Dr. Cheree Schwartzenburg talks a lot about family--she is one of 33 first cousins--and gets a bit sentimental when speaking about her father, Clifford. She works alongside him, two uncles and other physicians as a gynecologist at Schwartzenburgs, LaFranca and Guidry.
There’s even a picture of the father and daughter working together on their first C-section where just their eyes are visible above the mask, yet the resemblance is infallible.
“It was a bizarre situation for me to ask for the knife to start the procedure.”
Having started in private practice in August 2006, she’s still getting used to the business side of things and the autonomy though she likes to keep things rather informal. (It’s “Dr. Cheree” generally.) But it’s “warm and fuzzy” medicine, and she says there’s nothing better than helping people and being in the throes of growing families.
As a teaching resident in Shreveport, she received the Alpha Omega Alpha Joseph E. Lowenstein House Officer Teaching Award, which is generally given to the “top of the class” types in academia. Schwartzenburg got the nod from her students because they thought she was the most outstanding teaching resident. She says she made an extra effort to teach the compassion side of medicine.
Compassion is one of the things she exudes in conversation, with a relaxed, confident and attentive manner. It’s easy to tell she’s a people person. And just like she teaches her father a new trick or two—“He shows me the ‘real’ way to do things; I show him the ‘new’ way to do things”—she extends her knowledge to others through Woman’s Hospital’s Medical Education Committee that brings lecturers to the hospital to keep the staff abreast of the latest issues and technology.
And if you can’t find her in the hospital, she might be at home exercising her green thumb, playing with her dog, repainting her walls or hopping a plane.
What was your first job?
“I was a counselor at the Country Club of Louisiana for the day camp. I was 14. We had to wear an all-white outfit. I came home the first day and had giant purple handprints on me from grape jelly.”
Comments
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)