The LAFP is excited to introduce Marina Jeffery, DO as our August Member of the Month!

Dr. Jeffery is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Ochsner LSU Shreveport - Monroe campus. She divides her time between educating family medicine residents and VCOM medical students, practicing in her own FM clinic, and taking care of patients in the hospital. As the only DO physician faculty at the Monroe Family Medicine Residency Program, she performs a variety of techniques to treat structural and functional issues in the bones, joints, tissues and muscles of the body.

Dr. Jeffery grew up in Scranton, PA with her mom, dad and little sister. During college, she had the opportunity to shadow her family doctor, Dr. Michael Montella. She talked about how this experience helped inspire her to become a family doctor. She stated, “I was struck by the easy way he spoke to patients, and the implicit trust they all had in his clinical judgment. I decided I wanted to be a primary care doctor after working with him. As a child growing up in a home with an educator, I always had an appreciation for the hard work teachers do. However, I decided I wanted to be a clinical educator during residency. One of my resident mentors, Dr. Ryan Ridenour, always charged us with taking ownership of each patient, and caring for the full person in front of you. In working with him, I knew that I wanted to create a lasting legacy like he did for so many of us, that extends beyond generations, and is not restricted to a single classroom or patient encounter.”

Dr. Jeffrey’s favorite mantra is "Remember Your Why". She strives to bring mutual respect and understanding, empathetic care, continuous learning, and willingness to spend the extra time to get to the crux of the patient's problem to each of her patients.

She talked more about this, “There will always be topics and patients that challenge you, and things you feel less comfortable taking care of, well into independent practice. There will be administrative hurdles, and emotionally draining days. However, I firmly believe that people do not get burned out because of the work that they do, but because they begin to forget why they do it. It is in those tough moments, when you remember your purpose, that you can be more intentional with your goals and the things you have to do to make your impact on the people who you care for.”

We asked her about her favorite part of being a family doctor. She stated, “My favorite thing is that I get to be a medical "jack of all trades". I often will refer to Family Medicine as the quarterbacks and team captains of the medical world: family docs call the shots on offensive plays by triaging concerns and directing our patients to specialists when needed, but also play a defensive game, with the goals of keeping patients healthy and well, and also decreasing the burden to our specialist colleagues.”

Away from medicine, Dr. Jeffery is an avid fantasy reader, as well as a lover of video games, specifically the RPG genre. She is married to Dr. Miguel Lopez. Together they love to travel and spend as much time as possible with their two dogs, two cats and families.

Please help us congratulate Dr. Marina Jeffrey as our August Member of the Month!