About Ebola: Hood River doctor tells of her 2015 experiences in west Africa

Dr. Trey Rigert of Hood River calls it “an amazing mission, amazing doctor, amazing story.”

Foster, a partner at Columbia Gorge Family Medicine, worked in Sierra Leone and Liberia as part of Ebola Response and Health Systems Strengthening from March to May 2015. She is trained as an international agricultural economist, and as a family physician, and has a degree in African history.

Foster worked for 10 years in international economics in Africa and Asia. Trained to do policy work, she also enjoyed field work at the village level in in agricultural and rural economic development, maternal and child health. She found that poverty, nutrition and health are inextricably linked.

Subsequently trained as a physician, Foster came to the Gorge in 2008. Prior to coming to Hood River, she trained in San Francisco and Idaho, and worked in rural Idaho’s Canyon and Owhyee Counties. She also had the opportunity to return to Uganda and teach medical residents since becoming a physician.

“It’s fascinating to me that the Hood River medical community has such a tradition of medical mission work,” Rigert said. “It’s unusual for small town, but it speaks to the character of the providers that this area attracts,” Rigert said.

“The narrative of Dr. Foster’s experience in West Africa is very powerful,” he said. “As we live through healthcare transformation here in the Gorge, a story like hers is so helpful for re-grounding our expectations about what it means to meet basic healthcare needs.”