15 minute read
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Dr. Mason Anders ’05
MEDICAL PHYSICIST
In this issue, we spotlight siblings Mason Anders ’05 and Brittney Anders ’07, who both have found their calling in the medical field.
RI, CT, X-RAY, FLUOROSCOPY,
Mmammography and ultrasound: quite a mouthful to the average person, but just another day in the office for Dr. Mason Anders ’05, a medical physicist whose days range from time spent at work on diagnostic and nuclear medicine physics to playing dolls with his three daughters aged six and under.
Mason, who spent grades K–12 at TCA, always gravitated toward science, with his favorite memories including playing Oregon Trail and Sim City in the Lower School computer lab as well as building a toothpick bridge and mousetrap car for science projects. He notes that “TCA is special because of the rigorous educational standards in a Christian environment” as well as crediting the strong academics at TCA with directly inspiring his future career: “I was able to become a diagnostic medical physicist because I fell in love with physics in Mr. Acker’s two physics classes. I was very well prepared for my math and physics majors in college because of my great math and science teachers at TCA.” In addition to his love for science, TCA gave Mason deep roots in the humanities. Mason notes that his first college English class resulted in his first A in college: “It was a breeze because I was so prepared!”
In addition to academics, Mason was formed by loving and engaging teachers and coaches at TCA. “In middle school we did a band lock-in with Mr. Taylor. We watched the original Time Machine movie, and at the scariest part, he popped out of nowhere and slammed the cymbals as loud as he could! In high school, I loved singing in choir with Mrs. Browning, especially singing a cappella. Through baseball, Coach Sharp helped me to have confidence that I later used to get through hard times. The teachers at TCA provided so much wisdom during their classes about relationships, marriage, finances and faith.” Extracurricular activities provided fun but also character formation for Mason. “I loved being a Sky Ranch and Wilderness Trip counselor because I could mentor younger kids.” He has
many happy memories from baseball, including once when he hit a single, double and homerun in the one game. Many chapel messages have stayed with him, teaching that “the Bible had the answers to every area of life. TCA prepared me for adult life by giving me a foundation of faith and a Christ-centered education.”
After graduating from TCA in 2005, Mason played baseball for four years at West Virginia University and Austin College. He came back to Texas, spending six years at Texas A&M to earn a PhD in theoretical nuclear physics. Mason’s life at Texas A&M “felt like The Big Bang Theory TV show; we even had a physicist named Sheldon!” During graduate school, Mason’s faith bloomed as he began exploring theology, and he “started to take the Bible very seriously. The seeds planted at TCA grew to fruition. My parents, childhood church and TCA were all formative in giving me that simple but strong faith that Jesus is the only way and hope in life. It got me through a very hostile environment in college with its hedonism and atheistic naturalism.”
During graduate school, Mason met and married his wife Courtney, and they now have three beautiful girls: Daphne (6), Helen (4) and Mary Mason (2). Mason and Courtney moved to Dallas, where Mason spent two years at UT Southwestern doing radiation oncology medical physics postdoctoral research, and then moved again to the Atlanta area for a diagnostic medical physics residency. “We loved our time in Georgia and miss our small church community very much. It seems like these days, everyone strives for the next job with higher pay, ditching community to pursue the next short-term pleasure or entertainment. [Christian thinker] Rod Dreher calls this cultural moment ‘liquid modernity’ where everything is constantly questioned and up for grabs. My faith and participation in the local church keeps me grounded to withstand everything the culture is throwing my family’s way.”
Mason, Courtney and the girls moved back to Dallas in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and Mason now works for a consulting company as a diagnostic medical physicist. He travels to do diagnostic medical physics surveys for clients all over Texas and across the country, checking CT, MRI, X-ray, fluoroscopy, mammography and ultrasound machines to “ensure a good balance between image quality and patient dose of radiation.” He travels often and finds that “sometimes on the road I am able to reach out to people when the opportunity arises to show them God’s grace. In our atomistic world, it’s always amazing to see someone who is having a down day respond to someone who actually cares how they are doing.”
His job may sound like something out of science fiction, but that’s exactly what makes Mason so grateful: “Our healthcare system is a modern miracle as compared to the vast majority of human history. I am glad I get to be a part of it to bring God’s grace and healing to the sick in my own small way. Jesus’s resurrection gives us hope for the glorious physical resurrection in the future where sickness and death will be no more.” Though Mason’s imaging machines help battle disease for the present, he knows one day “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).
Dr. Brittney Anders ’07
OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST
HE FIRST TIME YOU HEARD YOUR BABY’S
THEARTBEAT. Your newborn’s first cry. The first glimpse of your brand new son or daughter’s face. For parents, these are unforgettable, once-in-alifetime moments. For Dr. Brittney Anders ’07, they are the sweet, daily reminders of her passion for serving women as an ob-gyn.
Long before Brittney was bringing children into the world, she enjoyed a happy childhood at TCA. Her favorite Lower School memory happened at just age six when she was Kindergarten Teacher For The Day: “I loved grading papers and giving out decorative stamps and stickers to my classmates in Mrs. Woodward’s class.” Brittney and a friend even got to spray paint their names on the Rock on TCA’s campus. Like many generations of TCA students, Brittney loved being in the musical production of “In God We Trust,” where she honed her rapping skills in the role of Eagle Eye. As she moved to the Upper School, her favorite memories came from volleyball and basketball, where she “had the greatest time competing with friends against schools like Nolan, Bishop Lynch and Prestonwood.”
“For thirteen solid years, TCA was an academic environment that trained and prepared me for my daily walk as a Christian believer. I was fully engaged with teachers who taught a biblical worldview. I was able to experience the presence of God in our weekly chapels and worship time. My Bible teachers taught me how to dive deep into the Word of God and apply my learnings to personal life,” Brittney recalls, grateful for the deep roots of faith she found at TCA. Of all the academic and faith formation she received at TCA, she notes that “the most important lesson I learned as a TCA student from a godly staff was how to stand firm in my Christian faith when challenged by worldly influences and corrupt values.”
Brittney was challenged by rigorous academics, recalling that “TCA prepared me to work and study hard, persevere through difficulties and develop self-discipline.” After
graduating from TCA in 2007, she studied biomedical science at Texas A&M. During college, “the Lord provided me the opportunity to attend a medical mission trip in the Philippines. At that time, the Lord specifically called me into women’s healthcare.” Brittney has also served in Peru and Guatemala, and she hopes to continue medical mission trips in the future.
Following college, she pursued medical school at Texas A&M Health Science Center and then residency training as a physician for obstetrics and gynecology. During her residency at Baylor University Medical Center, she was awarded the Golden Apple Teaching Award for four consecutive years. She received the Outstanding Resident Award for Baylor University Medical Center at the Southwestern Gynecologic Assembly and served as chief administrative resident in her final year. Today, Brittney resides in Dallas with her husband John Hoehn and daughter Caroline.
“I continue to do the work God called me into as an ob-gyn at Baylor University Medical Center. Teaching medical residents and medical students while working in private practice is my passion. And the most amazing gift is to help bring a baby into the world and be a part of that special moment when families meet their new little one for the first time.”
While work in her field can have high highs and low lows, her favorite part is everyday interactions: “I get to strike up twenty different conversations with my patients every day, whether I’m trying to address a health issue or simply being a listening ear for someone who needs to talk. God is using me as a Christian physician to support and love patients. I always find women are receptive to me praying over them and asking God for physical or emotional healing.”
Even though bringing babies into the world is routine for an ob-gyn, Brittney never forgets the wonder of her work. “It is a glimpse of a miracle when a newly pregnant woman has an ultrasound and we see life in the womb at only a few weeks old. I love to share the sanctity and miracle of life with my patients as a true gift from God. Although some days are hard, I know God is using me as a servant for His personal glory.”
Thinking back on her years at TCA, Brittney is full of gratitude: “I feel blessed to have had a rich foundation and education from TCA. I’m excited to send my children to TCA in the future and continue the relationship I have with this amazing Christian school.”
Dr. Brittney Anders Hoehn ’07 performs an ultrasound for one of her patients, who is expecting her baby soon, and checks on some records with one of her staff members at Legacy Women’s Health in Dallas.
Philip
(PSEUDONYM USED IN THIS ARTICLE AND FACES NOT SHOWN FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY’S IDENTITY)
ACKING UP EVERYTHING HE OWNS.
PFlying halfway around the world with three children under seven years old. Bravely taking the gospel to unreached people in a difficult country. (Because of security concerns, in this article, we will refer to this as Philip’s story, though that is not his real name.) Like so many thirty-something TCA alums, he was a loving husband and a proud father of three whose business career was taking off in Texas. Yet now Philip and his wife are taking an entirely different path. How did this happen? Let’s go back to the beginning.
Philip began a relationship with Christ when he was eight years old, but then his family moved to England for four years. Those were difficult early years of his faith because he found many of his friends in England “spiritually dead,” with few examples of rich and vibrant faith. His family moved to Texas in the middle of his seventh-grade year, and his first day at TCA was somewhat inauspicious as his classmates were all disappointed that the “new kid from England” had a distinct lack of an English accent. However, his first few years at TCA were refreshingly fruitful in the faith department, as Philip found that the “level of intention found in TCA teachers was exceptional. It was a combination of teachers’ care for students beyond just the strong academics that was really special, compared to the two public schools in the US and the international school I had attended in England. At TCA, we just had totally different relationships with our teachers.” He recalls, too, the rigorous academics, particularly learning to juggle “high demands on my schedule, such as having a major test on the Monday after homecoming. . . . A part of me hated it, but it prepared me for juggling the demands of college, and you need small tastes of that in high school.” One particular favorite class was Hank Harmon’s photography class, back when it used a dark room. “I recently visited Mr. Harmon when I was on campus. I connected with Mr. Harmon; his class was never about just photography—it was always relationships, nuggets of truth and care. He loved us. So many Millennials jump around, yet for me to have the stability of relationships with my former teachers lasting almost fifteen years now is special. I loved Coach Kimbrough too—I still remember how his economics class taught me all about taxes.” Not only the joyful moments but also grief and loss made lasting impressions on Philip, as he was at TCA when a science teacher died of cancer. “I saw how much the other teachers really loved her. TCA is full of real relationships, a sense of family, and the school showed its true colors” through that season of grief.
Not only his teachers’ faith but that of his classmates inspired Philip, who says that “at TCA, I saw faith as a relationship with Christ lived out among my peers, not just the adults. I met some of my richest, dearest friends to this very day. This past weekend I was in Dallas for just 24 hours, but I made time for lunch with friends I had made at TCA.” Philip remembers the eighth-grade Wilderness trip and the senior trip as particularly significant spiritual milestones that taught him “intangible things that shaped who I became” as an adult. He sums up the spiritual formation at TCA as “a solid faith foundation” that was invaluable before college.
Philip journeyed next to Texas A&M, where he chose a rare major: Industrial and Systems Engineering, or the design of processes and people to maximize efficiency,
from laying out a theme park to designing grocery stores to minimize waiting in lines. He married after college and landed a prime opportunity with the GE Healthcare Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP). He and his new bride hopscotched the country for two years, completing rotations in Milwaukee, Boston, Chicago, South Carolina, Colorado and Austin. That training program led to a job with Baylor Scott & White where he was charged with designing the layout of three new “micro-hospitals” in the Austin area, all set to open within 18 months of each other. Philip’s team guided the new hospitals through the entire process, from architecture to efficiency training for frontline staff to process management in billing transparency and accuracy. “I was focused on my career,” Philip recalls. “I followed my dad and granddad into business. I went into autopilot about my future,” without much thought about whether God might have a very different plan around the corner.
Then the story takes a twist. Between Philip and his wife, they have six family members sharing the gospel in Africa. Philip’s wife began to sense God’s call for them to do the same. “My wife and I really wrestled with it. Going is disruptive. In all honesty, we went to marriage counseling about it, which we really believe is something all healthy marriages should do from time to time. We wanted a unified vision.” After a long season of praying and discernment, one day in a counseling session “my wife prayed, surrendering her vision for our family’s future to God’s will, and I surrendered mine too. Then, just three days later, God stepped in. We got a phone call about a job opening for a business consultant” to support Christians who operate businesses in North Africa while also sharing their faith in those “creative access” countries. “The goal is to share the gospel through and in their businesses. We are transparent—these are genuine businesses, with ministry through business.” Most of the world’s unreached people live in the “10-40 window” between 10 degrees and 40 degrees of latitude, and “the Great Commission still applies regardless of government restrictions. God is creating many avenues through business.”
Reflecting on this major transition his family will undertake this summer, Philip remembers a quote from Christian hero Elizabeth Elliott: “Sometimes to pray that the Lord’s will be done, you must be willing for your will to be undone.” His advice for current TCA students and parents is that “often TCA students come from blessed families, and there can be pressure from parents to be successful. That may be the way God wants to use you. But all should be willing to go, if God calls you. The best place to be is in God’s will. Research shows that for Christians who felt a call to go but did not, the number one reason was the disapproval or disappointment of their parents.” But Philip knows that for him, his wife and their three children, “we want to surrender to the Lord’s will, no matter how hard or different from my original plans. From the world’s eyes, I am throwing away my career, but from God’s eyes, I’m aligning my future and gifts with His will, which is exactly where I want to be.”
