Alison Shames

I am originally from Memphis and began ballet at age 11, training under guest teachers from Ballet Memphis. I attended summer programs at Boston Ballet School, The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, and Gelsey Kirkland Academy. At 15, I suffered a knee injury that required surgery, and for a time I believed my dreams of becoming a professional ballerina were over. However, after returning to finish rehabilitation during a summer intensive, I moved to Florida to train full-time at The Art of Classical Ballet under Magaly Suarez. There, I performed in productions of Giselle, La Bayadère, and The Nutcracker. A second knee injury at the end of my training brought my ballet career to an end, but it opened the door to a new path in medicine through mentorship from my sports physician.

Inspired by those experiences, I pursued medicine by enrolling in the pre-health professions program at Florida Atlantic University, where I graduated magna cum laude in 2020 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. I then worked as a clinical research assistant, focusing on knee osteoarthritis and shoulder injuries, before beginning my medical education at Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. I am now preparing to graduate from medical school and begin my psychiatry residency at Broward Health in Florida. In my future career as a psychiatrist, I hope to combine my background in performance, injury recovery, and medicine to help patients navigate the mental challenges of physical injury and the pressures often faced by high-performing individuals.