Rebecca Fryer Gordon, DO

Hi there! I grew up halfway between Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri in a town called Rolla. My childhood was mostly spent riding horses, participating in Girl Scouts, and going to gymnastics/cheerleading practice. As an adult, I enjoy spending my free time playing with my daughter and taking her on mini adventures. Watching a child grow and learn is one of the most precious gifts life has to offer.

I graduated from the University of Missouri- Columbia with a degree in biochemistry and a minor in Spanish before serving in the College Advising Corps for two years in rural Missouri. Prior to beginning medical school at A.T. Still University- School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA), I enrolled at Mizzou for a second time to complete my Master of Public Health degree. This is where establishing systems to address health disparities in rural communities first peaked my interest. As a result of this training, I will prioritize using an integrative approach to address both the root causes of illnesses and the social determinants of health that disproportionately affect rural families.

The tenets of osteopathic medicine combined with the mission to serve underserved populations led me to Arizona for the first didactic year of medical school. My second, third and fifth years of medical school were spent on site doing clinical rotations in several hospitals and clinics across South Carolina. Between my 3rd and 4th year of medical school rotations, I returned to Arizona for a pre-doctoral teaching fellowship where I had the opportunity to delve further into manual manipulative therapy.

During medical school, I was first attracted to family medicine because of the opportunity to combine my interests in pediatrics and women’s health, but I fell in love with the patient-physician relationship caring for the entire family offers. Now, when I envision myself as a doctor, I see a people-orientated, patient-centered practice that takes care of everyone from birth until the end of life. When choosing a residency, I was looking for a program that shared my values of kind, compassionate full-spectrum care. I believe I have found that with CoxHealth FMR, and am happy to join the Springfield community as a budding primary care physician.