Good deeds never need advertising. . . . If the public needs to be educated as to Rotary, let that education come from what we do and not from what we say of ourselves.. — Paul Harris
Member Profile: Dr. Deb Harper

Dr. Deb Harper is regular. Not regular like you are thinking. Regular like just one of the gang. Oh, sure, she has a degree in microbiology and is an M.D. specializing in Pediatrics. She has a sister that is a rocket scientist at NASA and a lathe operator brother who, Deb says, is the smartest of all of them.

But when I met Deb she was locked out of her offi ce and didnŐt have a key. We sat in the hall on metal chairs to do the interview. Th atŐs the kind of regular I am talking about.

Her family moved a lot as she was growing up. She had attended 10 schools by the 8th grade. Deb said that was good because it kept her from getting bored. It was these beginning years that Deb had thought of becoming a nurse. Her thinking was that this would be a good career because the nurses uniforms had cute caps. Apparently, Deb lost interest in the caps because at age 16 she decided to be a doctor. Her high school counselor tried to dissuade her because she was a girl. Her biology teacher laughed when hearing of this doctor goal. After that Deb kept her mouth shut. Her mom and dad encouraged her and she was accepted at the University of Illinois medical school.

She went on to specialize in Pediatric medicine, all the time working while in school. After graduation, she worked as an E.R. doc to earn money and then worked in Bolivia doing public health for four months.

She has been practicing in Spokane since 1985. Two and a half days a week she is at the University of Washington school of medicine on 5th and Browne wearing her Assistant Dean hat, or should I say stethoscope?

Two days a week she is a doc at Riverfront Group Health, and Thursday mornings she is at Partners with Families and Children center dealing with physically abused children.

She is married to real-estate broker Robert Gilles. They have a daughter and three boys, ranging in age from 36 to 17. Her list of important things is family, friends and patients. Her strength she says is her sense of humor.

So you can see that other than an I.Q. that is off the charts, a bit of A.D.H.D and a M.D. degree that Dr. Deb is just regular, like the rest of us.

~ Dan Austin
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