BY LYNNE JETER

In 2001, Dr. Katrina Nichelle Poe-Johnson returned to her hometown of rural Kilmichael, population 900, after completing her medical training at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC).

Her return coincided with a critical juncture; the town was about to lose its only physician.

Poe-Johnson opened a family clinic there, where she now sees 250 to 300 patients per week. On call 24/7, she also makes hospital rounds and house calls, serves as the medical director for the local nursing home and monitors residents of the community's home for mentally challenged youth.

The powers that be at Irving, Texas-based Staff Care, Inc., one of the nation's fastest growing interim healthcare staffing service firms, thought Poe-Johnson exemplified a continuing contribution to rural healthcare. In 2005, Staff Care named Poe-Johnson, then 35, Country Doctor of the Year.

"Dr. Poe is more than a physician in Kilmichael, she's the community's guardian angel," said Joseph Caldwell, executive vice president of Staff Care, whose firm typically bestows the prestigious title to an older, male physician. "To observe her practice is to witness the power of knowledge and compassion at work."

Undaunted by her newfound national fame and the week's vacation that came with the honor, Poe-Johnson continues to scurry about town, seeing dozens of patients each day while also caring for her two preschool sons.

"Treating patients in my hometown and being an important part of their lives is something that I love doing and which is a reward in itself," said Poe-Johnson. "More physicians need to know that rural medicine practice is a great style of practice, and I'm glad the Country Doctor of the Year award brings attention to that fact."

During a Meridian Rotary Club presentation last year introducing Poe-Johnson, program chairman Mel Scarborough described her as "leaving footprints in the sands of time with her life and her caring for people."

"I'm sure that many young people, in numbers we'll never know, are thinking: Hey, wait a minute. If Katrina Poe can reach her dream, maybe, just maybe, I have a chance if I think positively, believe in myself and do the very best I can," said Scarborough.

Poe-Johnson was quick to point to her parents, garment factory workers James and Bessie Poe, for "providing continuous encouragement in times of adversity," she said. "They've made tremendous personal sacrifices to support me in achieving my goals."

The younger daughter by 13 months of two children born to the Poes, she was voted Most Likely to Succeed and Miss Kilmichael High School and participated in basketball, cheerleading and track.

When she was a fifth grader, Poe-Johnson told her mom she wanted to be a physician.

"I told her she didn't know what she was talking about," said Bessie Poe. "Once she did it, it was just so amazing that I had to apologize to her and tell her I was wrong."

Poe-Johnson, who earned a biological sciences degree from Mississippi State University (MSU) in 1992, paid her way through college with the assistance of a T.A. Spain academic scholarship and by working as a resident assistant at MSU, where she was active in the Gamma Beta Phi, Lambda Sigma, Alpha Lambda Delta, Beta Beta Beta Biological Sciences and the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Medicine honor societies.

During her senior year of college, she worked in the Agent, Food and Nutrition Educational Program at the Montgomery County Extension Service and was presented with the Cultural Diversity Academic Achievement Award.

Before earning a doctor of medicine degree from UMC in 1998, Poe-Johnson received the CIBA-Geigy Community Service Award from UMC. She completed her family medicine internship from UMC in 1999, the same year she won the Gillis Award, the equivalent of Intern of the Year.

In 2001, Poe-Johnson completed a family medicine residency at UMC, where she was the family medicine assistant chief resident for two years. That year, she joined the GLH Kilmichael Clinic as a physician.

"The greatest challenge I faced was returning home to practice medicine in a small town that had grown accustomed to receiving medical care from an older male physician for 45 years," recalled Poe-Johnson, the town's first female and first black physician. "I overcame it by being patient and prayerful."

Also in 2001, she became chief of staff of Kilmichael Hospital, the second largest area employer and the cornerstone of the community's economic structure.

"The toughest business decision I made was deciding to spread my wings and not continue to practice medicine under the management of a larger hospital, but instead form a contract with the small hospital in town," she admitted. "It was a decision that would be financially and personally beneficial to both parties involved."

In 2004, Winona Times named her the area's Business and Professional Woman of the Year. In 2005, the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Association presented her with the President's Award.

But it was the Country Doctor of the Year award that catapulted Poe-Johnson to the national limelight, scoring nods in USA Today and a major television network appearance on "People Who Make A Difference."

For the Country Doctor honors, which took place in the high school auditorium she frequented as a student, Poe-Johnson was selected from nearly 400 candidates, and was the youngest ever recipient of the 11-year award program.

"Not all country doctors are holdovers from a previous age of medicine," said Caldwell. "There are still younger physicians like Dr. Poe who are willing to serve out on the island that is rural healthcare. She shatters a lot of stereotypes."

In 2006, Poe-Johnson received the Mississippi Trailblazer Award and was named one of Mississippi's 50 Leading Business Women.

Poe-Johnson, who also serves as a Sunday school teacher and Boy Scout leader, and her husband, Calvin Johnson, Sr., have two sons, C.J., 3, and Deuce, 1, and the family Chihuahua, Kassidy.




January 2007