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Welcome to “Paying it Forward,” a monthly interview series made possible by Piedmont Health. In this series, we hear from the folks at Piedmont about the importance of community health centers – and why they chose a career in community health.
June is Pride Month, so this time Aaron welcomes geriatric cardiologist Dr. Beth Rosenberg, Piedmont’s director of employee health.
Rosenberg says it was her mother who originally inspired her to go into medicine, with a focus on public and community service. “She was a nurse, and she ended up taking care of young unwed mothers in the South Bronx,” she says. “Little white lady, walking around in the South Bronx. And it was inspiring that she did that. You know, this is a woman who was afraid to get on the subway when we were kids, and she overcame those fears. And that inspired me to want to go into medicine (and) serve the community that really needed our services.”
That mission drove Rosenberg throughout her career, which included stints overseas in nations like Haiti. Now in the latter half of her career, she’s spent the last eight years at Piedmont Health Services in the Triangle.
“I went into medicine with an ultimate goal of providing community health, providing health to people that are marginalized or underserved,” she says. “I really enjoy what I get back from giving, and that was a big part of why I ended up in public health.”
As a member of the LGBTQ community herself, Dr. Rosenberg is particularly attuned to the needs of LGBTQ patients – who often face discrimination in the healthcare field, and often avoid seeking treatment as a result.
“We provide gender affirming care, we provide hormone therapy – we provide care in a nonjudgmental manner,” she says. “We try to make sure that all of our staff – from the people that check you in to the people that get your vital signs to our physicians and nurses – everybody understands how to address you, how to avoid misgendering people. And I think that’s really something that’s unique in our organization.”
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