{"id":8646,"date":"2017-04-10T15:25:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T19:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=8646"},"modified":"2022-03-22T14:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:01:22","slug":"kpathsdownunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/","title":{"rendered":"K Paths Crossed (and Shared) Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kalamazoo
Holly Gillis ’09 and Jeff Palmer ’76<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kalamazoo College alumni never know where their paths might cross.<\/p>\n

In early March, Jeff Palmer \u201976<\/strong> and his wife, Susan Andress, were about midway through a month-long trip to Tasmania and New Zealand when they stopped to hike to the Franz Joseph Glacier on New Zealand\u2019s \u201cSouth Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a beautiful place on a beautiful day and we were taking our time on the roughly four-mile round trip trail,\u201d said Jeff, who recently retired as associate director of communication in K\u2019s Office of College Communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurrounded by green-sloped mountains, waterfalls, and a glacier bluer than we imagined it would be,\u201d Jeff said \u201cwe expected the cast and crew from Lord of the Rings to step out of the mist at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, a flash of orange and a familiar logo in the hand of a young man darting past on the trail caught his attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey!\u201d Jeff called out. \u201cWhere\u2019d you get that K College water bottle!\u201d<\/p>\n

The young man stopped quickly and spun around. The young woman running with him did, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave it to him!\u201d she said with a big smile. \u201cDo you know K?\u201d<\/p>\n

Holly Gillis \u201909<\/strong> and her husband, Ethan Basset, were toward the end of a ten-day vacation, rushing to see the Glacier before moving on to their next stop. Both are medical doctors working in Houston and soon moving to Ohio.<\/p>\n

Holly and Jeff talked a little about their K-Plans (\u201cMine doesn\u2019t take long to tell,\u201d said Jeff) and some of the K professors and staff they both know on campus. They also agreed to follow up via email once they were back home. [See Jeff\u2019s brief write up below about Holly\u2019s post K career thus far.]<\/p>\n

They compared a few New Zealand travel notes and agreed they were \u201cglad to see one of nature\u2019s wonders before climate change and science denial causes it to melt away,\u201d said Jeff.<\/p>\n

Susan and Ethan took photos while their alumni spouses marveled at the odds of having an impromptu Hornet gathering in a mountain valley half a world away from K\u2019s \u201cFair Arcadian Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an incredibly small world,\u201d Holly said. \u201cLight attracts light.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a little help from a K water bottle.<\/p>\n

*****
\nHolly Gillis \u201909<\/strong> is a Madison, Wis., native who majored in chemistry at K. She also sang the national anthem for a range of Hornet home athletics events, wrote restaurant reviews for the Index, sang soprano in the Premium Orange a capella group, served as a co-director of Frelon dance troupe, was the American Chemistry Society Student Affiliate Chair; and volunteered in the children\u2019s ward at Kalamazoo\u2019s Bronson Hospital. She also traveled to Perth, Australia, for her\u00a0 study abroad, during which she volunteered at the Western Australian AIDS Council, working on a needle exchange program and youth risk reduction programs.<\/p>\n

After K, Holly earned a medical degree from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Western Pennsylvania and completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

She and Ethan were married in July 2016 and have been living in Houston this past year \u201clearning and working\u201d at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital, she said. He is completing his pediatric otolaryngology fellowship, while she works in the emergency department and serves as assistant professor of pediatrics.<\/p>\n

Next up for the couple is a move to Columbus, Ohio, \u201clearning and working\u201d at The OSU Nationwide Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Ethan will join the pediatric ear-nose-throat clinical and academic faculty, while Holly starts a fellowship in pediatric critical care. She intends to focus on the disparate access to quality health care that low income children with complex medical needs have within a pediatric hospital system compared to those with middle and high incomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cK study abroad shaped the way I think about medical practice and empathy for low and very low income women and children,\u201d Holly said. \u201cThe service component to my study abroad program–a health screening project in a low-income suburb of Perth with primarily aboriginal women and children–helped expose the bubble that is so convenient for many of the economically stable K students to live in, including myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Study abroad also fueled Holly\u2019s interest in travel, particularly to the lands Down Under. She traveled to Sydney, Australia, during the summer after her first year of medical school to work in a lab related to research she conducted for her K Senior Independent Project, or SIP. (Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge <\/strong>served as Holly’s on-campus SIP faculty mentor for the reading of her thesis.)\u00a0 A recent vacation to New Zealand with Ethan was a respite from work and studies before they finish their assignments in Houston and pack for the move to Ohio.<\/p>\n

She looks forward to being a little closer to her Wisconsin and Kalamazoo College homes, and hopes to cross paths with K alumni.<\/p>\n

TEXT AND PHOTO BY JEFF PALMER ’76<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kalamazoo College alumni never know where their paths might cross. In early March, Jeff Palmer \u201976 and his wife, Susan Andress, were about midway through a month-long trip to Tasmania and New Zealand when they stopped to hike to the Franz Joseph Glacier on New Zealand\u2019s \u201cSouth Island.\u201d \u201cIt was a beautiful place on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[31,43,146,47],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-8646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-community","tag-liberal-arts","tag-study-abroad"],"yoast_head":"\r\nAlumni Cross Paths Down Under - News and Events - Kalamazoo College<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kalamazoo College alumni never know where their paths might cross. 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It might even be in New Zealand as it was for these two.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T19:25:32+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T18:01:22+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2017\/04\/GillisPalmerTHUMB.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"274\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"286\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Van Sweden\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Van Sweden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\",\"name\":\"Alumni Cross Paths Down Under - News and Events - Kalamazoo College\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2017\/04\/GillisPalmerTHUMB.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T19:25:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-22T18:01:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/33b812ef7fd17031ab566856049c97af\"},\"description\":\"Kalamazoo College alumni never know where their paths might cross. 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aria-label=\"archive of category Alumni\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/alumni\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Alumni<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/alumni\/\" rel=\"tag\">alumni<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/community\/\" rel=\"tag\">community<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/liberal-arts\/\" rel=\"tag\">liberal arts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/study-abroad\/\" rel=\"tag\">study abroad<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/kpathsdownunder\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<figure id=\"attachment_8647\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8647\" style=\"width: 354px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-8647 size-full\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2017\/04\/GillisPalmerART.jpg\" alt=\"Kalamazoo College Alumni Holly Gillis '09 and Jeff Palmer '76\" width=\"354\" height=\"658\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8647\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Holly Gillis ’09 and Jeff Palmer ’76<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kalamazoo College alumni never know where their paths might cross.<\/p>\n<p>In early March, <strong>Jeff Palmer \u201976<\/strong> and his wife, Susan Andress, were about midway through a month-long trip to Tasmania and New Zealand when they stopped to hike to the Franz Joseph Glacier on New Zealand\u2019s \u201cSouth Island.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a beautiful place on a beautiful day and we were taking our time on the roughly four-mile round trip trail,\u201d said Jeff, who recently retired as associate director of communication in K\u2019s Office of College Communication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurrounded by green-sloped mountains, waterfalls, and a glacier bluer than we imagined it would be,\u201d Jeff said \u201cwe expected the cast and crew from Lord of the Rings to step out of the mist at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, a flash of orange and a familiar logo in the hand of a young man darting past on the trail caught his attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey!\u201d Jeff called out. \u201cWhere\u2019d you get that K College water bottle!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The young man stopped quickly and spun around. The young woman running with him did, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI gave it to him!\u201d she said with a big smile. \u201cDo you know K?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holly Gillis \u201909<\/strong> and her husband, Ethan Basset, were toward the end of a ten-day vacation, rushing to see the Glacier before moving on to their next stop. Both are medical doctors working in Houston and soon moving to Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>Holly and Jeff talked a little about their K-Plans (\u201cMine doesn\u2019t take long to tell,\u201d said Jeff) and some of the K professors and staff they both know on campus. They also agreed to follow up via email once they were back home. [See Jeff\u2019s brief write up below about Holly\u2019s post K career thus far.]<\/p>\n<p>They compared a few New Zealand travel notes and agreed they were \u201cglad to see one of nature\u2019s wonders before climate change and science denial causes it to melt away,\u201d said Jeff.<\/p>\n<p>Susan and Ethan took photos while their alumni spouses marveled at the odds of having an impromptu Hornet gathering in a mountain valley half a world away from K\u2019s \u201cFair Arcadian Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat an incredibly small world,\u201d Holly said. \u201cLight attracts light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a little help from a K water bottle.<\/p>\n<p>*****<br \/>\n<strong>Holly Gillis \u201909<\/strong> is a Madison, Wis., native who majored in chemistry at K. She also sang the national anthem for a range of Hornet home athletics events, wrote restaurant reviews for the Index, sang soprano in the Premium Orange a capella group, served as a co-director of Frelon dance troupe, was the American Chemistry Society Student Affiliate Chair; and volunteered in the children\u2019s ward at Kalamazoo\u2019s Bronson Hospital. She also traveled to Perth, Australia, for her\u00a0 study abroad, during which she volunteered at the Western Australian AIDS Council, working on a needle exchange program and youth risk reduction programs.<\/p>\n<p>After K, Holly earned a medical degree from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Western Pennsylvania and completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>She and Ethan were married in July 2016 and have been living in Houston this past year \u201clearning and working\u201d at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital, she said. He is completing his pediatric otolaryngology fellowship, while she works in the emergency department and serves as assistant professor of pediatrics.<\/p>\n<p>Next up for the couple is a move to Columbus, Ohio, \u201clearning and working\u201d at The OSU Nationwide Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Ethan will join the pediatric ear-nose-throat clinical and academic faculty, while Holly starts a fellowship in pediatric critical care. She intends to focus on the disparate access to quality health care that low income children with complex medical needs have within a pediatric hospital system compared to those with middle and high incomes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cK study abroad shaped the way I think about medical practice and empathy for low and very low income women and children,\u201d Holly said. \u201cThe service component to my study abroad program–a health screening project in a low-income suburb of Perth with primarily aboriginal women and children–helped expose the bubble that is so convenient for many of the economically stable K students to live in, including myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Study abroad also fueled Holly\u2019s interest in travel, particularly to the lands Down Under. She traveled to Sydney, Australia, during the summer after her first year of medical school to work in a lab related to research she conducted for her K Senior Independent Project, or SIP. (Professor of Chemistry <strong>Laura Furge <\/strong>served as Holly’s on-campus SIP faculty mentor for the reading of her thesis.)\u00a0 A recent vacation to New Zealand with Ethan was a respite from work and studies before they finish their assignments in Houston and pack for the move to Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>She looks forward to being a little closer to her Wisconsin and Kalamazoo College homes, and hopes to cross paths with K alumni.<\/p>\n<p><em>TEXT AND PHOTO BY JEFF PALMER ’76<\/em><\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8646"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8940,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8646\/revisions\/8940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8646"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=8646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}