Dr. Elizabeth Burpee
Resident at University of New Mexico Hospital
Member, CIR/SEIU
Albuquerque, NM
For Dr. Elizabeth Burpee, her passion for helping people started in high school while traveling through poverty-stricken parts of India. She became interested in the issue of poverty and studied underdeveloped countries at the University of Colorado. After graduation, she traveled throughout Central America building schools and assisting with local community projects.
She moved to Boston after her time in Central America to become a counselor at a homeless shelter. Many of the women she met at the shelter lived everyday with severe medical issues and no access to the care they desperately needed. It was during her time at the shelter Elizabeth decided to enroll in Medical School.
Elizabeth graduated in four years and began her residency in trauma surgery. In her second year of residency, her husband Mark was diagnosed with brain cancer forcing Elizabeth to juggle her intensive residency program with caring for her husband. She switched to internal medicine to spend more time at her husband’s side.
Elizabeth is now in her third year of residency and cares for patients at the UNM Family Clinic, where she often works 80 hours a week. She cares mostly for women, many of whom are single mothers working more than one job to care for their families. Many of her patients lack health coverage or a way to pay for their medication. She says it’s difficult to care for someone who can’t afford the medication they need to get better.
In 2006, Elizabeth and several hundred other residents at UNM united with the Committee of Residents and Interns/SEIU after the hospital tried to double health care costs for families. Together, the residents won affordable health care for themselves and their families, and they now have a stronger voice in patient care.
Elizabeth lives with her husband, her 18 year old stepson, and her 9 year old daughter in Albuquerque.