Smithie of The Month
Name : Deborah Davis MD
Class Year: 1976
How long have you lived in Philadelphia? Lived outside Philly all of my 60 years.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city? Bibou.
What are you up to now? I am a practicing as a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and intensive care physician and currently serve as the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit/ Nemours Cardiac Center at DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington Delaware.
What house did you live in on campus and what was your favorite thing about it? Lawrence. I lived in Sylvia Plath’s room and hoped that her creativity would rub off on me!!!
Why did you choose Smith? They gave me the best financial aid package which allowed me to go to college.
What is your favorite Smith tradition and why? Thursday night candle light dinners with professors. We felt all grown up eating a formal meal with linen tablecloths, good food and sophisticated conversations. We got to see our professors in a different light from the classroom and could interact with them on a different level.
Do you have a defining/favorite/most memorable/transformative Smith moment? Coming to Smith as a first year and meeting women who were smarter, more talented, more athletic and prettier (sorry it was the early 70’s and that stuff still mattered!!) than me. It was a very humbling experience and forced me to work hard to keep up and learn from them.
How did your Smith experience shape your life? Smith fostered and further developed my inquiring mind by exposing me to a camaraderie of intelligentsia that I had never encountered before. That experience drove me to pursue a trajectory of excellence in my subsequent education and training. Furthermore, by allowing me attain leadership positions on campus, I saw that women could be leaders. I continued to assume those roles throughout my career which were traditionally held by males in the field of medicine.
The Smith College Club of Philadelphia 