In his own words: Jefferson Prince, MD

Jeff Prince, MD, medical director of Inpatient Pediatric Psychiatry and vice chair of Psychiatry at Salem Hospital shares his career influencers and what brings meaning and satisfaction to his work.

Often described as the "child whisperer," Jeff Prince, MD, almost made a living selling pizza. While he shared that he is not great with business and numbers, he understands the power of philanthropy to transform ideas into reality to improve patient care. He is the co-chair of this year's Salem Hospital signature fall fundraiser, Hope on the Green at Tedesco Country Club, featuring a golf tournament and BBQ dinner.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I initially went to college to focus on business. I love pizza and at the time, pizza delivery services were not as common. My dream was to own a Domino's pizza franchise. As part of the class, I put together a pitch for entrepreneurs to consider investing $100K, which was the cost of a franchise at the time. It turns out my pitch needed a lot of improvement, and I was advised to consider a different path.

Is there a personal story or experience that shaped your decision to become a psychiatrist?

Even though I didn't think I would become a doctor initially, I was good in science, and I enjoyed biology. As I continued in my medical training, I thought I would go into orthopedics but decided I enjoyed learning more about people's stories and not body parts. My father was a psychiatrist, so I suppose there was a strong unconscious influence there. There are two other reasons I decided to focus on child psychiatry: whenever I met with adult patients, they all seemed to talk about their childhoods, and I became fascinated by being able to help during this life stage. My mom grew up in an orphanage, and the person that she became is influenced by the staff she interacted with at the orphanage and by the people who adopted her.

What drives you and your work, and what provides you with job satisfaction?

I like connecting with both the child and the family members or adults in their lives. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to be able to help them through crisis, to help them realize there is something more right in them when they feel like everything is wrong with them. Both the parents and the kids want to be good and do right by each other, but sometimes they don't know how. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to provide them tools and nudge them to the right trajectory. We've had several people who have received services and grow into productive adults entering the field of health and human services, social work and medicine. We were able to help them overcome their deepest, darkest moments and recover with care and attention.

If you had more funding for child psychiatry, at Salem Hospital, what is on your wish list?

It would be great to enhance our multi-modal offerings and more personalized and integrated care. The kids need more physical activity and expanded programs to increase exercise. They also need more resources and tools to learn about nutrition and the role it plays in their overall health — how they need to eat well and take care of themselves physically, learn how to cook and some additional skills for independence. I also really like the idea of making their spaces more therapeutic, bringing in more elements of nature, greenery, sounds of birds and water. It would be terrific to increase the presence of animals, perhaps an aquarium and add more therapy dogs. Beyond child psychiatry, I think the hospital and community could benefit with a healing garden that could be accessible by all visitors to the hospital.

What do you do outside of work? How do you recharge? Any fun facts?

I love spending time with family. My hobbies include golf, and I recharge doing yoga and meditation. Two fun facts include: I've climbed Mount McKinley and as I child I grew up in the South and attended school with Martin Luther King Jr.'s children.