KELLY LYNN MOORE, M.D.
1994-95 Traveling Fellow
The Art of Healing in Different Cultures
Dr. Moore’s project explored the healing relationship between allopathic and traditional physicians and patients in different cultures.
Hometown: Huntsville, Alabama
Major: Interdisciplinary (Neuroscience)
Dr. Moore, M.D., M.P.H., is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a leader in state public policy related to immunization and is the President & CEO of Immunize.org, which works to provide educational materials about immunizations to show the safety, efficacy, and use of vaccines.
Dr. Moore earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Vanderbilt and a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.
“I believe that people are better doctors if they have worked with people in desperate need. Within medicine, I have focused on ensuring that great advances in medicine get to the people who most need them. What use is a wonderful, life-saving intervention if those in need do not have access. I try to make the right thing to do (such as vaccination) easy for even the most disadvantaged. My fellowship taught me that I am not the smartest or most talented person, but I have opportunities that most in the world will never have and I owe it to them to do my best to improve the lives of others with the skills I have.”
— Dr. Kelly Moore on the impact the fellowship had on her life
TRAVEL STORIES
Like all fellows, I worked all available connections to find people in countries I wanted to visit. For Bangkok, I was put in touch with a man who had been a Rotary exchange student in the home of a friend's grandmother in Mississippi. I had heard he had done well in business and Bill's grandmother asked him to look after me. I arrived to discover he was at the top of a very powerful business conglomerate and that he credited Bill's grandmother with his success. I was treated to my own chauffeured Mercedes for the week. He and his wife also took me to the Phuket Yacht Club because it was "Prince Charles' favorite resort" and they hadn't been yet. We had a private tour of the islands because the public tour didn't fit our schedule. The entire week was a surreal dream. I left to visit missionaries in Chiang Mai... sleeping with a can of Raid by the bed... how I loved the contrasts!
I got off the plane from the US in Japan. My first stay was with the family of my Vanderbilt fellowship mentor, Shozo Kawaguchi. He gave me detailed directions, in Japanese, for the taxi. Unfortunately, the driver dropped me at the wrong intersection and I wandered the neighborhood, jetlagged, laden with luggage and hopelessly lost. No one spoke English. A lady walking her dog gestured for me to wait (I collapsed on the curb) and she ran in her house. Moments later, out popped a young Japanese woman who uttered the most wonderful words I ever heard, "Hey! I went to school in Ohio!" Within minutes she had deposited me at the Kawaguchi's doorstep and vanished.
Traveling in Italy by train in April was challenging. Many trains were full and I had to delay departing Florence for Sorrento by almost a week. Finally, I made it on a train to Naples and went to get the private train to Sorrento, only to be told it was closed. The agent's explanation: "Today is a holiday in Italy called 'Easter'". Oops. It did lead to the unforgettable experience of arriving at the base of Sorrento's cliffs in a boat and carrying all my belongings up countless cliff steps to the town...
ITINERARY
Japan
Taiwan
Hong Kong
China
Macau
Thailand
Burma (for an hour!)
Australia
New Zealand
India
Germany
Luxemburg
Netherlands
Frances
Spain
Switzerland
Italy
Czech Republic
Hungary