MEMBERS
DR. Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
ELAINE WOERNER, MD
Aaron Burch
D
r. Elaine Woerner has been a guiding force in Lou-
isville health care for more than three decades. As a dead, then they said, ‘We’ll still interview you if you can come this
afternoon.’ I had no car, but I managed to get a ride. I showed up in
family medicine physician for Family Health Centers
(FHC), Dr. Woerner has made a career of educating
and providing care for the underprivileged. jeans and a t-shirt and said, ‘Here I am,’” she laughed.
Sitting in a conference room at the FHC Broadway location, Dr.
Woerner was dressed casually, in comfy knitted hat, t-shirt, FHC
jacket and jeans. She took time to describe her journey through
Louisville as a student, a teacher and a physician.
“I grew up in the South End, right by Iroquois Park. I have
four siblings, and I’m the oldest. We spent most nice days playing
outside. There were a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and we’d go
to an empty lot down the road for ball games. We all got together,
played board games, even sewed,” Dr. Woerner said.
Her father, William, worked as a salesman for Sperry and
Hutchinson (S&H). “When you went to buy gas or get groceries,
you’d get these S&H stamps. You’d collect them, take them to a
redemption store and redeem them for different items. My mom,
Aileen, stayed at home until I was about 16, then she started working
as a cashier at Convenient Food Mart.”
She was accepted, but Dr. Woerner went through hard knocks
in her first year. “I was a chemistry major, which in and of itself is
tricky. All my friends took biology, which was more in line with
basic medicine. Memorizing everything was a challenge, but none
of us did well on our first test. We decided we wouldn’t quit just yet.
We supported each other and made success happen,” Dr. Woerner
said proudly.
Through willpower and team efforts, Dr. Woerner and her col-
leagues graduated. Many remained at UofL for residency, and the
group stayed somewhat intact. In a premonition of her career to
come, Dr. Woerner’s residency training was at the Louisville Me-
morial Primary Care Center which would become the Portland
Family Health Center.
“We had so much on the job training; we felt like we could handle
anything,” Dr. Woerner said. “When I got to the clinical questions
of the board exam, I knocked it out because we’d seen it all. Boom,
Dr. Woerner discovered a love of chemistry and thought she
would pursue pharmacy. Upon arrival at the University of Louis-
ville (UofL) undergraduate program, she soon realized a career as a
pharmacist could lack the interaction with patients which she craved.
“The pharmacy folks today have a lot more contact and inter-
action with patients. If I’d done pharmacy, I probably would have
really enjoyed it,” she said. “Our pharmacists at Family Health
Centers know our patients so well.” Still, at the time, medical school
sounded more enticing. She sent in her application.
It was 1975, and all of her friends had already been interviewed
for acceptance. “I called to find out what happened to my applica-
tion and was told they misplaced it. The phone line seemed to go
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Dr. Woerner and family in Vietnam