If Dr. Tracy Williams had chosen to be in private practice, she's pretty sure it would be in a rural community like Montezuma, the southwest Kansas town where she was raised.

As faculty in the Via Christi Family Medicine Residency program, Williams sees her job as a link to her rural roots.  

"I feel like I owe western Kansas something for making me who I am. By doing my job here, I'm able to train all these doctors," she said, mentioning graduates now working in Dodge City, Scott City, Lakin, and other communities. "All the docs who work here are mission minded. My mission is to train doctors for Kansas."  

Growing up in Montezuma and graduating from high school in a class of 18 has provided unexpected insight for Williams. Her residency program's annual crop of residents is about the same size. "My high school experience helps remind me of all the dynamics possible in a class of residents."  

Her faculty post allows Williams to draw on her passion for obstetrics and women's health. She oversees about eight residents at a time on the OB rotation and one or two on the women's health rotation.  

"It's a really good training ground. My residents deliver with every obstetrician and family physician that comes to the hospital. They see every single patient that comes through the door," she said.  

Williams' residents also see patients at Wichita's Guadalupe Clinic. In addition, she serves at the JayDoc colposcopy clinic for the underserved, which is staffed by students at KU School of Medicine-Wichita. She enjoys the JayDoc work. "You have a full range of learners, from the first year to the fourth. It's exciting to see them progress in their training."  

Williams decided to become a doctor during her junior year at Kansas State University, where she majored in nutrition and exercise science. "A professor suggested that I apply to medical school," she said. "I went to Dodge City and worked with a doctor for the summer through KU's summer primary care mentoring program. I loved everything we did. I fell in love with family medicine."  

"I met my husband at K-State and talked him into being a doctor," she said jokingly. They started their education in Kansas City and finished in Wichita, drawn by the focus on hands-on training. "You don't want medical school to be easy. You want to be pushed. I really felt like going to Wichita was going to push me."  

"Being on the Wichita campus let me see what being a family doctor would be like," Williams said. "To me, being a doctor was being a family medicine doctor."  

Both Williams and her husband, Justin Moore, completed their residencies in Wichita. Hers is in family medicine, his in internal medicine. They went to North Carolina, where he did an endocrinology fellowship in Chapel Hill and she did advanced training in obstetrics and women's health in Greensboro. While there, she taught obstetrics to residents and physician assistant students and served a year as junior faculty.  

"I didn't realize how much I liked to teach until I was there," Williams said. Job offers came in North Carolina, but they felt the pull of home, and she joined the Via Christi faculty in 2008.  

"When I first thought about coming back to be on faculty, it was a little intimidating. The faculty has amazing physicians with lots of years of experience," she said. "It has proven to be a great place to work because everyone is very supportive. We all are capable of doing full-spectrum care but the faculty also tend to find an area of emphasis that they love."  

Infant mortality is a particular interest for Williams, and the high rate among African-Americans in Wichita is something she sees as her job to address. She also has helped to pilot group obstetrics visits. Mothers-to-be at the same stage of pregnancy see the doctor together, discuss lactation, healthy eating and other issues, and new mothers can learn from those with experience. "It was very satisfying from a provider standpoint. It was very educational for all parties."  

Her education continues at home with children, Ruby, 8, and William, 4. "Having your own children is the equivalent to an honors project in family medicine. They make me a better person and a better doctor."

She has also begun more formal training in family medicine education. "I am doing a faculty development fellowship in North Carolina, with 15 others from across the country. It's made me even prouder of being in Kansas. From my observation they have nothing on Kansas."  

"I think even if I wasn't employed by KU, I would still teach. I would want students with me even if I was in private practice," she said.