Dr. Liles has been a very active member of the LAFP at all stages of her membership. She is from Rockdale, TX. She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Anthropology. For medical school, she attended the University of Queensland-Ochsner Clinical School in Brisbane, Australia and New Orleans and completed her family medicine residency program at LSU-Kenner.

When asked why she chose family medicine and who inspired her to choose family medicine, Dr. Liles answered, “I entered medical school wanting to do family medicine because of my hometown family doctor, Dr. Locklear. My mother had many chronic medical conditions, and he was integral in not only her care, but also my own health. I grew up thinking that a family doctor was the ideal model of a physician because you could take care of the entire family and coordinate care between specialists.” Dr. Liles continued, “My inspiration to become a family physician came from Dr. Locklear, my mother, and Toni Lafferty, my high school science teacher who has had a long-lasting impact on both my education and my teaching style.”

“Continuity” is how Dr. Liles describes her favorite aspect of family medicine. “I really enjoy the continuity of the specialty and the ability to see an entire family. This allows you to really dive into the biopsychosocial aspects of medicine and make a true impact.” Continuity has also brought Dr. Liles some of her best experiences of her career. She states, “I really enjoy the variety of family medicine, but one of my favorite things is continuing to see the infants I delivered during residency.” Dr. Liles also values building strong patient/physician bonds. She says, “Every clinical encounter does not have to be about filling prescriptions or otherwise task-oriented; sometimes the best thing you can do for a patient is just listen and talk.”

Dr. Liles describes how she decided to become a faculty member at Kenner upon graduation from the program. “I entered residency with a vision of how my future practice would look. That vision completely shifted towards teaching because of my interactions with my attendings and medical students during residency. I quickly found a passion for teaching the future of family medicine and hope to continue in academics for my career.” In addition to seeing patients in the outpatient setting, covering the inpatient and obstetric services, Dr. Liles also serves as the Medical Director for the Riverdale School Based Health Center and assists with coordinating the residents’ research requirements.

Dr. Liles has been very active in the Academy since arriving in New Orleans. As a student, she was integral in the formation of the Family Medicine Interest Group at the UQ-Ochsner Clinical School. Dr. Liles has held multiple delegate positions both as a student, resident, and active member. We asked her, why is it important for you to be a member of AAFP and LAFP? She states, “It’s important because true change can happen through advocacy and being a member of both organizations allows me to participate in grassroots and national advocacy.”

If Dr. Liles weren’t a physician, she states, “Honestly, I have no idea. I have been focused on being a physician since age 18. However, I would probably be working in the drug development/clinical research realm.” Dr. Liles enjoys jigsaw puzzles, watching football and hockey, reading and traveling in her spare time.

The LAFP congratulates Dr. Lindsay Liles as our November of the Month!