She will graduate in May from the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) with a Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine.
The day MacKenzie toured King she knew it was where she wanted to attend. She described the experience as personal and said she had that “gut feeling” that this was her home. While at school MacKenzie was involved in the honors program as her class representative and was part of the inaugural group of Women in STEM. Her favorite memory from King was making an igloo on the oval after a big and rare snowstorm with her friends from White Hall. With the help of Dr. Kelly Vaughan, MacKenzie recently applied for and was accepted as a fellow of the epidemiology elective program at the CDC. This is a prestigious honor as they only selected 60 students between all medical and veterinary schools. She will be in Atlanta at their main campus working in the Division of Blood Disorders, part of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
In the future, MacKenzie hopes to become a pediatrician and ultimately would love to be a practicing doctor in the United States but also abroad. During her time at King, MacKenzie studied abroad in Ecuador and then took a gap year between undergraduate and graduate school in Kenya doing medical mission work. She has also spent time in Honduras running clinics as she has a huge heart for global health. We wish MacKenzie the best of luck as she finishes out her final year of medical school and can’t wait to see the positive health impact she has on the world.