The Path to Medicine

Dr. Marcelle Abell-Rosen ’97 is used to changing paths. Having left France for the United States as a child, and trading a road to a medical education for a public policy education, she was still never able to shake her yearning to become a doctor. Her inspiration, she said, came partly from having a brother who passed away in childhood from spinal muscular atrophy. But at 28, was it too late to pursue healthcare?

GS is used to answering this type of question.

“I was at a different point in my life, but GS embraces that,” said Abell-Rosen, a graduate of the Postbac Premed Program. “I was caring for my daughter while at GS. GS gave me security when I went there and, even more than that, confidence.”

She said she found an advantage in waiting longer to become a doctor, learning about new medical strides that she wouldn’t have been exposed to earlier. “Professor Deborah Mowshowitz at Columbia was a great inspiration for me,” said Abell-Rosen. “She unveiled the magic of the genetic code, and how proteins and enzymes act as the keys and switches that make human life possible. These lessons continue to inform my practice today. They shape my understanding of the diseases affecting my patients and the drugs aimed at helping them.”

Prior to attending GS, Abell-Rosen earned a master of public health degree at the University of California, Berkeley, during which time she traveled to Thailand to work on HIV and hepatitis prevention programs. After graduating from GS, she went on to earn her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Today, Abell-Rosen has her own personalized internal medicine practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “It allows me to spend more time with patients,” she explained. She has also long embraced video as a way to help treat her patients, which, she said, put her at an advantage during Covid.

Abell-Rosen was honored to be the keynote speaker at Class Day for Columbia’s Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program in May 2022. In her speech, Abell-Rosen encouraged the new graduates to “embrace your superpower, as your past experience has given you a unique and valuable perspective and knowledge and wisdom. Some may call this grit, but whatever it is, we need more of it in medicine.” She also congratulated the new graduates on completing the rigorous program during a challenging period of medical history.

“Covid affected so many people personally and professionally,” she said. “It offered lessons and changed medicine in different ways. Moments like these should make you humbler and wiser. This isn’t just advice for others, but a good reminder for me as well.”