Dr. Evan Johnson took what many might consider a nontraditional path to medicine. Earning a master’s degree, working, and starting a family prior to medical school sounds daunting for many students and residents, but for Dr. Johnson, these experiences have kept him grounded during the typically stressful years of training.
When not working, studying, or reliving his youth with his two sons, Dr. Johnson spends time training for marathons and enjoying his vast vinyl collection.
Tell us about your background.
I was born in Houston, Texas in the Texas Medical Center. My mom was a pastor and my father was in the Navy. I had surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital when I was about six weeks old for Pyloric Stenosis. Later we relocated to Virginia (Norfolk Naval Base/Chesapeake) where my dad was based for most of my childhood. A lot of “little Evan” happened there. I had a brig officer who took me under his wing and taught me lots of fun things. We were back in Houston for my high school years, then I went back to Virginia for college at William & Mary. I had several different jobs in high school and college as a lifeguard/swimming instructor, a referee for multiple sports, and a SAT/GRE/MCAT/LSAT instructor for Kaplan.
How did your path lead to medicine and specifically neurology?
When I was at William & Mary I had an inkling I wanted to go into medicine, but I flirted with becoming a veterinarian too. William & Mary gave me a great education but also a B+ average, so I didn’t get into medical school when I first applied on my way out of undergrad. I asked some of the deans of medical schools what I could do to improve my application. They suggested pursuing a Master’s degree to bring up my GPA.
The Master’s at UT [University of Texas] Houston allowed me to do cross-courses with the medical school. I was not especially strategic about it, though, because I took the hardest courses they offered. I did pretty well comparatively, but didn’t exactly raise my average. The degree centered on work in M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Medical Physics / Imaging Research Lab. When I graduated, I was offered to stay on as a senior researcher, and since it was the same time as I proposed to my wife, Lori, that seemed better than starting med school. But every year, I was teaching the MCAT, and I saw everyone coming in wearing suits who were about to start med school. There’s the cliche encouragement of “Don’t give up on your dreams,” but you also don’t want to hold on to something when life is clearly pointing in a different direction. It got to the point when I really felt like I was missing out, though, so I applied again and this time was accepted [to UT Houston Medical School].
This path much better prepared me to go through med school because I got exposed to more things. I couldn’t take anything for granted or think it could come easy, so it mattered more to me.
As for neurology, I was toying with several fields when I entered med school, and I shadowed multiple specialties during that first summer. I found myself asking to come back to the Movement Disorders Clinic. I loved the close relationships between the patients and providers in clinic, and discovering that a physical exam could tell me a diagnosis was a game-changer.
Why did you choose Vanderbilt for your residency?
I needed a strong institution where I knew I would be learning, mixed with a location that would be a good place to live for my family. Vanderbilt was good for that. The other big thing I realized I wanted was someplace where I wasn’t just a resident here to learn by doing, but where I would also have faculty members who would be paying attention to and following us, and who would be caring enough to take the time to correct us. I wanted a place where there would be individualized training because otherwise you don’t get feedback. I want someone telling me, “You’re really terrible at this. How can we figure this out?” because that’s where the development comes from.
How has having a family changed your approach to residency?
Our first boy (Ben, now age 10) was born before I started medical school; I was one of the few who started med school with a kid and stayed married. Our second son (Andrew, age 5) was the rascal who defied me and decided to be born via emergency surgery hours before I needed to take the Step 1 exam. My wife begged her doctors to make it work out so it wouldn’t affect the exam, but they went ahead and did it, and I just walked in half asleep and took the test. Somehow I didn’t do too badly!
In both medical school and residency, people always ask, “How do you do it?” When I come home, I come home. There are other folks more knowledgeable than I am, and they go home and study after a full day. But as much as I can, when I’m home, I’m home. On the flip side, my family helps tremendously in terms of perspective and keeping me grounded. Others come out of residency and into their first jobs, and career anxiety is a big problem for them. But I could have the worst day at the hospital, and when I come home they still love me. My career is not the only thing I identify with.
What are your professional interests and goals?
I’m very interested in Movement Disorders [see above]. But my interests are broad. I am fascinated by neurodegenerative conditions as a whole, and I hope to care for a wide variety of patients after residency. My first step will be the Movement Disorders Fellowship here at Vanderbilt starting in July!
What’s been the highlight of residency thus far?
I’ve really enjoyed feeling like I’ve made a difference for some of the residents in the classes coming up behind us by helping them develop and do well—and then realizing that that was me just months ago.
But probably my favorite thing has been my classmates. My class of six residents is extremely close to each other, and we are together both in and out of the hospital. It’s a special thing. We’ve all really been each other’s biggest cheerleaders and coaches.
What are your other hobbies?
I got baited into doing a marathon a couple years after college and have ended up doing 10 of them, plus a good number of Half Marathons, and even a few Triathlons (note: not Ironman).
We live my youth through the kids. It’s been fun—even going to the zoo or celebrating holidays gets reinvigorated. I’ve been dragging them to the Marvel movies, so that’s fun for me to introduce them to that. The tiny one got to do tiny person football this fall and I got to play. Living through them has been fun.
Between that and the running, I really enjoy music—pop, rock, hip-hop. It’s a fairly broad taste. I’m one of the people who saw 50+ Dave Matthews Band shows. I also have a massive 200+ vinyl collection. The beauty of vinyl is that you have to pick out solid albums—good records where you don’t want to skip any songs.
What kind of advice would you give for incoming residents?
Work hard on yourself and constantly make yourself better than you were yesterday, however that needs to be. The hospital has a never-ending list of ways to make you miserable or unhappy, so you have to refuse to let the hospital do that. It is not allowed to make you an unhappy person, no matter how hard your day has been.
Any other fun facts we should know about?
I am legally able to drive in 49 states. I am not allowed to order Domino’s pizza in the Greater Houston area. As a child, I once "jailbreaked" from my daycare center, scaling a 10-foot fence and making it several blocks before apprehension. (It would have been a clean escape, except an accomplice shouted "so long suckers" when we jumped.)
