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Meet Our Advocates: Dr. Melissa Kottke

What are your gender pronouns?
She/her/hers

Where are you from?
Darwin, MN, population 350; you’ve probably heard of it because it is home to the world’s largest ball of twine made by one person. (Turns out some folks in Kansas worked together on a bigger ball of twine…). Weird Al Yankovic wrote a song about it and I named my dog after it. All true.

What’s your specialty or area of expertise?
Ob/gyn, family planning, with a special interest in adolescents.

What first inspired you to become a doctor?
I realized that nothing else was going to make me as happy. I liked physical and biological science, psychology, philosophy, sociology, ethics, and coaching. And being a doctor is all of those together and more!

 

What current policy issue especially motivates you to be an advocate?
I currently live in Georgia, and we had a ban on nearly all abortions that just went through our state legislature this past year. It is under injunction, but remains unsettling.

How do you practice self-care?
I wish I could say that I was a yogi. I believe that I am deep down….but currently I am a yogi without a regular practice. A work in progress, if you will.

Who is your social justice hero?
Who are they? I have many and so many with Georgia roots: Jane Fonda, John Lewis, Stacey Abrams.

Our Meet Our Advocates series showcases the talents and passion of one of our doctors and finds out, in their own words, what inspires them to be physician-advocates. Melissa Kottke, MD, MPH, MBA is in our current Leadership Training Academy class. Dr. Kottke practices obstetrics and gynecology in Georgia.

Read more interviews from the Meet Our Advocates series.