Get to know Mississippi native Dr. Marlee Wadsworth, first-year fellow in Allergy and Immunology. Here, she shares her path to fellowship, fun hobbies, and why she loves UMMC.
First, tell us about you.
My name is Marlee Wadsworth. I am a first year Allergy and Immunology fellow here at UMMC. I am originally from Natchez, MS and subsequently attended Mississippi State University where I majored in Biomedical Engineering. I have done all of my medical training here at UMMC including medical school and combined internal medicine and pediatric residency. I met and married my husband during my residency. We are coming up on our 2-year anniversary in March. In my spare time, I love to shop and spend time with my friends and family, including our 9 nieces and nephews.
When did you know you wanted to pursue allergy?
Allergy and immunology (AI) first piqued my interest when I was a 3rd year medical student when I did an elective rotation with pediatric AI. As I continued through my residency training, no other specialty interested me as much as AI. It was just fascinating to me, and it was something that I was able to remember easily because I found it so interesting. As a Med/Peds trainee, it was also important to me to be able to continue to treat both adults and children, and AI is one of the only fellowships that allows you to train in both pediatric and adult AI without an extra time commitment for training.
What do you like most about UMMC?
UMMC has been home to me for the past 9 years, and I cannot imagine training anywhere else. I think when people say “the people” it sounds like a broken record, but that is truly the case. The people of UMMC truly make this place feel like home and make it an outstanding place to train. The faculty are brilliant, administration is so supportive and helpful, and the patients are some of the sickest, yet best patients to have the opportunity to take care of and learn from every day.
What advice would you give to the interns?
Learn and soak in as much information from everyone you work with, your attendings, upper levels, residents from other specialties, your medical students, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, etc. They all have something that they can teach you. Keep your mind, ears and eyes open to learning as much as you can. Your training will go by very quickly.
What could you give a 40-minute presentation on without preparation?
Without a doubt, dust mite allergies. Dust mites creep me out, go ahead and google a photo of one. If a patient of mine has a dust mite allergy, you can catch me on my soapbox to educate them about their allergy and how to avoid dust mites.
What is something you wish you knew more about?
Making food from scratch. I recently got into making sourdough bread around Thanksgiving, which led me down a rabbit hole of learning how to make other baked goods and even homemade pasta. It has been a fun, rewarding and delicious adventure, but definitely something I want to continue to learn more about.
What are some small things that make your day better?
Getting to see my husband at the end of every day and watching Friends with him before going to bed every night is my favorite part of every day. Retail therapy at Home Goods, Hobby Lobby or TJMaxx always make the day better too.
Tell us something about you that most people don’t know.
I grew up on a cattle farm where there was no internet or cell phone service. I can play the piano. I was an algebra teacher at Starkville Academy for 1 year before I started medical school. Bucket list: my husband and I are trying to see all 63 national parks in our lifetime. We have seen 10 together so far.
Progress Notes 