Carley Gilman, MD

Where I am from: I am originally from rural Tennessee. I grew up on a horse farm and even brought my horse with me to college at Vassar in NY! While I still consider myself a southerner, I moved to the northeast for college and had been bouncing around up there for about 10 years. I did a few years of research at CHOP in Philly, completed a post-bac program at Bryn Mawr on the mainline of PA and went to medical school at Brown in RI. My move to St. Louis for residency is the closest I’ve lived to home since I was 18! 

Where I am going: I really enjoy thinking about neurologic injury in the critically ill child. Even more so, I find the neurodevelopmental trajectory after critical illness to be really interesting and important. While it is still relatively early in my training, neurocritical care and epilepsy are paths that I am considering after residency. 

Why I am here: I actually had a pretty circuitous route to this program. My husband, Matt, and I couples matched here – him for Ophtho and me for categorical pediatrics. Even though I had an interest in neurology and, specifically, neuroimaging, I have always loved pediatrics and I felt like I had not explored enough of pediatrics to know for sure if I could rule out the other subspecialties. Matt and I had trouble finding programs that we both liked in the same city but we both loved our respective programs at WashU and the choice seemed really clear to us. We love the academia, the ability to care for urban/rural/suburban patients of various demographics, and the quality of life that St. Louis could afford us.

After about 6 months of general pediatrics residency, I realized that the only thing I really loved was neurology. Luckily, our amazing neurology program was funded for an additional resident for my class year and I was able to match into the child neurology track for my same post-graduate year. The transition for me was actually pretty seamless thanks to the hard work of many faculty and administrators in the department. Even before I formally matched into the program, our neurology department really embraced me and gave me both an academic and social “home” within WashU which only made the decision that much easier. After the match, I really haven’t looked back and am thrilled to be formally part of the department.