Logan Lawson, DO, MPH
Resident
Williams College, BA
Thomas Jefferson University, MPH
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, DO
I was born and raised in Hartford, CT. The elders in my family moved to the city during the Great Migration. So, while I’ve spent the majority of my life in New England, I have roots in the Carolinas, and spent many of my early years with my grandmother who was a self-proclaimed “Gullah-Geeche girl.” The narratives of my family tie me to my love for nature, food, history, and medicine.
Growing up, I lived in the city of Hartford but attended parochial school in a nearby suburb. Straddling two different worlds only minutes a part, I constantly wondered about the origins of inequities in health and education. After school, I would do homework in my local hospital, where my mom worked as a program coordinator for allied health programs. I can still feel the excitement I had when I turned 14 years old, because my age meant I was eligible to volunteer in roles serving patients at the hospital. My love for community medicine developed from this early exposure.
I left Hartford to attend Williams College, located in a small rural town in the Berkshires, in Williamstown, MA. I studied chemistry, Africana studies, and public health, and found friends who have become my sisters. While at Williams, I truly was able to develop my love for nature through agriculture, hiking, and sustainability initiatives. When I traveled to Lancaster for the first time, I was reminded of my love for Williamstown.
As a first-generation college graduate, there were many times when I thought I would never achieve my dreams of becoming a physician. My confidence was restored through a summer program at Yale. My experiences in the program inspired me to create a community for underrepresented students in STEM fields at Williams. Nine years later, the club still exists! After completing my undergraduate degree, my passion for education led me to serve as a high school science teacher through Teach for America in Hartford, before I traveled to Philadelphia to pursue my medical degree.
For the last five years, I have loved living in Pennsylvania. During my third year of medical school, the city of Lancaster became a safe space for me. At that point in my medical education, I made the decision to pursue a graduate degree in public health to participate in research that addresses the questions I had early on about community education and health. On the interview trail I knew I had already fallen in love with Lancaster as a city, but when I found people at LGH who were doing work that aligns with my long-term goals, it became my dream program. My personal and professional interests drew me to Lancaster, and I’m so thrilled to make this place my home while training as a family medicine physician.