St. Mary’s Physician of the Year: Amy Davis, MD
Amy Davis, MD was honored at last month's St. Mary's Ball ~ A Night for Heroes as the Dr. Geno Saccomanno Physician of the Year.
Amy grew up in a small town in upstate New York playing kick the can, running trails, and hiking mountains in the Adirondacks. She went to Cornell University to study biochemistry, then chose a career in medicine and attended medical school at SUNY Buffalo. She then completed residency training, where she was the chief resident at Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Program.
Amy moved west to Hopi Tribal Lands (Keams Canyon Indian Hospital) in northern Arizona where she worked for four years. She led the facility to JACHO accreditation with commendation and received the USPHS Phoenix Area Outstanding Performance Award. These formative years solidified a desire to serve vulnerable populations.
Amy then moved to Palisade in 1996 with her family to start a new journey with St. Mary’s Hospital as a faculty member of St. Mary’s Family Medicine Residency Program. She was drawn by the reputation of the residency program and the hospital paired with a desire to teach. There was the allure of open space and wilderness, a safe close-knit community.
In 1998, Dr. Davis helped to plan, write, and implement the needed grants for the HIV Ryan White Part C Program before going "back to school" to get a master’s degree in Public Health, curious to learn more about how to approach health care from a community and noninstitutional perspective and to hone her grant writing skills. She was the recipient of a Colorado Trust Grant, supporting the Migrants & Refugee Families Initiative.
Dr. Davis has been the medical director of the Western Colorado HIV Specialty Care Clinic since its inception. The clinic will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2024, serving patients from 22 counties across western Colorado.
Going forward, Dr. Davis hopes to nurture relationships with honesty and grace and to continue to reflect on her beginnings, return to her touchstone often, remain curious, grow, stay in motion, and not fear change.
Join us in thanking Dr. Amy Davis for all that she has done for our community. We are so fortunate to have her on our team!