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GRAVITAS MAGAZINE GravitasMag.com | 49 It's always exciting and fascinating to watch and be a part of the process of bringing life into this world. " " were both tak ing care of the children and it's not just me. You were instrumental in leading the effort to raise the visibility of women at USF. W hat projects did you initiate? When I started three years ago a women's Health Sea Grant Program for the faculty to be involved to get funding for research projects. During our last year, we had 17 different teams that applied for and were awarded three sea grants. One of them received a gi of $30,000 to be used for research. You would be amazed with the research people can do with $7,000 or $10,000. So we're actually tr ying to expand our women's health cooperative foundation so we can continue to provide the resources for people to have some sea grant funding. e program will now be a tool k it on the A A MC, the A merican Association of Medical College's website and a prototy pe for the nation. How did you meet your husband, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn? We met through a mutual friend that I was actually in residency with, and she had suggested several times over about three years that I should be meet Bob. I'm like why would I be interested? We went out for lunch one day with two other friends. When I got there she was like, "Oh my god, you' ll never guess who's here," and I said, "Who?" She said, "the guy we tried to set you up with for three years!" So he came over and said hello. He had a good handshake that nearly broke my wrist (laughs). When I got back to my office and she went back to her office, he had called her a couple times. We set up a time to meet and talk a lile more and it seemed to work out okay, and started dating from there. How do you juggle two very high profile and very demanding careers with teenage children? In large part, it's all communication. He has on his schedule when I'm on call or when I'm out of town, as I have his on mine, you k now, when he's going to be out of town. We certainly had to have good help, but we've been able to coordinate our schedules so that most of the time we're able to do family dinners four times in a week. We're not geing involved with three or four activities at the same time. You have to pick your activities. It's much easier to maintain a routine if you're not bouncing around to three different activities in a week. You were a working mom when your daughters were born? I was already fairly established. I had been in practice at the university for about seven years when I had the first one and 11 years when I had the second one. Now they are 14 and 10 years old. Have your daughters talked about following in Mom's footsteps? Sometimes they give me options, like do you want me to do this, do you want me to find someone to come and stay with you, or do you want to come with me to the office in the hospital? ey jump on that idea of coming in. I'm not so sure what their true level of interest is because they k now well where the snacks are and where the best place to hang out is, and they get treated pre y well. My 14-year-old has called me a few times when she's had friends over to the house and ask, "So mom, are you in surger y?" or "A re you delivering a baby?" It's almost like she never asks me that question when you're by yourself. You bring life into this world every day. Tell me about that moment seeing that happen and the impact it has on you. It's always exciting and fascinating to watch and be a part of the process. ings have certainly changed how we deliver today versus the more medicalized nature of 20 years ago. Fortunately it's more of a routine now, puing the baby up on mom's belly, which is what I've been doing for a number of years, and geing Dad involved in the process. My pulse still races ever y time it happens. Is there a moral dilemma or a moment that was difficult for you? ere are certain times where during situations where mom is sick and baby is on the cusp of viability, tr ying to balance geing mom far enough along for the benefit of the baby so that baby can get development inside as much as possible. ere are times where you're delivering and you realize mom's prognosis is not the greatest. If I can let her see the baby and let her hold the baby that helps. ere have been times when we've delivered moms who were in the ICU, not seeing what's going on. You have delivered more than 10,000 babies during your career, but you've also helped deliver several primates at Busch Gardens. How exciting! To be honest, it k ind of fell in my lap. ere was an orthopedist who was check ing on an Continued on page 54

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