Prescription for Health

St. Paul’s School welcomes new Medical Director Kate Doyle, MD

BY JANA F. BROWN

While standing on the sideline of her son’s lacrosse game in Pennington, New Jersey, Kate Doyle, MD, heard a familiar voice cheering on the young players. It was John Green, the former headmaster of Peddie School and previously a longtime faculty member at St. Paul’s School.

As a Peddie alumna, Doyle reintroduced herself to Green, who remembered her well from his time as head of school. Their conversation reminded Doyle of how formative her own boarding school experience had been.

“I said to my husband when we got in the car, ‘I have to get back to the boarding school life because it feels like home to me’” Doyle recalls.

Doyle joined the St. Paul’s community in August as medical director. As it turns out, that sideline conversation led to a search for in-house doctor positions at independent schools — and, with the retirement of John Bassi, MD, St. Paul’s held the lone vacancy. When Doyle reached out to Green about the open position and life at St. Paul’s, he told her, “There’s not a better place to work or raise a family.”

A few months into her tenure, Doyle is adapting to a new care environment while also re-acclimating to the rhythms of boarding school life. As a board-certified pediatrician and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics with a special interest in adolescent medicine, she’s definitely in her wheelhouse. After earning her B.A. in art history from the University of Chicago, Doyle returned home to New Jersey to attend Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She completed a pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia before entering private practice for several years.

While the draw of medicine was to make connections with others, Doyle chose to specialize in pediatrics because of her love for children. As a physician, Doyle views her role as supporting kids to become the healthiest adults possible, with a focus on instilling fundamental habits of wellness that will remain with them throughout their lives.

In the all-residential community of St. Paul’s, Doyle notes that her position offers her a greater scope of practice and interaction with patients, including serving as a doctor on the sidelines of athletic events (and being able to diagnose injuries immediately), keeping students in Clark House for observation when needed, and practicing proactive preventative medicine. Doyle also teaches seminars that cover sex education for Fifth Formers, and college preparation, including the dangers of alcohol consumption, for Sixth Formers. She loves the professional advantages afforded by the boarding school setting — running into her patients at the dining hall or seeing them in chapel, for example.

“It helps with the doctor-patient relationship and the rapport you build,” Doyle says. “It’s such a unique role as the medical director at a boarding school to get to know these kids so well in all these different spheres and to see their strengths. It will help me provide better care for them because I’ll know their personalities and nuances, and I’ll be able to get them to open up when I need to figure out what’s going on and how I can help.”

Doyle aspires to extend the wellness mindset beyond the walls of Clark House. To keep some of those issues on students’ radar, she’s been working with Dean of Students Suzanne Ellinwood P’18,’20 to write humorous prescriptions for the community in the daily SPS Connected newsletter. Her first one in September addressed how often students should wash their bedsheets (every 1-3 weeks, with 5 refills to get students to Thanksgiving break). Doyle’s Oct. 8 offering cited statistics on the hours teens spend on social media platforms, and the prescription read: “Delete your social media accounts for one week. See what happens. Refills: As many as needed.” She’s also integrating those light reminders into chapel announcements.

“It’s so kids get to know me a bit but also are given some important tips on health and hygiene that they might not getting because their parents aren’t living with them,” Doyle explains. “I’m trying to be creative and bring positive energy with constructive health education.”

Doyle is balancing her responsibilities as medical director with family life. She and her husband have four children, ranging in age from 1 to 10, and are immersing themselves into the campus culture, attending SPS athletic events, biking to the docks, exploring the grounds, and forging friendships. So far, the “idyllic neighborhood” community, where her children wait for the school bus with other faculty kids on weekday mornings, and run around with them in the afternoons, reminds Doyle why that conversation with John Green led her to a place that already feels like home.