S4: Ep 6 - Dr. Lelach Rave pivots from Pediatrics to Politics

Hello and welcome to Right In Front of My Face - the podcast talking about big things happening right in front of us.  I’m your host Shannon Hull and this is season 4 of the show which means I’m still focusing on individuals who have taken major life pivots after Covid.  

There are two groups of people whom Covid hit particularly hard in completely different ways - medical professionals and politicians.  These two specifically had to deal with facets of Covid and the community in ways that us in the normal population will probably never understand.  It seems to have polarized both fields - people are leaving medicine in droves.  And politics has opened up to the most polarizing people in our country.  

The last two years also have me wondering, “why on Earth would anyone rational want to enter into politics?”  The Political landscape seems toxic at the moment and because we need rational, intelligent people to run, I think a lot of us wonder who in their right mind would do it?  Now I say that having interviewed several candidates for this podcast  - they’ve answered this question altruistically, but all of these individuals have backgrounds in politics.  Casey Sixkiller and Liz Berry both worked in politics before they ran - it wasn’t a pivot as much as it had been an existing career for both of them.  

 Enter Dr. Lelach Rave.  

Dr. Rave reached out to me a couple of months ago after hearing my interview with Assistant Atty General Kyle Wood.  She was prepping for a meeting with him and decided to email me.  She explained that as a practicing pediatrician, her feeling was that if we can get policy right for kids and health, everything else would follow.  She felt her talents would be best used for the next few years in Olympia as a State House Representative in the district I happen to live in.  Now, up until I started this podcast, local politics hasn’t been my jam.  I’m embarassed to admit it, but I wasn’t invested.  What I definitely am invested in, however, is women running for office.  I had the opportunity to interview Representative Liz Berry a week before she won her State Rep office in district 36, and after speaking with her, I realized that I wanted to be involved with getting more women in leadership.

Dr. Rave is thoughtful, pragmatic, quietly confident, and her background in flight medicine trained her to be very calm under pressure - all very good qualities in a lawmaker.  As I’ve stated many times before, I am not a political journalist.  I am not out to gotcha interview anyone who is brave enough to dip their toe into local politics.  I’d like to reiterate that this is not an endorsement interview for Dr. Rave - I’m interested in her decision to leave a successful medical practice to enter into Washington politics.  She clearly cares deeply about our community and I wanted to get to know her and hear her story.

The timing of our chat was uncanny because the morning of her interview, the news broke that Roe V Wade was potentially going to be overturned.  As a medical practitioner whose worked with families and educated kids about reproductive health for a career - it was fascinating to hear her take and her honestly.  I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Again - thanks so much to Dr. Rave for taking the time to come and chat with me.  The older I get, the more I realize how much power individual votes have and I’m a bit ashamed it’s taken me so long to fully understand that.  The August primaries will be here before we know it, and in November, these elections that seem so small and local will translate into real, tangible policy for you and your family.  Take them seriously.  Get to know the candidates who will be creating laws that will either protect us, or leave the vulnerable out in the proverbial cold.  We’re all in this together, but we have to take our votes seriously.  

Thank you so much for listening - again, I’m Shannon Hull.  You can find me on IG here..  Please leave a 5 star review wherever you listen to podcasts, and ask some more questions this week…you never know what’s happening right in front of your face.