A Childhood Dream Realized

Melis­sa Lenderman‘s path into med­i­cine began with a child­hood dream and has devel­oped into a 36-year career.

“Even as a young child, I knew I want­ed a career in med­i­cine. I want­ed to help peo­ple and under­stood it would be the great­est gift to aid in the heal­ing process,” she shared.

This sen­ti­ment has guid­ed her for over three decades in the health­care field. Len­der­man is a Physi­cian Assis­tant (PA) at the Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Pitts­field Clin­ic. Ear­ly in her jour­ney to become a PA, she rec­og­nized the chang­ing trends in med­i­cine and iden­ti­fied a need for more mid-lev­el providers.

The role of a PA, she said, allowed her to offer a holis­tic care to patients through­out their life­time. With 36 years of expe­ri­ence, her train­ing began in her home­town of Pike Coun­ty, Illi­nois. Fol­low­ing a move to Nashville, she returned home in 2018.

“Some of my ini­tial clin­ic rota­tions were here in my home com­mu­ni­ty. My career took me to com­plete my Physi­cian Assis­tant edu­ca­tion in Nashville, Ten­nessee, and to prac­tice for 31 years in Knoxville, Ten­nessee,” she explained.

Return­ing to Pike Coun­ty five years ago brought her full cir­cle, where she dis­cov­ered a pro­found sense of ful­fill­ment in pro­vid­ing care to the com­mu­ni­ty that means so much to her.

“I have been able to pro­vide a wide range of med­ical care, and I have expe­ri­enced many dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ties, but am hap­py to have my career return me to Pike Coun­ty. I have always con­sid­ered Illi­nois my home and con­sid­er it an hon­or to be able to pro­vide care for my com­mu­ni­ty,” she shared.

Behind her jour­ney is the sup­port and inspi­ra­tion she receives from the team at QMG. Togeth­er, they form a health­care fam­i­ly devot­ed to their patients.

“The staff here at QMG keep me moti­vat­ed and play a sig­nif­i­cant role in patient care,” she said. ​“Even after 36 years, I still rel­ish the chance to make a pos­i­tive impact on the lives of oth­ers every day.”

This week, we extend our recog­ni­tion to all PAs, espe­cial­ly those here at QMG, whose ded­i­ca­tion has touched the hearts and lives of count­less individuals.