Episode Details

Erica Elliott

Erica M. Elliott, MD

I am a medical doctor in Santa Fe, New Mexico with patients from across the US. I have lived in many different countries while growing up. My adult life began as a school teacher on the Navajo Reservation in the early 1970s, then Peace Corps volunteer in South America working as a bilingual educator, high-altitude mountain climber in the Andes, Outward Bound Instructor in the Colorado Rockies, and then medical doctor in New Mexico. I helped found a co-housing community in Santa Fe called The Commons, where I raised my son, described in a TED talk I gave in 2015. My life has been a mythic journey of wonderment and life-changing experiences including some major health disasters—which ultimately led me to finding my life purpose of service to those who are suffering.

In addition to being a medical doctor, I'm also an author. My first memoir, "Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert: My Life Among the Navajo People," has received enthusiastic reviews. When I learned to speak Navajo while teaching at a boarding school in canyon country, the people welcomed me into their remote homes and their sacred ceremonies, and taught me about their culture.

My second memoir, "From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling" is my quest for finding my purpose in life. One reader wrote:

In this memoir, Dr. Erica Elliott not only shares pivotal events that have shaped her extraordinary life, but through them, she also shares the essence of what it means to be human. She reminds us that challenges, confusion, and physical and emotional pain are inseparable from life, but so is delight. She shows us that we can discover unknown strength, if we choose to test it. She chose repeatedly to do so, and each time she emerged stronger and added a piece to the mosaic that is her unusual, spellbinding life.

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