Three Women from Burnett School of Medicine at TCU Enter Orthopaedic Surgery

FORT WORTH  – Medical Students at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University were welcomed into the medical profession during the traditional Hooding Ceremony followed by TCU’s Commencement for graduate degree programs.

The Class of 2025 had a 100% residency match and will begin their medical careers at revered health care systems such as Johns Hopkins Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Stanford Health, and the Mayo Clinic.

The medical students took the traditional Hippocratic Oath at TCU’s Van Cliburn Hall at Megan and Victor Boschini Music Center on Friday, May 9 during the Hooding Ceremony, signifying the successful completion of the M.D. degree program.

“We have worked with these newly minted physicians for four years to instill medical knowledge, empathy, and compassion,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., Founding Dean of Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. “We are proud of them, and they are prepared for this challenge. I am hopeful that their future patients will be fortunate to have them as their physician.”

The keynote speaker was J. Mack Slaughter Jr., M.D., an Emergency Medicine physician at Texas Health Resources and founder of Music Meets Medicine, a nonprofit organization. He has also gained popularity on social media as a MedFluencer that has amassed more than one million followers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik-Tok.

Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Slaughter had a career as a musician, touring with Beyonce’s former group, Destiny’s Child, and opened for Jessica Simpson and Bon Jovi. He also pursued acting before attending medical school.

“Medicine is a calling for some people that represents empathy, compassion, and healing,” Dr. Slaughter said. “I want you all to carry that empathy and caring nature with you into each hospital room you walk into and meet with patients. You will be there to help them, but they will also be able to help you become a better physician.”

The day capped off with the medical graduates participating in TCU’s Commencement for graduate degree programs with acclaimed filmmaker Taylor Sheridan who received an honorary degree.

COMMENCEMENT 2025: STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS

Isabella Amado, M.D.

Hometown: Panama City, Panama

Program: Virginia University School of Medicine

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Most people would say getting into medical school and graduating to become a doctor is beating the odds twice. However, this is the third time Isabella Amado, M.D., has beat the odds doing something most people dream of doing.

Before attending the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU she had already been the first person to represent her home country of Panama as a gymnast in the Olympics. During the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she competed for medals against Simone Biles and other gymnasts from around the world.

“At one point, I didn’t think I was going to make it because it is very difficult,” Dr. Amado said. “To see that I accomplished what little girls’ dream of is still surreal.”

That once in a lifetime experience planted the seed for her next career as a physician. As an undergraduate student athlete at Boise State University, she experienced her own setbacks with injuries on her road to becoming an Olympian.

“Through gymnastics, I worked with orthopaedic surgeons and that was my big exposure,” Dr. Amado said. “They loved what they did so that drew me to that field.”

Once she became a medical student, she explored other medical specialties through the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU’s Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC). LIC partners medical students with physicians from their first day in medical school.

“By my second year, I decided I was pretty committed because I had seen other specialties and nothing really was as fun as orthopaedics,” Dr. Amado said.

Orthopaedics is a wide-ranging medical and surgical specialty focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal system. Orthopaedic surgeons can treat injuries such as foot and ankle, hand surgery, shoulder and elbow, spine, trauma and fractures, musculoskeletal oncology, and physical rehabilitation.

Aside from fun, Amado added the problem-solving aspect of orthopaedics as something that attracted her to the medical specialty.

“I like that type of thinking where there’s a problem and you know how to fix it you just need to align the bones back together,” Dr. Amado said. “It’s not always like that, but I like that kind of mentality.”

However, there is another side of orthopaedics when sports medicine is involved that requires empathy. Medical students at the Burnett School of Medicine are taught communication skills through the Physician Communication curriculum that spans across their four years of study.

Amado dealt with her own injuries as a gymnast and had moments when she felt like her Olympic dreams wouldn’t happen. She wants to be the type of physician that can relate to injured athletes in their darkest moments.

“It’s a nice complement to have that skill going into orthpaedics,” Dr. Amado said.

Alexandra Richards, M.D.

Hometown: Healdsburg, California

Program: UCLA Health

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

Finding your calling in life can happen as you get older and gain more life experience. However, it can also happen at the age of 7 on a small farm in Northern California, according to Alexandra Richards, M.D.

“I had my goat break his leg and my little hometown orthopaedic surgeon teamed up with my small hometown veterinarian and they let me scrub in for the surgery to fix my goat’s leg,” Dr. Richards said. “I was like: ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’”

From that moment, Dr. Richards set her sights on becoming a surgeon.

“The reason I love orthopaedics is that you’re getting people back to their life,” Dr. Richards said.

Her path to orthopaedic surgery began in nursing. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and later received her Doctor of Nursing from Duke University School of Nursing.

She admired the care that nurses gave to her family members growing up in Healdsburg, California. Even though nurses and physicians take two different educational paths into health care they work together, Dr. Richards added.

“I realized they were really the hands taking care of patients so for me going into nursing was a choice,” Dr. Richards said. “I had the option of medical school earlier and nursing was an important pivot because I stood by the philosophy of nursing.”

She spent several years assisting in neuroscience research and built her herself into a strong medical school candidate. Her pivot from nursing into medicine was fueled by her desire to do something surgical.

“That belongs to the field of medicine so becoming a surgeon is something you only train for in the philosophy of medicine,” Dr. Richards said. “I think nursing is beautiful, but I also think being able to exhaust every option for your patient surgically is really special.”

Now, she will head to UCLA Health Orthopaedic Surgery for residency as an Empathetic Scholar® from the Burnett School of Medicine carrying an innovative mindset.

“There’s a lot of ways I want to take what I learned here and be innovative,” Dr. Richards said. “I want to rebuild limbs someday, which I think will be an interesting intersection of the neurosciences and orthopaedic surgery.”

Lauren Holladay, M.D.

Hometown: Richmond, Texas (dual U.S.- Panamanian citizen)

Program: UT Health San Antonio

Specialty: Orthopaedic Surgery

The seeds for Lauren Holladay, M.D., to become an orthopaedic surgeon were planted long before she was born.

In the 1970s, her grandfather was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which is a chronic inflammatory arthritis that primarily affects the spine and pelvis, according to the National Institutes of Health. He was one of the people to have modern day hip replacement surgery in the United States that had been approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 1969.

“That was actually my family’s first time coming to the United States,” Dr. Holladay. “So that seed was planted that my mom had to travel to the United States for my grandfather to have his hip replacement surgery and that planted her seed to come back. It’s like a full circle moment.”

Dr. Holladay’s family eventually immigrated to the U.S. from Panama. She was born in Richmond, Texas, and as a child her grandfather would often share stories about his experience with hip replacement surgery and how it improved his quality of life.

“I always saw my grandfather having these great strides of the future of medicine,” Dr. Holladay said. “He’s 95 and still walking on that 1970-something hip, which is insane.”

Her path to being an orthopaedic surgeon started after getting her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University. Her first health care job was in Bryant, Texas, as an emergency room medical scribe at St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital.

She enrolled at University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio and completed her master’s degree in biomedical science before becoming a medical scribe at an orthopaedic clinic in Austin, Texas. That’s when she learned how orthopaedics also correlated to her other passion, which is nutrition.

“I find so much joy in the quality-of-life aspect of medicine and with orthopaedics and nutrition I loved seeing patients gain that joy for themselves,” Dr. Holladay said.

Once she became a medical student at the Burnett School of Medicine, she was laser focused on going into orthopaedic surgery but also started a culinary medicine student interest group.

“Both things represent not just being a physician but also to help people find a fix and get their quality of life back,” Dr. Holladay said.

Now, she plans to spend time learning and researching ways to improve the quality of life for her future patients at UT Health San Antonio.

“There’s going to be people who break things no matter what but my whole goal is to help people not have to go to the hospital,” Dr. Holladay said. “I want my patients to feel reassured that if they fall, they’re OK.”

The Burnett School of Medicine opened in July 2019 with its inaugural class of medical students. The medical school’s unique curriculum with a focus on communication and the development of Empathetic Scholars® has uniquely positioned the school to radically transform medical education and improve healthcare for generations.