POP QUIZ: Albert D. Sam
Print
Email
Save
Reprints
Twitter
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Each week The Advocate asks a different “quiz taker” for his or her current favorites in pop culture.
QUIZ TAKER: Dr. Albert D. Sam II, 42, vascular surgeon at Vascular Specialty Associates/Total Vein Care of Louisiana and chief of vascular surgery at Baton Rouge General.
WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: “Lots of modern R&B — anything Maxwell, Conya Doss or Chico Debarge-ish; old school jazz — particularly Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal and John Coltrane, and all types of talk radio news from NPR to WJBO.”
WHAT I’M READING: “Currently I am in Tulane’s Executive Masters of Medical Management program, which leaves little time for casual reading. Right now I’m reading Vernon Jordan’s book of speeches, ‘Make It Plain: Standing Up & Speaking Out,’ and ‘Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows’ by Charles Garcia.”
WHAT I’M WATCHING: “Primarily sports, news and talk shows: Tavis Smiley, ‘Meet the Press,’ sports reporters. ‘Pardon the Interruption’ (PTI) is a daily must (thank you DVR!). My wife, Roberta, insists that, together, we watch the Atlanta housewives, ‘Army Wives’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ — notice a common theme there?”
WHERE I’M SURFING (ON THE INTERNET): “BusinessReport.com, Sportsillustrated.com, NYTimes.com. To try and win cool points with my teenage daughter I also visit Bossip.com, a site for the latest gossip on hip hop artists.”
WHAT’S YOUR PASSION?
“Louisiana will never reach its full potential unless we transform our approach to public education similarly to those states that expect nothing less than a first-rate public system. In addition to individual work with schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, I serve on the board of directors for Advance Baton Rouge, a charter school organization. I am also active with my practice’s foundation (Vascular Associates Education Foundation) whose activities center on providing mentoring and opportunity for students to perform independent research related to vascular disease; and to expose interested students to all the varied fields involved in the delivery of health care to patients with cardiovascular disease.”
BONUS QUESTION:
What made you want to become a doctor and why this specialty?
“I became a doctor because all of the guys that I wanted to be like when I arrived at Morehouse College were pre-med majors. I became a surgeon because of the grace, intelligence, teaching ability and mentoring of Dr. David Sabiston at Duke University. I became a vascular surgeon because our knowledge of vascular disease and the tools that we use to combat its effects (stroke, limb loss) have much to be improved upon.”
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
