This week’s guest on The Nocturnists is optometrist Tiffany Chan, who told a story live onstage at an event produced by Dr. Rebecca George at the Sierra Valley Health Center in Nevada City, California, in 2025.
Tiffany grew up in the Gold Rush town of Grass Valley, built a career in elite academic medicine at Johns Hopkins, and ultimately found her way back home after her mother’s sudden brain bleed transformed her sense of place and purpose.
In our conversation, we talk about:
* the tension between academic research and the pull of home
* how her mother’s medical crises reshaped her understanding of healing
* the intimacy and continuity of small-town, relationship-driven medicine
* carrying forward her family’s and community’s cultural and caregiving legacies
The Nevada City storytelling event was produced through our Nocturnists Satellites program, made possible by a generous grant from the California Health Care Foundation.
Enjoy,
Emily and The Nocturnists Team
Favorite moments from this week’s episode
The Hamster Wheel“I had just been promoted at one of the top hospitals in the country. I was helping open satellite clinics. My mentor said I could apply for a grant and work toward a PhD. All of those things should have made me happy—but I just felt stuck on this academic hamster wheel, not knowing whether to stay or go.”
A Mother Who Knew“She told the ER doctor it felt like an ice pick going through her head. They asked how much she’d had to drink, and she said ‘a whole bottle’—meaning water. They meant alcohol. She was right about the bleed. She just didn’t want to be.”
Training for the Unprepared“All those years lecturing on visual field loss—I had no idea I was training for my own mother. Suddenly, everything I’d studied was right in front of me. I realized I had been preparing for this without knowing it.”
Crying with Patients“For the first year after my mom died, I cried with a patient every single day. At first it felt unprofessional. Now I think of the exam room as a safe place for tears. Except when it messes up my dry eye samples.”
Redefining Success“Leaving Johns Hopkins felt like losing part of my identity. But once I let myself get quiet and think about my values, new doors opened. I realized the doors don’t really close—they just change.”
Enjoying The Nocturnists? Check out a new podcast from our friends at Unleashed: Redesigning Health Care
Unleashed: Redesigning Health Care is a new podcast features guests are clinician-innovators who have changed care on the front lines. Their stories, their voices, their ingenuity. Learn more at unleashedpodcast.org.
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