Dr. Betsy McCarthy brings nearly three decades of clinical and leadership experience to her role as a MAVEN Project mentor. As a family physician in Seattle, she practiced full-spectrum family medicine, including obstetrics for her first 12 years, before moving into leadership roles. As Chief of Primary Care for Pacific Medical Centers, she managed approximately 60 primary care physicians and 20 behavioral health providers, giving her invaluable insights into both clinical and administrative challenges.
Dr. McCarthy discovered MAVEN Project while doing per diem work at a clinic in Seattle as she approached retirement. “It just seemed like a good fit for the kind of work I was hoping to find—being able to use my skills but not be working long hours in the clinic,” she explains. “It’s great to be able to keep using my medical knowledge but not seeing the patients myself or be tied to a clinical setting, and that is very unique to MAVEN. I don’t think there’s any other volunteer situation like that.”
Now serving as both a clinical and leadership mentor, Dr. McCarthy tailors her approach to each mentee’s needs. Rather than lecture, she focuses on case-based learning: “I tend to leave as much as I can case-based, so I ask them to bring a couple of cases from the week that confused them or challenged them, and that’s a segue to lots of different topics.”
Dr. McCarthy has observed significant challenges facing new providers in safety net settings, particularly those coming straight from Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner programs. “The supervision and guidance they thought they were going to get when they graduated is not there. If there’s an MD in the clinic, they’re often booked with a ton of patients and don’t have availability to give individualized attention.”
Among her most memorable mentoring relationships is with a provider serving a remote community. “She’s unique because she comes from that community and has come back in a new role. She is really committed to providing care to these folks, particularly the women. I feel like she’s changing her corner of the world, and I’m honored to be part of it.”
For Dr. McCarthy, MAVEN Project serves as a crucial lifeline for overwhelmed providers. “A lot of the mentees I’ve talked to, in the first few meetings they say they don’t know if they can stay, if they can do this. We’re a lifeline there saying we can help you make this work.”
She gives her mentees her phone number, telling them: “I’m here to keep you from waking up at 2 am in a cold sweat having thought you did the wrong thing.”
