Trainee Spotlight: Marjorie Odegard, MD
Born in Cameroon in West Africa, Marjorie Odegard, MD, moved with her family to the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota, when she was 3. “I grew up as a third-culture kid—someone raised in a culture different from that of their parents,” she shares. “That experience led me to study anthropology as an undergraduate.”
Her interest in the dynamics between cultural norms and practices also drew her to health disparities research. Today, she is a general surgery resident at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis—and a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Lorraine Kelley-Quon, MD, MSHS, at CHLA.
Her research is examining what factors influence postoperative opioid use in adolescents, as well as how the pandemic has affected access to surgical care and outcomes for children.
“Many studies have demonstrated that the pandemic worsened health care disparities,” Dr. Odegard notes. “My goal is to identify which populations have had reduced surgical access so we can find ways to remove these barriers.”
After hours, she has a particularly happy hobby: making homemade ice cream. “Luckily, the rest of the lab and the Pediatric Surgery Department have been glad to be my guinea pigs to test my creations!” Dr. Odegard says. She also enjoys running, seeing movies in the theater and hanging out with her 8-month-old Bernedoodle puppy, Betty.
