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For Mission of Mercy\u2019s long-time Medical Director Dr. Brad Smith, surprisingly, his career as a naturopathic medical doctor wasn\u2019t what he intended to do upon graduating from college. In fact, it\u2019s his second career! He started his medical schooling at age 34 after spending more than a decade as a family therapist.<\/p>\n
It was during his time as a fourth year medical student at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences (now Sonoran University of Health Sciences) that he first gained exposure to MOM \u2013 at the time a fledgling community-based healthcare clinic \u2013 in 1999. As the story goes, it was fate that brought Dr. Smith to MOM.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an emergency room rotation that fell through at the last minute but MOM\u2019s medical director at the time, Dr. Bill Schneider, agreed to take on two naturopathic students and I was one of them,\u201d Dr. Smith recalls. \u201cHe also opened the door for me to shadow him in the ER at Thunderbird medical center, which I greatly appreciated and learned a lot from that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing a family practice residency, Dr. Smith realized that his heart was in community medicine, and he accepted Dr. Schneider\u2019s offer to serve as MOM\u2019s part-time Assistant Medical Director in Arizona, helping to oversee the clinic sites and see patients.<\/p>\n
At the time he was hired in 2002, Dr. Schneider said, \u201cBrad has been a faithful volunteer in our clinics. When the need was clear for an assistant medical director to work with me at the four clinics in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, Brad was the perfect choice. He truly embodies what we mean when we say that our mission is healing through Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connecting Physical Healing with the Spiritual<\/strong><\/p>\n Aside from his professional accolades, Dr. Smith also has a Master of Divinity from Anderson School of Theology. He\u2019s not only an excellent family practitioner, but also a gifted listener with the ability to truly empathize with MOM\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n When Dr. Schneider left MOM to pursue a fellowship with Phoenix Children\u2019s Hospital in 2003, Dr. Smith was promoted to Medical Director.<\/p>\n \u201cI love being a doctor here. I love the challenge of diagnosing and treating our patients,\u201d Dr. Smith said. \u201cI get exposure to interesting pathology that some physicians have never seen in their entire career, and I get to collaborate with volunteer doctors who are among the best specialists in their field.\u201d<\/p>\n A Man of Many Talents<\/strong><\/p>\n Aside from his professional life, Dr. Smith has his HVAC certification, practices woodworking and stained glass as his hobbies, and is an \u201cexperienced tinkerer\u201d thanks to growing up working in his dad\u2019s machine shop.<\/p>\n He is married with two adult children who have followed in his footsteps \u2013 one is an occupational therapist and the other is in medical school.<\/p>\n \u201cAs medical director, I\u2019ve had the privilege of working with thousands of patients over the years who can\u2019t afford healthcare and consequently are immensely grateful for the services that Mission of Mercy provides,\u201d he said. \u201cI also get the experience of adapting and pivoting to meet the various challenges that a community-based mobile medical clinic like ours faces every day. It is enormously gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Mission of Mercy\u2019s long-time Medical Director Dr. Brad Smith, surprisingly, his career as a naturopathic medical doctor wasn\u2019t what he intended to do upon graduating from college. In fact, it\u2019s his second career! He started his medical schooling at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,62],"tags":[131,132,133,108,134,135,136],"class_list":["post-3448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news","tag-anderson-school-of-theology","tag-dr-bill-schneider","tag-dr-brad-smith","tag-dr-smith","tag-family-practitioner","tag-master-of-divinity","tag-medical-director"],"yoast_head":"\n