BY KAREN BOSSICK
St. Luke’s Wood River has gained a new pediatrician, replacing Dr. Katie Quayle who left at the end of last year to further her education focusing on pediatric psychology.
Dr. Cait Hopeman, the new pediatrician at St. Luke’s Family Medicine Clinic, began seeing patients this week.
Hopeman grew up in Seattle but visited the Sun Valley area several times as a child, joining her family in skiing, ice skating, swimming and hiking expeditions. She and her husband Riley also have vacationed here—they were even married at Galena Lodge in 2013.
Hopeman got her Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry with a minor in Spanish at Middlebury College, a private liberal arts college founded by Congregationalists in 1800 in Vermont.
She then worked for four years as an outdoor educator and guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), leading three-week to three-month-long trips throughout the Western United States, Alaska and Patagonia, Chile. During that time, she also taught remote medicine courses for the Seattle-based Remote Medical International.
Hopeman then headed to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where she completed her medical degree and obtained a Master’s in Business Administration through a combined program with the Geisel School of Medicine and the Tuck School of Business.
She completed her pediatric residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital and served the rural Alaska Track Program, traveling between Anchorage, Fairbanks and Seattle over three years to expand her experience in primary care and rural medicine.
Hopeman said she has a passion for nutrition, healthy lifestyles and taking a holistic/functional approach to medicine. She loves the opportunity to get to know her patients and their families.
“I have the honor of being present for salient moments throughout a family's development -from birth to potty training, to starting school, to young adulthood and all of the ups and downs and variations that path can take,” she said. “I also love working with children for their bright energies, funny comments, enthusiasm to learn about their bodies and eagerness to be heard and treated with respect.”
Hopeman is the only pediatrician in the valley, although some family medicine doctors treat children, said Joy Prudek, public relations manager for St. Luke’s Wood River. St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation Pediatric Services Endowment Fund helps ensure the Wood River Valley has a full-time pediatrician.
Hopeman and her husband have four children: Eleanor, Riley, Addison and Gus, as well as a dog named Tayo.
“This area is incredible for the opportunities to engage in outdoor activities, the outstanding cultural events that come through each year and the wonderful caring community that has been fostered by everyone here,” Hopeman said. “We really couldn’t be happier to be a part of it all.”