Before being elected to Congress, I oversaw the Cook County Hospital System as a Cook County Commissioner for 10 years.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
And then for the first time in history a Cook County state's attorney was reelected for a third time.
My dad was a city councilman and a county commissioner, so I grew up involved and engaged in the political process.
After 16 months of teaching, consulting, fellowship, and special project activities on matters ranging from conservation to healthcare to international trade, Gov. Ventura appointed me to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
I was a heart surgeon before I came to Congress, and I've worked many holidays on behalf of my patients.
In high school, I was on the youth advisory council for the Mayor's Office of Los Angeles, and that was kind of my first experience in the bureaucratic system. We tried to get things done, and nobody was really interested in getting anything done.
At the Centers for Disease Control, I rose up fairly quickly into management positions. The first team I led there included many people who had been my supervisors in previous roles or were more senior than I was. So it was kind of a daunting challenge.
The key things I learned as a hospital administrator are to be organized, communicate, and be flexible.
I opened an office in Terre Haute, established eight of them, and became one of the eight county agents.
I am a career physician. I practiced for 32 years before I began my career as a public servant.
I spent 28 years working in healthcare. I thought I'd retired from non-profit community health care.