dr. scott schiff-slater - team march 2014

Hello, my name is Scott Schiff Slater. 

I am a 56 year old family practitioner in Maine, and  I will be coming on the mission with by wife Nancy.   

Nancy and I live in an old New England river town in central Maine with a population of about 2500 people.   I work in a small two physician private family practice, about 4 blocks from our house, which was built in about 1800.  I can walk to work almost as easily as driving to work (though embarrassingly I often drive!).  We have been on a number of other volunteer medical trips together.    I did one medical trip to Honduras as medical student many years ago, and had always planned  to make volunteer work an increasing part of my life.    In 2004 I worked in New Orleans as a volunteer physician after Hurricane Katrina, and since that time we have worked four more times in Honduras, then in India, Ethiopia, and Mexico.    It is my goal to spend more time on these activities as I age.  

We have a talented wonderful 22-year-old daughter, who has traveled to Honduras and Mexico with us, and is now preparing to graduate college.   Until a year or 2 ago we also had a wonderful dog, and I believe plans are developing for a future dog after we return from Vietnam.  

I am obsessed with the outdoors, and a little bit with exercise, and I spend whatever free time I have, hiking in the mountains, bicycling, skiing, snowshoeing, etc.     I enjoy my work as a physician, as well as my role in the local community.  Family is important to me, and I spend a fair amount of time driving back and forth to Boston, visiting my elderly mother, taking her out to the grocery store, etc.    In recent years I have become interested in Buddhist philosophy and have read many of the books by Thich Nhat Hanh, a well known Vietnamese monk.      Vietnam has interested me for many reasons, only partly because of the war.    

I am thrilled to be going with COPI to Vietnam, meeting everyone on our team, and being able to take care of, and learn about, the people of Vietnam.    One of the reasons I became interested in this group in particular, in COPI, was the arrangement where about half of the people on our team will be actually from Vietnam.   In volunteer medical organizations, and medical mission trips, this seems unique. 

I look forward to meeting you all.