Medical School: Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Hi! My name is Kayla Gray Vanderkooi and I was born right here in Corpus Christi, TX. My dad worked here as an ER Doctor and he got me initially interested in Emergency Medicine and coming back to Corpus Christi for residency. I moved to the mountains of Colorado when I was in sixth grade, where I grew up skiing and hiking, and met my husband, Stuart. I completed my bachelor’s degree in Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, then spent two years traveling and working as a medical assistant before attending medical school at Rocky Vista University in Parker, CO. While in medical school, I was involved in the Global Medicine Honors Track, which allowed me to further my understanding of global medicine and helped me gain exposure to practicing medicine in austere settings. In my future career as an ER doc, I plan to integrate several months of global work into my practice each year.
I am thrilled to be able to return to the city where I spent my childhood and I love living close by the beach where I can swim and take my dogs to play. Corpus offers so many recreational opportunities, and while I can’t exactly get my skiing fix, I am currently learning to kiteboard. I have high hopes that one day I will be able to do more on it than repeatedly get slammed into the ocean and inhale mouthfuls of saltwater…stay tuned! An ER residency at Christus Health gives me the best of both worlds: a fantastic location with so much to do and experience, and an outstanding unopposed residency program that helps me build skills and confidence in my abilities as a physician every day. The best thing about the Christus Health program is the unopposed residency, meaning the residents do not have to compete with other specialties for procedures, and we get a ton of experience seeing and treating a vast spectrum of high acuity cases.
Finally, I absolutely love the community in our program and I have become fast friends with my fellow interns and upper level residents. We are there for each other in and out of work, and they all make me feel like a part of a family.