Dr.
Dwight Luckett first considered accounting as a career, then changed his
major to chemistry, then combined industrial chemistry and pre-med studies.
The Mississippi native was working as a chemist in Maryland when he decided
(finally, he says) to become a family physician.
"I hope this is the last career change," he laughs, taking a brief break from a typically busy day at PCC, where he can be found on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday mornings. He's been here since July as part of a new fellowship program at Providence Hospital in Southfield, in which doctors who have already completed their residency in family medicine can do a year's additional work in community health practices and issues. That includes practicing at a training site, one of which is PCC, and doing additional course work, which is why Dr. Luckett is in Southfield on Fridays. Oh, and every other Saturday he volunteers at a free clinic on the west side of Detroit.
"I knew from early on in medical school that I would enter the primary care field," Dr. Luckett says. "This would give me a chance to see first-hand how health care is delivered in the community.
"It's been challenging; it's been fun," he adds. "I really enjoy my time here. I've met some wonderful patients who are really appreciative of the care they receive."
He says PCC's emphasis on preventive medicine, or wellness maintenance, and its focus on families correspond with "my own personal goal of providing low-cost, quality health care to the poor and under-served populations. To me, it's my way of giving something back to the community."
He'll also be doing that in discharging his obligation to the U.S. Public Health Service Corps to work for four years treating just such populations in order to repay the government for helping fund his education. He's enjoying life in Ann Arbor with his wife, Marie, and their 10-year-old-son, Jonathan, but if he can't stay here, he'd like to return to the South.
"Perhaps somewhere in my home state of Mississippi," he says, "given that we are tremendously underserved and there is tremendous shortage of physicians there."
Meanwhile, we're just happy he stopped test-driving other careers.
October 1997