When I went to the Literacy Network’s offices for an interview about the federal government freezing funding for adult education, I didn’t expect to find myself talking to a medical specialist.
Anna Mykhailova enrolled in English classes at the Madison nonprofit after fleeing Ukraine in 2022. She later joined the organization’s student advisory board, which is how she ended up at the interview.
I asked what kind of work she’d done in Ukraine. Her answer startled me so much that my mind went blank.
“Cardiologist … That’s a heart doctor, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Anna said, and went on to explain that she now works as a cardiac sonographer at a Madison hospital. At 42, she told me she’s studying for licensing exams to restart her medical career in the United States and making plans to spend three years as a medical resident all over again.
Her husband Sasha, 52, an accomplished anesthesiologist and perfusionist, is in a similar boat, she told me. He decided to go back to school, enrolling in the medical perfusion graduate program at Milwaukee School of Engineering to study the profession he practiced for more than 20 years in Ukraine.
Before I met Anna, I knew a bit about the challenges facing immigrant medical professionals. In a previous life, I worked in student support services at a community college in New Orleans, where I often met with immigrant students who wanted to practice the professions they’d trained for back home. As a journalist, I reported on the fact that most foreign-trained dentists have to repeat dental school if they want to practice in Wisconsin, even as many parts of the state are deemed “deserts” of dental care.
Anna and Sasha seemed like poster children for this conundrum: How can a state create rules that protect patients and ensure quality care without creating obstacles that can seem insurmountable to foreign-trained professionals?
I asked Anna if she’d be willing to talk with me more about her experience. She agreed. Six months later, we published that story, complete with stunning portraits my colleague Joe Timmerman captured on his 1950s film camera. Newspapers and news websites across the state ran it. The American Society of Anesthesiologists put it in their newsletter.
Anna couldn’t believe it.
“I honestly didn’t expect that people would notice our story, so hearing that it’s resonating with readers is incredibly touching,” Anna told us in a text message.
Journalists like to talk about “impact,” the things that change because of our stories. I don’t know if this story will change any policies — or if it should. But the fact that Anna and Sasha discovered that their fellow Wisconsinites cared about what they’ve been through? That’s impact, too.
Read the full Story
The transplants: 2 doctors fled Ukraine for Wisconsin. They’re still trying to get their careers back.
An anesthesiologist and a cardiologist gave up prestigious careers to save their daughter from war. Nearly four years later, they’re still on the long road to practicing their professions in the Dairy State.
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