BY KAREN BOSSICK
St. Luke’s Wood River has hired a new pediatrician named Dr. Katie Quayle, who left late last year to continue her education with a focus on pediatric psychology.
dr Cait Hopeman, the new pediatrician at St. Luke’s Family Medicine Clinic, began seeing patients this week.
Hopeman grew up in Seattle but visited the Sun Valley area several times as a child and joined her family in skiing, ice skating, swimming and hiking. She and her husband Riley have also vacationed here – they even got married at Galena Lodge in 2013.
Hopeman received her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry with a minor in Spanish from Middlebury College, a private liberal arts college founded by Congregationalists in Vermont in 1800.
She then worked for four years as an outdoor educator and guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), leading 3-week to 3-month trips throughout the western United States, Alaska and Patagonia, Chile. During this time, she also taught remote medicine courses for Seattle-based Remote Medical International.
Hopeman then went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she received her medical degree and a master’s degree in business administration through a combined program with the Geisel School of Medicine and the Tuck School of Business.
She completed her pediatric residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital and served the Rural Alaska Track program, traveling between Anchorage, Fairbanks and Seattle for three years to expand her primary care and rural medicine experience.
Hopeman said she has a passion for nutrition, healthy living and a holistic/functional approach to medicine. She loves the opportunity to get to know her patients and their families.
“I’m honored to be present at key moments in a family’s development – from birth to potty training, back to school to young adulthood and all the ups and downs and variations that journey can take,” she said . “I also love working with children because of their bright energies, funny comments, enthusiasm to learn about their bodies, and eagerness to be heard and treated with respect.”
Hopeman is the only pediatrician in the valley, although some GPs treat children, said Joy Prudek, public relations manager for St. Luke’s Wood River. The St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation Pediatric Services Endowment Fund helps ensure that the Wood River Valley has a full-time pediatrician.
Hopeman and her husband have four children: Eleanor, Riley, Addison and Gus, and a dog named Tayo.
“This area is incredible for the opportunities to get involved in outdoor activities, the outstanding cultural events that take place each year, and the wonderful caring community that is fostered by everyone here,” said Hopeman. “We really couldn’t be happier to be a part of all of this.”