Dr. Nancy Andersen

Nancy’s family valued education as the gateway to a strong future, surrounding her with books, encyclopedias, and anything they could find to help her learn about the world around her. 

This passion for worldly knowledge was driven by her grandfather, who left Eastern Europe for the United States, and in doing so escaped the evils of communism that had affected his other relatives. The stories he told never left Nancy—neither did a memory of her brother’s health scare, and the medical professionals who saved him. 

Nancy attended Duke University and began volunteering at the university hospital, taking a few medical classes along the way. Those classes sparked a passion, and after graduating from Duke she attended the prestigious George Washington University School of Medicine.

Nancy’s classes were challenging and her mentors were exceptional. Her program director used the Socratic method, not telling Nancy what to think, but teaching her how to think.

Her general surgical residency at UNC Chapel Hill was equally rigorous. It gave Nancy a chance to put her strong academic foundation to work in a training environment of high expectations. 

Nancy believes that every medical student deserves this caliber of education. She’s appalled by what they are getting instead. 

For years, Nancy has witnessed the medical field, including her alma mater, replace the pursuit of knowledge with forced participation in anti-racism declarations and implicit bias trainings.

“When I was in medical school and residency, we didn’t talk about each other’s politics. We tried to be objective and were focused on learning the best methods of care for our patients, not who our colleagues voted for.”

Nancy started seeing her alumni newsletters from UNC feature stories about surgeons kneeling in social justice protests, holding up Black Lives Matter signs, and supporting “gender affirming care.” 

When she noticed the UNC pediatrics website had the 1619 curriculum and the “Genderbread Person” listed as resources for pediatrics, she alerted the media. UNC ended up removing the references after significant backlash. 

Enough was enough. Nancy has been pushing back ever since against members of the academic establishment who use their authority to bully students into ideological submission. 

“Even though I’m not practicing right now, I take information from practicing doctors who feel they can’t speak out and I get it out there. I know several doctors who are too afraid to speak out—people who are knowledgeable and greatly respected. The fact that medicine has become like this, where reasonable people cannot say reasonable things, is so scary to me. It reminds me of the stories my grandfather used to tell.” 

“When I read about Do No Harm in the Wall Street Journal, I said, ‘Thank God someone is doing this for medicine.’ People need a support system to speak out. I greatly respect Dr. Goldfarb’s work and everyone associated with it.”

Dr. Andersen, the feeling is mutual. 

Thank you for all you do.