Dr. Julie Schrader, November 2018

Each day our community faculty illustrate their commitment to educating future physicians through their passion for teaching and examples of excellence. This month, Angiela Sivakumar, MS4, shines a spotlight on Julie Schrader, M.D., a Forensic Pathologist at the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner's Office and University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine Clinical Assistant Professor of Pathology.

An elective in forensic pathology may not immediately strike medical students as a necessity, but the opportunity to learn from Dr. Julie Schrader is an invaluable, memorable experience. Working with her at the Medical Examiner's Office, medical students have the unique opportunity to assess the effects of illness and injury through autopsies, to correlate physiology and pathology firsthand, providing a context of significance to the care they render as clinicians of any realm.

Dr. Schrader is an attending whose joy for engaging with and educating medical students is palpable. She takes great care to explain cases in depth, teaching in a way that allows students to combine knowledge garnered from multiple settings and synthesize coherent illness scripts spanning basic science and clinical knowledge. The effort she makes to learn about the individual interests of students she works with and highlight aspects of forensic pathology of relevance to our future practice is noteworthy. It is also reflective of the care she takes to truly know those with whom she interacts.

Her energy and enthusiasm for the field of forensic pathology is contagious--when someone has as much passion for what they do and is as excited to teach as she is, one cannot help but look forward to each day, to the things one will discover in piecing together stories and analyzing tissues, organs, and bodies. She is a warm, personable physician who engenders an environment highly conducive to learning and an excellent educator who elevates one's understanding of medicine.

- How do you serve as a community faculty member for UNR Med? 
I serve as a preceptor to 3rd and 4th year medical students during forensic pathology rotations at the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner's Office, and also lecture to the second-year medical students at the medical school.

- What do you like best about working with medical students? 
Their enthusiasm and being able to show them findings at autopsy that few physicians ever get to see. There is a Latin proverb we use in forensic pathology, "Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae," which translates to, "this is the place where death delights to help the living." Even though most medical students won't become forensic pathologists, they will undoubtedly see and learn things during autopsy that will in turn help them treat living patients.

- Why do you continue serving as a community faculty member?
I love teaching and interacting with medical students, and I also love to learn. Medical students are inquisitive, which keeps me thinking, so I'm continuously learning things from them too!

Thank you, Dr. Schrader, for your continued commitment to medical education! You are making a difference as a clinician and educator, and it shows. For her efforts, Dr. Schrader will receive a UNR Med vest.