BIO
Dr. Feibi Zheng was born in Fuzhou, China, where she spent her childhood among extended family until immigrating to the US to join her father in California. There, she excelled in her math studies, advancing several grades to support her learning, and eventually attended UC Berkeley at the age of 15. She later switched her major to molecular and cell biology and was accepted to UC San Diego for medical school. She went on to take her residency at Houston Methodist, during which she had a myriad of experiences, including establishing a training program at Methodist, starting a small company with friends, marrying her husband, and having her first child during her chief year. She also developed ardent research interests in financial toxicity, a patient's care pathway, and technology used in aiding healthcare. Afterward, she sought out a fellowship at UCLA with the specific goal of learning how to set up an endocrine program at Houston Methodist from scratch. She then returned to Houston with her family, which now included her second child, whom she had in the last year of her fellowship.
She currently lives with her mother, her husband, and her two children. Relevant to the pandemic, she commented that her clinical practices as an endocrine surgeon had not been greatly negatively impacted due to the nature of most endocrine problems, but expressed concerns over hospital retention rates on their staff and the push for vaccinations among healthcare workers. In the fall of 2021, she will be transitioning her clinical practice to Baylor College of Medicine, and starting a non-clinical position at Intuitive Surgical. This interview covers Zheng's experiences as a child immigrating to the US, her decision to become a surgeon, her ambitions and research, and her observations in the healthcare industry, particularly the difficulties of being a woman and pregnancy in a hospital setting. She also discusses her personal life and the importance of having "layers of childcare" in order to raise a family and continue her training and medical practice at the same time.