Faculty Focus: Maia Hightower, MD | Carver College of Medicine

I have been interested in science for as long as I can remember. I am a very adventurous person by nature.

As a child, my interest in science was focused on how science and technology tools could be applied to explore our world and universe.   I wanted to be an astronaut or a pilot. In college, my initial interest was in mechanical engineering.

My interest in medicine was triggered much later than most. It was sparked by an “Aha” moment when I was studying abroad in Kenya as an undergraduate. I remember the exact moment like it was yesterday. “Aha,” moments are like that.

I was in the Masai Mara-Serengeti, sitting on a hill on top of a plateau that overlooked what felt like a thousand mile expanse of the dry semi-arid desert below. In the far distance, on the left of my gaze, I could see a Masai village. On the right, was a steep rocky ravine with hidden pools of stagnant water. Those pools were the only water source for the entire ecosystem until the rainy season months away. Slowly making her way up the rocky cliffs was a Masai woman. She was balancing a jug of water on her head and a baby swaddled onto her back. The distance between the woman and that village seemed so far. This was her fate. She was destined to the same life as her mother and her mother’s mother. The distance between that Masai woman and me was worlds apart. But we were connected. By age. By gender. By race. I thought of my ancestor hundreds of years ago who may have been collecting water for her family when she was taken against her will onto a great big ship to America. I thought of the struggles, the tears, the blood, the humiliation, the fight for freedom, against slavery, racism, and oppression. Through it all, here I was, the world before me with infinite opportunity. Infinite choice. At that moment, I chose a path where the work I do supports the fundamental right to health. I chose to be a doctor.