Dr. Priya Kishnani grew up in a family of physicians, including her mother, a pediatrician, in Mumbai (then Bombay), India. “My mother ran a charitable program, caring for the underserved and indigent throughout her life,” Dr. Kishnani says. “I saw firsthand what it really meant to be a physician: to give hope to your neighbors, and make an impact on the rest of their lives. From then on, I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
She describes observing her mother in India as an education in and of itself. “It allowed me to examine the family unit in a unique way, watching their resilience as they navigated health concerns.” Dr. Kishnani began her formal medical education in India before embarking on an observation term at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It was there I became fascinated with genetics, and by the time I moved to Duke University to do my third-year pediatric residency, I knew that would be the concentration for my career.”