Morgan Adessa

Stuyvesant High School 

Stanford University

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

University of San Diego School of Law

Georgetown University School of Medicine

Currently: Pursuing her masters in Physiology and Biophysics specializing in Complementary & Alternative Medicine at Georgetown. The program aims to train current and future clinicians, scientists, lawyers, and administrators to understand and evaluate the quality of research studies around complementary alternative medicine.

At VCS there is the ethos of being your own person, and that has definitely influenced my life's work. At this point in my career I am trying to do something that doesn’t have a predetermined path. I must rely on my own internal sense of purpose and values for guidance without worrying that I’m not fitting nicely in a box. VCS taught me to be proficient at working inside the box and comfortable stepping out of it.

As a litigator, I represented large corporations in major lawsuits involving complex technology. I was well compensated and I was mentally stimulated. My brain was happy but my heart was not. I had strayed too far from what I had always been most passionate about - health and healing. So I left the practice of law and took a position at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care, where I helped launch an initiative to revamp diabetes care throughout a health system. The experience showed me how I could use the different skills I had acquired across disciplines to develop integrative programs and bridge gaps in health care.

I look back to VCS and appreciate my early exposure to a breadth of different experiences and skills. VCS helped me develop the courage to do things on my own, the courage to not wait for others to do things for me.