MEMBERS
DR. Who
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
AMY QUILLO, MD
Aaron Burch
T
here are a couple of tells which tip off the non-native
Louisvillian when they’re talking to a Louisville “born-
n-bred.” First, Louisvillians are more likely to claim a
neighborhood. Early in her interview, Dr. Amy Quillo
explained that she grew up in Middletown but regularly
visited the Highlands to see friends. The next tell: she owned her
sports fandom. Born into a UofL family, Dr. Quillo still regularly
attends games with family and friends. Even though she attended
UK for undergraduate studies (while Rick Pitino was coach, no
less), her loyalty has never wavered.
Perhaps most interestingly, Louisville natives tend to be relaxed
and open about themselves and their history. Dr. Quillo spoke fondly
of attending St. Margaret Mary School for her elementary years
and Sacred Heart for high school. She’s the oldest of four siblings,
all younger brothers.
“I was kind of a nerd. I was on the math team; I loved to read.
When I was in high school, I got really into local music and coffee. I
was constantly trying to get rides to the Highlands. My mom was so
excited when I got my license and could stop asking her,” she smiled.
Dr. Quillo had a grandfather who practiced dentistry, but her
medical career happened by accident. She had been studying chem-
ical engineering for several years before a year abroad pushed her
out of her comfort zone. It began with a crash course of intensive
language training in a castle near Heidelberg, Germany.
“We stayed in the castle for a month and a half before moving
down to the city. I got really comfortable with the German language,
partly because I worked in an Irish pub and waited on people from
so many different countries. It was really hard but so much fun,”
she happily explained.
“One of my flatmates was in medical school in France. He was
talking about medicine all the time and was so passionate about it.
I remember being asked what I liked about chemical engineering,
and I didn’t have a good answer. I said to myself, ‘Gosh, now that I
think about it, what am I doing?’”
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LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
She would soon return to the Bluegrass and finish two bachelor’s
degrees in Chemistry and German, but Dr. Quillo had an inkling that
medicine was her future. She took the MCAT and never looked back.
As is often the case, chosen specialties are the ones least expected.
Dr. Quillo was initially certain she had no interest in surgery, but her
early third-year rotation changed her mind in a hurry. “It was my first
rotation, so at first I thought I had just been sick of the classroom,
but the days in the OR went by so fast. Some other specialties were
interesting, but I kept coming back around to surgery.”
Newly married to Nathan Quillo, Dr. Quillo began her residency
in 2004. Although she interviewed in several cities, it wasn’t hard
to stay home, especially when the UofL surgery program was and
remains well regarded.
“If I’m going to spend five years of my life learning a skill, I want
to be able to do it well when I finish. The Louisville program is hard,
but you know what you’re getting out of it,” she said. “There were
no restrictions on resident hours at that point, so my poor husband
was now married to someone working sometimes 120 hours per
week. He’d heard me talk about becoming a surgeon for a long time
and supported me the whole way, which was really helpful for my
work-life balance.”
Through her physician mentors, Drs. Mike Flynn and Richard
Goldstein, Dr. Quillo became interested in endocrine surgery, a
newer subspecialty focusing mainly on thyroid and parathyroid
surgery. “I did a rotation with them early in my residency, and I
was really intrigued by the work they did. Thyroid surgery is a little
different each time. It’s an intricate, delicate surgery, and the vocal
cord nerves are at risk. I look at it as a challenging puzzle, and the
work up with the patients is a little bit more involved as well.”
During her fourth year of residency, Dr. Quillo gave birth to a
son, Henry. She worked tirelessly up until the due date. The delivery
went perfectly, and Henry is currently finishing fifth grade.
With her residency complete, the family moved to Minnesota
for a year so Dr. Quillo could complete an endocrine surgery fel-