Jonathan P. Shepherd

Hometown: Winston-Salem, NC (until my fellowship in Pittsburgh with Dr. Sutkin, I’d never spent more than 2 weeks any further than 2 hours away from W-S)

College: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  A big piece of my heart will always be there.  I went to medical school there too, I’ve been a UNC rapid basketball fan since before I could walk, and I played football there during undergrad when we finished my junior season ranked #4 in the country.

Institution: University of Connecticut Health Center where I am the ObGyn Vice-Chair for Research and Division Director for Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.

A cut above: I spend most of my time outside of work truly outside.  I’ve run marathons in 32 different states, and I truly embraced the ultimate social distancing during COVID by hiking most of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Massachusetts. 

Needle unprotected: My pet peeve is inefficiency.  My research has largely focused on cost-effectiveness and reducing economic waste in our medical system.  I’ve also worked with Dr. Sutkin to streamline the efficiency of how we teach residents and fellows, and I pride myself in eliminating unnecessary time and operative movements from my surgical cases.  My dad’s motto was always “Work when you work, and play when you play,” and I try to squeeze as many minutes out of each day so I can have more time at home with my son doing something fun.

Slice of Life: The most interesting thing about me you may not know is… that I have been to the NCAA Final Four two times, but won’t allow myself to go back since Carolina lost in the semifinals on both occasions.  If you look really closely at pictures of the baseline from 2000, you’ll see a skinny college kid on the first row painted blue with a large white C as part of U-N-C on his chest.  It took avoiding hotel security while roaming the halls and staying up all night the night before to secure those tickets!