A triple Coug’s path to practicing medicine in rural Washington

Laura Lopez has known she wanted to be a doctor ever since she was a teenager helping to care for her aging grandparents in Mexico's strained health care system, but her path to medicine has been anything but straightforward.

"Medicine is where I'm supposed to be," she said. "It started with my grandparents, but everything I've experienced since then has solidified that for me."

At 18, Laura moved to the United States, determined to pursue her dream of becoming a physician - a process that typically takes 10 to 12 years of higher education and post-graduate training.

She began her academic journey at a community college in California while working and living with family. To finish her bachelor's degree, she sold her car to pay for one quarter of classes at a four-yearinstitution, but, faced with prohibitively high tuition costs, ultimately decided to take a year off to work before returning to school.

Her plans changed when an aunt and uncle in Pullman with ties to Washington State University offered to support her education while she finished her degree at WSU, her first encounter with the power of the Cougar community to rally around students in need.

"WSU is the first place where I learned that building a community and caring for the community really makes people's lives happier," she said.

WSU is the first place where I learned that building a community and caring for the community really makes people's lives happier.

While completing her bachelor's in genetics and cell biology, a mentor with WSU's Team Mentoring Program suggested Laura apply for a research grant in plant biochemistry and molecular biology. Her application proved successful, and she enjoyed the research so much that she decided to stay at WSU to complete a master's degree in plant genetics, continuing her research and gaining additional academic experience for medical school applications.

Her graduate school experience equipped her with the resilience and resourcefulness that prepared her well for medical school, Laura said, recalling how she once built from scratch a fluctuating light chamber to study plant growth.

"I gained confidence as a scientist while still working on my passion projects," she said.

An interest in research sparked on the Palouse ultimately took her across the world, first to a plant biology internship in Germany and later to a neuro-electrical engineering internship at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

Back in Pullman, however, Laura held on to her goal of swapping the lab for the exam room. The WSU Health Professions Student Center helped her prepare for medical school applications, providing guidance on studying for the MCAT and creating materials like a statement of purpose.

In 2021, Laura's dream of becoming a doctor came one step closer to reality when she was accepted to WSU's MD program and moved to the Spokane campus to begin her medical education.

"Studying genetics and cell biology, I got to learn about the most basic units of our bodies. Studying medicine, I got to learn about the whole picture," she said.

She found a home here at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine with its aim of improving health care access in Washington's rural and underserved communities. With a deep commitment to service, Laura led the college's Latinx Medical Student Association chapter and medical Spanish group and mentored high school students interested in medicine. She also devoted herself to Washington Students for Community Health (WSCH), a joint interest group of WSU and University of Washington medical students who aim to promote optimal health for all through community engagement.

Since graduating with her MD in May 2025, Laura plans to bring that dedication to Washington communities into the next phase of her medical education with the Chehalis Rural Training Program. A three-yearresidency designed to train newly minted doctors in rural family medicine, the program is focused on providing high-quality care to underserved populations in southwest Washington.

"It was love at first sight," Laura said of the program. "Their values are empathy, compassion, and curiosity, which are values I share."

Dr. Lopez hopes to sharpen her clinical skills while serving the Chehalis community with the same dedication she brought to Spokane - providing holistic, compassionate care to every patient and every community she meets.