Ordinary People Making a Difference: Liz Fleming

When I started this series with Mark Walden’s story, I called it “average people making a difference.” I have no idea why I chose to use “average” instead of “ordinary.” Maybe I was thinking of the phrase “average Joe”? At any rate, when I wrote about Curtis Johnson, he shared the post on Facebook. One of his friends (rightly) commented, “But you’re not average.” I agree. None of these people are average. So I’m changing the name of the series to “ordinary people making a difference.” The point is this: All of these people impress me, but they also demonstrate how anyone can make a difference. We don’t have to be wealthy or important. We just have to be willing to try.

When someone suggested Liz Fleming to me for a profile, I had a hard time embracing the idea. Liz is a licensed physician. That’s not ordinary! (One could also say that a computer programmer, like Curtis, is not ordinary, but perhaps because he is one of my good friends, he feels like a “regular” person to me.)

But as I talked with Liz, I saw how her story applies to all of us. You and I may not be doctors, but we can still use our lives to make a difference like Liz.

Liz’s story

Once upon a time, a young girl dreamed of being a doctor. In her dream, she went to college and pursued pre-med classes. She applied to medical schools her senior year, got in, and graduated with her M.D. four years later. Finally, she completed her residency, and achieved her goal.

That’s a straightforward path to becoming a doctor. It wasn’t Liz’s path.

Like the girl in my story, Liz dreamed of being a doctor, but when she got to college, she pursued other interests. It wasn’t until two years after she graduated that her old dream pulled her to pursue pre-med classes. When she was ready to apply to medical schools, her path veered from the expected again. Shortly before applying, she learned about the doctor of osteopathy degree. The holistic approach appealed to her, so she applied to schools where she could earn a D.O.

Liz helped fund her medical education with a scholarship that required her to work with an underserved population for a while. After her residency, she was a physician for an immigrant detention center. As she worked with immigrants, she learned from them. One thing she learned? Many of them hadn’t wanted to leave their home countries. They felt that they had no choice. Their stories inspired her to go to South America after her time at the detention center. She planned to use her skills to do community health and development work, hoping to improve the situation in countries that people were fleeing.

Unfortunately, during the time she was there the program she was working with didn’t seem to be making a difference. When she was given the opportunity to do similar work with Medical Ambassadors Haiti, she took it. Her initial plan was to stay only a little while, but the program impressed her. She lived in Haiti for three years, leaving only because she needed to renew her certification in the United States in order to remain a licensed physician.

After renewing her certification, Liz again chose the less traditional path: She pursued a fellowship as a hospitalist (more or less like your primary care provider, only instead of working in a clinic, she works exclusively with hospital patients). This relatively new medical specialty allows her to serve people doing the kind of work she loves best.

What we can learn from Liz

You don’t have to have important credentials to make a difference.

The public health work that Liz did in Haiti did not require an advanced degree. “You bring whatever expertise you have to the work,” she explained. “Few of the Haitian volunteers have college degrees. Over half haven’t completed high school, and they do excellent, life-changing work.” The most important quality in a volunteer is simply a desire to help others.

When you’re looking for an organization to work with, look for one that you think will be effective.

Whether you want to work with an organization full-time or simply want to volunteer, look for evidence of its effectiveness. If the organization is well-established, what has it accomplished? Does it seem to be flourishing, or is it dying? Take a look at its plans for the future. Based on your knowledge, do these plans seem to be well-grounded? If you don’t feel qualified to judge, do you know anyone who can help you determine the organization’s potential for future success?

Consider focusing your efforts on the root of a problem.

Liz moved overseas because she wanted to help immigrants by making the situation in their home countries better so that people might not feel forced to leave. The world needs people who are willing to help those who are already in difficult situations. But it’s also important to work toward preventing those situations in the first place.

Be mindful of people who might be lonely during holidays.

Liz is single, and her work often keeps her far from family during holiday celebrations. She always appreciates invitations to holiday gatherings, even though she sometimes says “no.” She told me that she prefers specific invitations, such as “We’re having dinner at 6 on Thanksgiving. Would you join us?” instead of a less direct approach like “Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?”

While this is not a good year to bring lots of people into our homes for a holiday dinner, we can think of creative ways to connect with people who are alone right now and plan to extend invitations to gatherings in the future.

Appreciate what you have.

She also noted that it can be hard for her to hear people who are generally happy with their lives jokingly complain about things that aren’t particularly important. As an example (mine, not hers), suppose that, outside of this pandemic, you always have Thanksgiving with Uncle Mel. You really don’t think he’s a bad guy but annually post “Time to hear Uncle Mel sing ‘Over the River and Through the Woods’ again [eye-roll emoji].” That can be hard to read for people who’d give a lot to have Thanksgiving with Uncle Mel, bad song and all.

Like me, you may be tempted to exalt certain professionals, such as physicians, telling yourself, “Of course that person can make a difference, but I’m not important like them.” But Liz would tell you that’s not true. Anyone who wants to make a difference can find a way to do so.