Casey Dooley: Hi. My name is Casey Dooley. I am a physician assistant with Memorial. I'm currently working in the Bowen Clinic.

I went to PA school at SIU, which is Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. And then, I completed my rotations in Springfield. And I'm originally from Springfield area, so I kind of stayed there after school and worked there for a year. And then, me and my husband moved back here because he's originally from this area.

In undergrad, I majored in science biology. And also, I think it was like my last year of undergrad, is when I worked as a CNA and a medical scribe just because I always knew I wanted to go into the medical field, but I was just trying to figure out what exactly. So from there, I kind of discovered the PA role and felt like that was a really good fit for me. I had a year, I believe, out of school where I just worked as a CNA and a medical scribe. And then, I applied and got into PA school from there and went to PA school at SIU.

Growing up, I've always kind of liked science in general. And then, my older sister was a nurse. She's now a nurse practitioner. So, she was, I guess, kind of the one that introduced me into the actual medical side of things. So, that's just, you know, kind of what drew me to it.

 So when approaching patients themselves, I kind of see it as more of teamwork, a team effort. So, it's not just me making decisions. I always tell my patients, you know, "It's up to you. It's your body and your choices." So, I kind of just give them the facts, what they need to know to make an educated choice and just to help them get to that.

And then, just approaching kind of like, I guess, diseases and treating in general, I guess I steer more towards preventative care in general and just overall wellness to try to prevent diseases from happening or if we catch it early to try to prevent it to, you know, progressing or developing complications. So, you know, if I can encourage overall wellness and healthy choices, I try to do that.

I try to read in my spare time. So, I guess that's what I like to do for fun. I also, you know, watch Netflix like everyone else. So, I watch TV shows. My husband is into sports and I grew up in sports as well. So, you know, we watch sports together. Football is his main thing. So, I watched that with him during football season. But I also come from a really big family, so it's nice to visit with him and there's always something going on.

To be completely transparent, my mother-in-law is Tonya Dooley and she is the physical therapist for Memorial. So, even before we moved back here, she's told me about Memorial ever since she started here and how much she liked it and everything. So, I kind of have always known it was an option here. And then, once I started the whole like interview and application process with Memorial, I agreed with her, I guess with her opinion. So, you know, it seemed like a really great place to work. There's a really good culture around the environment, I would say. They really care about their employees, which that was a big plus for me. So just, yeah, kind of the overall culture of the organization is what really drew me to it.