I’m Dominique Sanchez on paper, but please call me Dom. I hail from America’s high five: Michigan. I grew up in a small rural suburb of Flint (yes, that Flint). I completed my undergraduate education at Michigan State University (Go Green!) where I pursued a B.S. in Human biology and a B.A. in Spanish. I’ve always had an interest in science, partially thanks to Bill Nye.
Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit (yeah Hockeytown!) is my alma mater. During my time in medical school, I became interested in advocacy, public health and care for underserved populations. I had the privilege of serving an urban population that taught me the complexities and importance of the social determinants of health. My patient’s taught me to think holistically, beyond scientific medicine. I had a bit of a crisis when trying to choose a specialty as I realized that I loved all aspects of medicine and couldn’t see myself focusing on one organ system for the rest of my career. I loved women’s health, inpatient medicine, procedures, education, political advocacy and social justice. Family medicine snuck up on me near the end of my third year as my natural calling.
Being a Michigander my whole life, residency was the perfect opportunity to spend some time away from the mitten. Never in a million years did I think I’d find myself in the south. However, after coming down to Chapel Hill, this program became the gold standard to which I compared all other programs. I wanted to practice bilingual medicine, get rigorous training and care for complex patients- the underserved track at UNC presented all of these opportunities and more. I’ve found amazing friends here in my co-residents, incredible mentors and wonderful patients. I can definitively say that this is where I belong for my training.
My professional interests include care for underserved populations- particularly latino immigrant populations; women and children’s health; HIV primary care; and political advocacy.
My other interests include yoga, reading, linguistics, hiking and knitting. During my free moments you can find me snuggling with my pets or trying to brush up on my rusty German skills. My husband and I are having a great time exploring a new corner of the country.
