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Alumni Profile: McKenzie Klein ’08
ALUMNI NEWS:
McKenzie Klein ’08
Making a Difference Through Medicine
When McKenzie Klein ’08 graduates from the University of Virginia in the spring of 2022, she’ll walk away with not one, but two, graduate degrees. Now in her fourth year of medical school at UVA, she began work on her M.B.A. degree this fall at UVA’s Darden School of Business, and is only one of a handful of her classmates taking part in this five-year, dual-degree program.
“I went to medical school knowing I wanted to get an M.B.A.,” she says. “Our medical system is fractured and I think one of the ways to help fix it is to give doctors more
leadership roles. A lot of the decisions being made don’t make the most medical sense because the people in the board room and the physicians on the floor don’t have the same experiences.”
Although she hopes to transition into an administrative leadership role at a hospital one day, McKenzie is currently focused on gaining valuable firsthand experience as a physician. Next fall, she will begin applying to residency programs, with the goal of specializing in adolescent psychiatry. “I’m very passionate about the mental health of the young adult population. Teens are often lumped into pediatric or adult medicine, but they are their own distinct group with very different needs,” she says, noting that she would eventually like to work alongside a family practice that integrates psychiatry.
But McKenzie isn’t waiting until she has her medical degree to make a difference in the lives of teens in need. While shadowing doctors at UVA’s pediatric oncology clinic, she noticed that 2-year-old and 15-year-old patients were sharing the same waiting room and other spaces. Feeling that the older kids needed their own dedicated space, she applied for a research program to investigate the distinct needs of adolescents and pitched a partnership with Teen Cancer America to develop teen cancer programs at UVA clinics statewide. Although the pandemic has halted the grant process, the program is ready to be piloted and private donations have already provided for a new room where teen patients can play video games, listen to music, and congregate.
McKenzie’s interest in teen eating disorders prompted another independent research project with the UVA Teen Health Clinic. Teens with severe eating disorders are admitted to the general medicine floor for refeeding and stabilization, but she discovered that the caretakers on that floor aren’t necessarily experts on the nuances of eating disorders. So McKenzie is assisting in the development of a three-pronged program to grow inpatient and outpatient treatment programs. She’s working with UVA physicians to develop information sheets on various eating disorders to help patients’ families understand the treatment process; create videos to train pediatric staff on how to work with eating disorder patients during mealtimes; and conduct research on the readmission rates of teen patients to provide evidence that opening an inpatient eating disorder program would benefit patients.
McKenzie’s ability to identify needs and develop creative solutions extends to the COVID-19 pandemic as well. As part of a medical school elective, she and her classmates designed a prototype to help the UVA Emergency Department better care for patients during COVID-19. “The ER was just recently redesigned with an open floor plan which didn’t translate well to the social distancing and safety protocols needed during the pandemic. We came up with ideas for how to redesign the check-in and waiting room procedures, allow for social distancing, and educate the public that the ER was a safe place for them to come,” she adds, noting that the ER has already implemented some of these ideas. This winter, McKenzie is also working on an independent research project to document the pandemic and its impact on our lives from both a social and a medical perspective.
While McKenzie has known she wanted to become a doctor since her early teenage years, her passion for reading and writing led her to major in English as an undergrad at Cornell University, while taking a full load of premed classes. She credits the nine years she spent at Langley with sparking her love for her two favorite subjects – English and science. “My sixth-grade language arts teacher, Mark Robbins, helped me find my voice and become a confident writer,” she says. “And science teacher Ryan McKinney made science come alive for me in a way that developed the innate fascination I have for the field today.”
McKenzie also credits her fifth-grade teacher, Debi Gustin, with helping her become organized. “She taught us how to study and how to organize our notes and materials. And being an organized student translates into being a good student,” she says, adding that she still continues to use many of the techniques she learned from Mrs. Gustin.
Langley holds many special memories for both McKenzie and her family – her father, Thomas Klein ’80, and her aunt, Alison Klein ’82, also attended the school. She happily recalls reciting Shakespeare during Bardfest in sixth grade, playing flute in the band, sneaking into the library to get a hug from long-time librarian, Pat Bush, and meeting Maggie Thompson ’08 for the first time while walking to music class in kindergarten. The two remain close friends to this day.
“The skills I learned at Langley and the interests I developed there have stayed with me throughout high school, college, and grad school,” McKenzie adds, “and I’m sure they will continue to serve me well as I begin an exciting new journey as a physician.” IN MEMORIAM:
Lee Trott, Former Faculty
Lenore “Lee” Trott, former Langley second-grade teacher, passed away on October 18, 2020. She loved many things in life – the wonders of nature, teaching, her “kids,” her friends and family, and her beloved husband, John, who taught countless Langley students about birds through his memorable ornithology lessons.
Michelle Malek Olson ’82 recalls, “Mrs. Trott was strict, but kind and loving. She garnered instant respect from children and could control a classroom like no other. We all learned so much from Mrs. Trott because she held us to high academic standards at a young age.”
“Mrs. Trott truly loved, believed in, and treasured all of us,” says Karen Milbank ’79. And Helen Methvin Payne ’79 fondly remembers Mrs. Trott’s jolly laugh which she used often in class.
Greyson Mazich ’13
Greyson Mazich ’13 of Great Falls, VA, passed away on September 2, 2020. Grey was the son of Thomas and Delaine Mazich and brother to Thomas ’10 and Nathaniel (Nate) ’16. At the time of his death, he was 21 years old and starting his senior year at Clemson University where he was earning a degree in business management.
