About Dr. Kern
Dr. Jena Kern, MD, thought she wanted a career in landscaping and horticulture when she first went to college. The bloom fell off that rose, and Dr. Kern returned to college where she stumbled into a nursing program. That’s where she realized she wanted to play an active role in diagnosis and treatment. After a bit of debate, I left the nursing program and started pre-med courses. The rest is history.
Dr. Kern specializes in hospital medicine where she cares for patients who are sick enough to be in the hospital. “I address immediate medical problems for patients with a wide variety of illnesses,” she says.
A detail-oriented approach to care gives Dr. Kern an opportunity to put her interest in the underlying disease process to work every day. She is willing to spend extra time with a patient to figure out the root cause of a health problem. “Patterns become evident if you look for them,” she says. “It can make an important difference in providing quality care.”
Outside of the hospital, Dr. Kern combines a love of travel, hiking and camping with a strong interest in personal fitness and athletics to explore new territories around the world. She also keeps active with her first passion – landscaping and horticultural design.
In her own words
Who is or was the most influential person/role model in your life? My Great Aunt Bee. She came from the same cultural framework I grew up in but was not limited by it. She was the first to encourage me to go to medical school.
What was your first job growing up? What do you remember about it? Picking strawberries at a nearby strawberry farm. We all felt obligated to eat the best berries, and now I am a strawberry snob. The ones at the grocery store are never good enough!
What is your favorite food? Sushi. Movie? Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
If you could sit down to dinner with anyone (alive or deceased) who would it be and why? Robert Heinlein, my favorite author. His books have so many ideas and philosophies, it would be fascinating to just sit and talk with him.
In addition to medicine, what are you passionate about? Paleontology, ecology, evolution, geology, geochemistry. Everything about living systems and how we got to where we are now.
What is something most people don’t know about you? I have a goal to become a small aircraft pilot.