Elizabeth Martinez, born and bred in Miami, has lived in Baltimore for 20 years, and currently serves as an anesthesiologist and an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she also attended medical school. “I couldn’t picture myself in Baltimore, but I’ve grown to love it,” she said. In the fall, she’ll leave Baltimore for Boston, where she’ll work at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. I was listening to NPR this morning. I never got the name of the group that was singing, but it was music on NPR.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. I wanted to be a doctor from as far back as I can remember.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. A pomegranate martini. It’s a little trendy, but it’s good.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Today, sneaking out to the beach and just hanging out for an hour when I was going to be doing work.
Q. What is your favorite thing about Los Angeles?
A. Two things, I would say. One is when you drive along the beach or when you’re at the beach, there are all kinds of people out doing all kinds of things – enjoying the day, enjoying the outdoors, families playing, older folks riding their bikes or rollerblading down the street. The other is, I loved going to the Getty Museum, walking around the grounds, and the views from there.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Doing things as a family. One thing I remember is Sunday after church we’d all go for breakfast and bowling. I think we did that every Sunday and it was a great thing. My father was a physician and he was always very busy, but that was the day we all just sort of hung out. I don’t really remember throwing the ball, and I never got really good at it, but I do remember doing things like that together as a family.
Q. What is the best advice you have received?
A. Folks telling me that it’s not a big deal, and to take things as not a big deal, and to move on.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for a drink?
A. Maya Angelou.
To read more about Martinez’ panel on medical tourism, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.