Marymount alumna Dr. Kristi Funk on life, love and call

Dr. Kristi Funk reunites with her favorite Marymount teacher, Sr. Margaret McKenna

Dr. Kristi Funk reunites with her favorite Marymount teacher, Sr. Margaret McKenna

In January, Marymount alumna Dr. Kristi Funk from the Pink Lotus Breast Center came to speak about her career and the influence that Marymount had on her later life.  Paula Mendoza from the Anchor interviewed her after her presentation to hear more about life lessons and what advice she might give a current Marymount student.

 Paula: Why did you want to become a doctor and how old were you when you realized that was what you wanted to do?

Dr. Funk: So, a lot of people would answer that question as “forever,” right?  Like “I wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember.”  For me it really was the epiphany, in that moment, at the end of my sophomore year, and I didn’t even want that.  I just couldn’t deny the epiphany.  But I glossed over, I went from immediately after that final, I went home for one day and then flew to Africa for three months where I was a short-term missionary in Kenya.  I lived in the bush, in a dung hut, and taught English to Africans.  And while I was there I was really impressed by how much simple healthcare knowledge could transform a life.  I mean whether it’s just from basic hygiene or dental care to more important things like noticing true illness, it was in that moment that I was convicted that while I could be an actress, it would most likely end up being a gross underutilization of the gifts and talents I had been blessed with.

I was very moved in Africa to realize that you really don’t have much if you don’t have your health and your mind—you’re quite limited in that way.  And so if I could spend my life making others’ lives healthier, then I would be reaching far more than even just them because they are mothers—and I didn’t know it was breast at that time, but now it’s all women mostly—mothers with families that need them, again the ripple effects in another context, of my one good creating more good.  That’s when I knew.  So it was when I came back from Africa that I really felt, “Ok, I can see some more purpose to this medicine thing,” because I hadn’t, like I mentioned, been introduced to medicine prior to then.

 Paula: What advice would you give to us as high schoolers getting ready to leave for college, especially the Seniors?

Dr. Funk: I’m pleased with the path I took at Stanford, meaning I kept it raw, like I joined intramural sports, I wasn’t a sorority type (though the face may have changed thirty years later), but I definitely found some of my deepest friendships in college, so: Open up the opportunities.  Join clubs, do drama, just beyond the academics, because it’s still all part of keeping your well-rounded womanhood.  You don’t want to hyperfocus in one thing because—you’ll become boring.

 Paula: You touched upon this earlier, but how do you balance your professional and family life?

 Dr. Funk: I do it in part by having purposefully chosen a partner, a man, who would foster that balance, but encourage the balance.  You also have to set limits.  I had an invitation a couple of weeks back to be on the board of directors of an amazing, beautiful-sounding nonprofit that was based in Maryland, and for such a good cause, but I opened it and barely glanced at it and wrote back, “Sorry, I’m overcommitted right now.”  And she’s a surgeon, and she wrote back, “I wish I knew how to say no.”  Learn how to say no.  Prioritize what matters and make time for it, and say no to everything else.  That nonprofit is going to be fine without me.

 Paula: Is there anything in particular that inspired you to found the Pink Lotus Breast Center?

 Dr. Funk: The University and big hospital systems are extremely fragmented, and they depersonalize medical care.  By focusing on one and only one disease subset, breast disease, I am able to deliver extremely personalized care, not only in terms of doing the best by a certain patient for her given disease, but more importantly, I have the time to get into her soul and her emotional point of view.  I am able to say, you know what?  I think maybe you could use a psychologist right now, to help you with coping strategies, or we can develop some of these cutting-edge techniques that the red tape in these big institutions—they have committees that decide that we’ll have a meeting about that meeting—it’s ridiculous, to get a new scalpel in the OR would take a year and a half.  So I was inspired to deliver more personalized, more compassionate care because it hones in on a woman, and I know her first name and I sometimes know her dogs’ names.  I mean, we really know our patients well, and at the same time we’re able to deliver the highest level of care.  And that’s where I was getting frustrated in my prior position, because I didn’t have the ability to deliver what I knew was the best care.

 Paula: Lastly, going back in time, what class in Marymount did you find most inspiring?

 Dr. Funk: It was history—AP history! It was actually Sister Margaret who taught me AP history.  The reason that class was so influential was because Sister Margaret taught me to think and write with proof.  Every single fact you said had five facts, unspoken, that you could back it up with at any given moment and you always knew the tree when you wrote.  You had to be able to link those facts together, and you never start paragraphs with the same word—you switch them up.  But it was that class because you had to speak with conviction, come from a place of knowledge, and be able to back up what you are saying.  Sr. Margaret was teaching it from the context of literally history, and how to write those essays and have a very logical train of thought, but I still use everything.

Paula: Thank you so much for coming!