Love and Legacy

Business strategist Peter Strople is quoted as saying, “Legacy is not leaving something for people. It’s leaving something in people.” For Jefferson father-daughter duo Thomas Green, MD ’94, and Caitlin Green, MD ’22, their family’s Jefferson legacy was born in Philadelphia at Jefferson and built on love and has been thriving for nearly seven decades and three generations.

Caitlin describes her family’s Jefferson origins, which began with her grandparents (Thomas’ parents): “I want to make sure that you know that my grandmother Edith Green was also a Jefferson student,” she shares. “She was in the nursing program, and she met my grandfather, Edward R. Green, MD ’57, in the atrium in the cafeteria while he was a fourth-year medical student. He went up to her, said that he thought she was pretty, and asked to take her to dinner.” The rest is Jefferson history.

Thomas pays tribute to his father, who went from growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to fighting in the Korean War as a Marine, to going to college at Penn State. “He wanted to go to medical school, and he went to Jefferson,” he continues. “Growing up, I always heard about Jefferson. That was kind of the place in my heart that I wanted to go.”

Thomas is unable to pick just one favorite memory of his time at Jefferson. He says, “I grew up in a relatively small town in upstate New York. I’d never been to a big city, and going to live in Philadelphia was overwhelming to me when I was a first-year student.”

“When I go back to Philly, it’s kind of surreal,” Thomas remarks. “I think back to my time there as a student, walking around, sitting in the library for 36 hours in a row straight, and going to the hospital as a third-year medical student.” He shares a story: “The first year was very difficult. When I was a first-year student, I went to the registrar’s office, which used to be on the first floor of the Curtis building. I was standing at the counter, I didn’t know anybody, and [I] was scared to death. This guy was standing next to me, and he asked, ‘Are you a first year?’ I answered yes. And he said, ‘I’ll give you some advice. The next year is going to be miserable. You’re going to work very hard. But after that, it gets a lot better.’”

“And that was true. It was very hard,” he confides. “It was a lot of work. It was working all the time nonstop. I realized why: Jefferson students are extremely well trained in the first two years, and they’re able to compete anywhere at any hospital because of the training they get. And it did get a lot better!”

He continues, “You have an enormous amount of information to consume in a four-year period of time. Jefferson does a very good job, and I truly believe that Jefferson can compete against any medical school in the country for the quality of education.”

A generous supporter of Jefferson and the Alumni Association, Thomas’ Jefferson roots are deep. “Jefferson is a very special place to me,” he states. “I mean, it changed my entire family. I am a radiologist and know several radiologists at Jefferson. I still go down to Jefferson a lot and talk to some of them. I call them, I email them, and I’ve had some of them come up to my practice and give lectures.”

Originally from Utica, New York, Thomas returned home to perform his residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in nuclear medicine at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. He remained in Syracuse, working for 23 years at Crouse Hospital, where he was chief of radiology for 17 years. After turning 60, Thomas resigned his partnership, moving to Lake Placid, New York, where he is currently chairman of radiology at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.

Thomas encouraged his Caitlin to join the Jefferson family “I was hoping she would go to Jefferson,” he says. “It means a lot to me. I’ll never forget when she walked across the stage, and they called her name out. That was one of the highlights of my life.” Thomas proudly shares that not only did Caitlin graduate cum laude, but she also received some of the major awards for her medical class. Caitlin’s graduation also brought back memories when Thomas reconnected with a former medical school acquaintance, whose daughter also received her hood that day.

Caitlin attended the University of Rhode Island as an undergrad but was not initially planning on following in her father’s footsteps into a career in medicine. “I had no intention of going to medical school when I first started at all,” she states. “I wanted to be a guidance counselor, and throughout my undergrad, I realized that was not what I wanted to do. I then realized that I wanted to go to medical school very quickly after I had started to consider it.” Caitlin then set her sights on Jefferson. “I wanted to go to Jefferson very, very much,” she affirms.

Because she wasn’t in a pre-med track, Caitlin was required to complete a post-baccalaureate program to fulfill the core course requirements for medical school. She chose Jefferson’s post-bac program, explaining, “My dad went to Jefferson. We had grown up visiting the Jefferson bookstore ever since I was little. So Jefferson was, of course, very much on our minds.”

After Caitlin completed Jefferson’s one-year post-bac program, she followed friends to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a year, where she worked as a nanny and began applying to medical schools. “I got into Jefferson,” she shares. “I very much wanted to come here, partially because of my family’s legacy but also because Philadelphia is just such an exceptional place to learn medicine. And I knew from being a post-bac the opportunities that Jefferson had for students in terms of outreach in the Philadelphia community, which was something that I was passionate about.”

The people at Jefferson definitely weighed in her decision. She says, “I got to know a lot of the current medical students when I was a post-bac student and thought they were really nice. I just really liked the educational environment that was established at Jefferson. I loved the city of Philadelphia. I miss it very much.”

When comparing their times at Jefferson, the father’s and daughter’s experiences differed, yet, in the end, were both incomparable. “Caitlin was more involved in everything going on,” Thomas shares. “I spent most of my time in the library. When I was younger and I was in the middle of it, I didn’t appreciate what I was going through. When I look back, I have a much more positive view of it, and I love it. I wish I could do it over again so I could spend more time doing other things than just studying. But when I was young, it was fun going to Philadelphia. I still like to go back. I was a Phillies fan and still am!”

Caitlin was thrilled with her early Jefferson experience. She explains, “I think one of the biggest differences was, after my first couple of months in medical school, I remember calling my dad and saying how fun medical school was and how much I loved it and how much fun I was having.”

“From the very start of medical school, I just loved the people at Jefferson,” Caitlin relates. “I think the people at Jefferson are wonderful. They’re very smart, highly educated people, but they’re very kind, down-to-earth, and fun people to be around. That’s part of the admissions process; they really look for people who just are nice people. The process is different from any other medical school that I know of. A whole aspect of their admissions day is meeting other medical students and just having conversations with them. I think that’s one of the ways that Jefferson makes sure that they are getting people that are kind and down to earth and actually willing to aid in helping the Philadelphia community and having a bigger meaning to live.”

She continues, “I was very involved throughout medical school, right from the start. I was the president of the Pediatric Association. I helped run JeffYES, which is one of the youth emergency shelter programs for children who are displaced in Philadelphia. I was in the a cappella group. I was very involved, and I loved doing all of those things. Having this multitude of things to join and things to do made you enjoy your time in Philadelphia but also made your time in Philadelphia so much more meaningful beyond pursuing medical education,” she states.

Caitlin was a member of the second class to go through the new Jefferson curriculum, which differed from her father’s experience. “My program was set up differently than my father’s,” she explains. “When my father was a student, the first two years were in normal physiology, and the second year was pathology and abnormal physiology. When I went through, it was systems based, and it was all integrated within each system throughout the two years.”

She states, “The first two years were absolutely very challenging, but they were so much fun. I really did love medical school every step of the way. I loved all of my rotations and all of the faculty that I met. I really made wonderful friends at Jefferson who will absolutely be my friends for the rest of my life.”

“I could name a million different things that would be my favorite memory of medical school,” she shares. “I think that graduation and seeing my father and having him hood me was my favorite memory. It was kind of an idea in my head that kept me going all throughout medical school, like a goal that I really wanted to achieve.”

“Jefferson gave me an exceptional education,” Caitlin says. “I feel very well prepared for residency.” Following graduation from medical school, Caitlin began her pediatrics residency at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She continues, “I’m very, very grateful to Jefferson. My dad said that the people gave him a chance; the people gave me a chance; and I’m incredibly grateful to them. You know, my dad donates to Jefferson. That’s very important to him to donate to the school that gave him everything that he has and everything that our family has. I very much intend to do the same.”

Caitlin is proud of her Jefferson family and legacy. “Being a graduate of Jefferson is very special to me,” she continues. “Anyone who knows me knows that. I have my diploma here, and I have my Philadelphia stuff. I have a big Jefferson blanket in my living room. If my children want to go to medical school, I would very much hope they would want to go to Jefferson. I don’t think you can get a better education.”