Family of Badgers Creates Scholarship
With nine University of Wisconsin–Madison degrees in their family, Linda and Thomas Kloosterboer, MD ’82 (PG ’86), are grateful for their education and that of their adult children, who earned undergraduate degrees as Badgers.
Both daughters earned master’s degrees at UW–Madison and medical degrees from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Molly Kloosterboer Groose, MD ’12 (PG ’16, ’17), completed an anesthesiology residency and transplant anesthesiology fellowship at UW Health, where she is the medical director of transplant anesthesiology; she also is a UW School of Medicine and Public Health associate professor of anesthesiology. Amy Kloosterboer, MD ’14, completed a combined internal medicine/anesthesia residency and a critical care fellowship at Stanford University; she is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care there, and she practices at Stanford Health Care. And Bryan Kloosterboer has a degree in engineering and is a software engineer in Madison.
Rewinding to her UW–Madison days, Linda Kloosterboer had completed a bachelor’s degree in speech and language pathology and was working on a related master’s degree when she and her future husband briefly met while camping in Florida over spring break with separate groups of friends. At the time, Thomas Kloosterboer was in graduate school and preparing to start medical school at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The couple started dating 18 months later and got married at the beginning of his anesthesiology residency at UW Health, where he did a subsequent fellowship.
Thomas Kloosterboer practiced anesthesiology independently and at Methodist Hospital/Jackson Clinic, which transformed into UnityPoint Health–Meriter/Physicians Plus Medical Group (PPMG). He was a board member in PPMG, which merged with the UW Medical Foundation. Thomas Kloosterboer became an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, where he led the anesthesia clerkship, served on the admissions committee, and received multiple teaching awards.
As their family grew, Linda Kloosterboer left her role in speech pathology. She recalls busy days all the way through their kids’ college years, after which the couple built a home on Green Lake, a large lake 30 miles north of Thomas Kloosterboer’s family farm.
“For 10 years before I retired, I practiced anesthesiology in a 22-bed hospital in Ripon,” he says, adding that the need for physicians in small, rural towns resonated with him and his wife.
“This area has very few specialists and a shrinking number of primary care physicians. Many local people feel like it’s a long drive to see a doctor in Madison, Fond du Lac, or Appleton,” says Linda Kloosterboer.
As parents and members of the Middleton Society, and through Thomas Kloosterboer’s experience on the Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors, they are aware of the financial challenges faced by medical students. They decided to help the next generation by creating the Kloosterboer Family Scholarship.
The fund’s inaugural recipient — Delaine Anderson, MPH, of Chino Hills, California — has a strong interest in enhancing health care for rural residents and families in need, and she hopes to practice family medicine with obstetrics in Wisconsin. She chose the UW School of Medicine and Public Health because she appreciates the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine’s (WARM) focus on “training physicians to be community-engaged and flexible for the future of health care.”
The first in her family to pursue a medical degree, Anderson says, “I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to pursue medical school without debt. This support allows me to focus on my studies and make myself the best possible student I can be.”
Experiences she had during her undergraduate education in human performance and exercise science at the University of Alabama fueled her desire to work in a rural area. Anderson also earned a master of public health degree in maternal and child health at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and gained goal-shaping experiences working in small companies and nonprofit agencies.
Having completed her first year in WARM, she shares, “I love the variety of family medicine — going from doing a pregnancy ultrasound in one room to a laceration repair in a procedure room, and helping manage hypertension medication for a grandparent, within an hour.”
She continues, “I want to be someone folks can rely on during regular milestones or emergencies. I like being a confidante and thrive when problem-solving.”
The Kloosterboers were thrilled to meet Anderson and learn about her vision, noting that they admire her enthusiasm, positivity, and energy, which “bode well for the future.”