A Life Given. A Life Taken. A Future Bestowed.

Dr. Lisa Lasher delivered thousands of babies as well as a motivation for her daughter to follow her mother’s chosen medical career as an OB/GYN

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by Amy Sullivan

school, she toyed with the idea of being a veterinarian. But in her freshman year of high school, when her mom received a second diagnosis of breast cancer, Anne realized she NEEDED to become a physician. Accompanying her mom to appointments and witnessing the human side of medicine—how compassionate doctors are towards their patients and how much that meant to their families—are the experiences Anne says that led her to medical school.

WWITH A MEDICAL MOM AS A MENTOR FOR ALMOST 20 YEARS, it’s no surprise that Paducah native Anne Chaney Lasher, M. D., graduated from medical school in May 2023 and matched with Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis to begin her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN). Anne admits she always aspired to be a doctor, wanting to mirror her mother, the late Dr. Lisa Chaney Lasher.

“Growing up I was always in and out of the hospital with my mom,” Anne reflected. “When I was two, my aunts said I always picked up the phone and said, ‘Hello, my name is Dr. Lasher and I’m on call today!’”

The hospital always felt like a second home to Anne. Throughout middle

Anne graduated from Paducah Tilghman High School in 2015 and graduated from the University of Kentucky in the B.S./M.D. program, where she was a Singletary Scholar and one of seven in her class working with UK’s College of Medicine. The medical school helped guide her pre-med journey. “This experience reinforced my values of working with and for the community,” Anne said. “We volunteered and worked closely with the Ronald McDonald House, which helped me regain my focus of the human perspective in medicine and remembering your patients are going through something life changing. I always want to remind myself it’s not just a career, and you are helping change people’s lives. We are fortunate to dedicate our lives to doing that.”

Anne took her Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in her junior year. That very same night, June 2, 2018, Anne’s mother, Dr. Lisa Chaney Lasher, tragically passed away from a heart attack while she slept. “We spent one weekend working on my personal statement and application, and the