Sharon Goodwin Fogleman ’75: Kenya
Hometown: I grew up in many small towns in southeast Iowa but lived in Ainsworth, Iowa, in junior high and high school.
Current location: Coralville, Iowa, with intermittent medical missions, mostly in Africa.
Career: I worked for three years prior to attending med school at the University of Iowa and a family medicine residency in Waterloo, Iowa. In 1985 I married Lynn Fogleman (also a family physician), moving soon thereafter to Kenya, where we served for 10 years at Maua Methodist Hospital, followed by 14 years in southeast Kentucky at a rural health clinic. After our three kids grew up, we returned to Africa and worked in South Sudan, with a focus on disease prevention and health education. We were there from 2012 until the outbreak of war in 2016, after which we served in northern Uganda near the refugee camps for two years. We still serve intermittently, mostly in Africa and the U.S., in health student mentoring and training facilitators in the Bible-based ministry of the Trauma Healing Institute.
Cornell impact: At Cornell I went to Germany for a semester with Experiment in International Living. It was an eye-opening opportunity that helped me feel comfortable with cross-cultural experiences. Then in med school and during my residency, I was able to travel to the Dominican Republic (where I met my husband), Sierra Leone, and Haiti. Each experience assisted in comfort with living long-term overseas.
Benefits of living in a different culture: After settling into life in Kenya, we had three children join our family (two sons I delivered and one daughter we adopted). One of the joys of living in Africa is the focus on family and community. That was my favorite part, which helped to overcome many of the challenges we dealt with daily in working within a hospital in a “low-resource country.” Hospitality is a special part of African culture which I enjoy and has helped me to develop that gift!
What would you tell students: Not everyone is called to live overseas; we can actually experience cross-cultural opportunities right here in Iowa or the U.S. Taking advantage of volunteering or working with organizations that serve refugees and immigrants can be a great way to see if a career internationally feels right.
➤ Meet seven more international alumni
