Guest Blair Seidler Hammond navigated her freshman year of college knowing that her mother was sick with cancer. Her mother died at the end of that year and when Blair returned after the summer break, she was still trying to process and understand what the purpose of life was. Feeling the answer was to live into every moment, she prioritized daily joys such as painting and sailing. Realizing her fatalism might be a little outsized, she started reevaluating what a well-lived life was, and was determined to final a vocation that felt full of purpose. The problem was, even though everyone was telling her she should be a doctor, she couldn’t stand the sight of blood. Eventually, she let her love of science manifest it in teaching and research but finally felt the pull back to the classroom and entered med school. When she found pediatrics, she realized she could live out the purpose-driven life imagined after all.

In this episode, find out from Blair how leaning into joy and relationships can actually be the same thing as finding meaning…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Blair Seidler Hammond is a board certified pediatrician at the Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice where she founded the General Pediatrics Faculty Practice. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai, where she has received their Excellence in Teaching Award. Along with classmate Aliza Pressman, Blair is Co-Founding Director of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center, where she also serves as Director of Medical Education, helping to transform the way pediatric healthcare is delivered by maximizing opportunities to promote strong parent-child relationships and early childhood development within everyday healthcare interactions. She applies her work at home, too—living and parenting as she does with her husband and classmate Scott Hammond and their three children—in Westchester, New York.

For another story featuring the Mount Sinai Parenting Center that Blair discussed founding, listen to ourepisode with Aliza Pressman, the program’s co-founder.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Relational Health: Blair Seidler Hammond on leaning into joy and relationships and finding meaning

Roads Taken