A Professional Life of Service
Nick Saltarelli, B.A. ’10, was still a student at Baylor when he realized he could serve vulnerable populations at home and abroad through emergency medicine. It started, though, with a love for academics and connecting with people.
Even as an undergraduate student, “Medicine emerged as a way for me to get to meld those parts of myself — enjoying people and enjoying and having an aptitude for the sciences — in a way that was fruitful and life-affirming for myself and others,” Saltarelli said.
Exploring natural skills was just one part of the equation in directing Saltarelli to a career in medicine. He also discovered a heart for service and mentors to model a professional life of service.
“Something that Baylor opened my eyes to wasn’t just global need, but need in general, through Church Under the Bridge and some of their immersion experiences,” Saltarelli described. “And then as far as the global perspective, it essentially began by hearing about Straw to Bread.”
Saltarelli got to know Dr. Lisa Baker, B.A. ’76, Ph.D., and Troy Abell, Ph.D., through coursework and a semester-long study abroad trip to Maastricht. He had such an enriching experience in Maastricht that he signed up to join Baker and Abell for the first group of Baylor students to travel to Kenya for a medical mission trip with their nonprofit Straw to Bread.
“They seemed to have a lifestyle of education and service in the sciences that I didn’t really know I was looking for a model for. But once I saw that model, it was very helpful to me in finding a professional fit for myself.”
Saltarelli discovered a passion for emergency medicine while earning his medical doctorate at Vanderbilt School of Medicine after graduating from Baylor. He then completed residency at Indiana University Emergency Medicine Residency, where he stayed another year as an advanced emergency ultrasound fellow. Throughout each step of his education and training, Saltarelli returned to rural Kenya for medical service 10 times, in addition to one trip to Nepal and two trips to Uganda.
“I knew that for me, the path was not to move to Kenya full time, it was to straddle both worlds, and to be an educator and physician in the United States, and then to take the expertise and the resources of my institutions, as well as the students that are entrusted to me, and to take that all abroad for maximum leverage,” Saltarelli said.
Now, Saltarelli is based in Dallas, where he works in the Emergency Department at John Peter Smith Emergency Medicine, a level one county hospital with a residency program where he is a core faculty member and ultrasound director. He still takes care of a large population of non-English speaking patients, homeless patients and patients without access to other forms of care, and he teaches residents to do the same.
Saltarelli was awarded the 2024 Physician of the Year Award from Integrative Emergency Services, a seven-state physician group with dozens of associated hospitals, recognizing his leadership as an educator.
“Part of the reason I chose to work for them is they are a physician-led organization that private equity has a 0% stake in, and they are absolutely committed to providing care for the patient, whatever that looks like,” Saltarelli said.
Whether it’s seeing patients, teaching residents and physicians or now serving as a board member of Straw to Bread, Saltarelli’s work in service to vulnerable populations has ripples that extend from his care for individuals in Dallas to communities across the globe.