Lynn Rebello
Hello, my name is Lynn Rebello. I am a happily married mother of 4 children and two mastiffs. Our family loves the outdoors, travel, soccer, basketball and dogs. You can usually find me tinkering in the garden, trying to follow a cook’s illustrated recipe or at one of my children’s sporting events. I have been a practicing pediatrician for 18 years, primarily in urban communities of Memphis, TN and Raleigh, NC. My early career involved providing emergency care to children from western TN and bordering states at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. This is a busy urban facility in downtown Memphis. This was a similar practice environment to my residency training in Charlotte, NC; in both of these stops, I gained a firsthand perspective on our healthcare systems inadequate emphasis on wellness promotion. Instead the overwhelming resource allocation was to disease treatment and complication management, both of which clearly are impacted drastically by societal challenges of economic disenfranchisement, limited educational opportunity, lack of mentorship, substance abuse, and mental health crises.
My experiences in Memphis and Raleigh have instilled in me a passion in promoting early intervention to help those children and parents who have suffered adverse childhood events. Wellness efforts facilitated by partnerships between health systems and civic organizations are one of several collaborative efforts that are needed to shift our society focus away from disease treatment to disease prevention. Although I have not returned to medicine just yet, it seems apparent that families in the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas face the same challenges to health, food insecurity, educational opportunity, and financial independence as my patients in Southeast Raleigh. I feel CHIP aligns with my mission to improve the lives of children by empowering parents with knowledge and tools to overcome obstacles to health and personal success. I am confident that my varied experiences and aptitudes will allow me to contribute meaningfully to CHIPS continued growth and success.