new-found interest in allergy, she knew
that she wanted to pursue a fellowship in allergy and immunology
once she finished the pediatric residency program. In the very last
week of her residency in 2011, she not only celebrated a graduation,
but also a wedding.
“I left residency as Dr. Beaven and started fellowship as Dr.
Miller.” During her second and final year of fellowship in St. Louis,
they got pregnant with their first child. As their training was coming
to a close, the two began thinking about where they would take
their now-growing family. Her husband is from Louisville, and it
seemed like a natural choice to come back to the place where their
story began and to allow them to be close to both their families.
She then began cold calling practices to see what positions were
available in the Louisville area.
“I called Family Allergy & Asthma and Dr. Jim Sublett, one of
the founding members, actually knew one of my mentors, the allergist
that came up to me at the conference. She called him up and
told him he should give me a job. So I came into town, 6 months
pregnant, to interview and meet with him.”
During her interview, she shadowed at the clinic and loved that
within the large practice, there were many great synergies but also
that the physicians had a diverse wealth of knowledge, something
that she still cherishes today. After she had her first baby, Cecilia,
Family Allergy & Asthma offered her a position. Coincidentally,
the position was a hybrid between their Louisville office and their
Marion County office, where her parents had grown up and many
of her family members still live.
“I thought it was just meant to be because I love that area and
I was so excited to be able to come back and see patients there.”
Seven years later, Dr. Miller is still as happy to be a part of the
Family Allergy & Asthma team as she was in the beginning, and has
enjoyed seeing the practice grow and flourish. She works part-time,
splitting her days between their East End, LaGrange and Bardstown
offices. She sees everything from basic allergy testing and spirometry
to patients with puzzling, mysterious allergy symptoms to those with
severe asthma concerns. Even though her start was in pediatrics, she
now sees patients of all ages, and often will treat the whole family.
“Allergies run through the family. I’ve definitely had some families
where I’ve seen everyone from the baby to the grandma, with
some aunts, uncles and cousins thrown in there too. It’s interesting
because an allergy may present one way in grandma, another way in
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