It was not until he was a biology major at Wheaton College that he first considered medicine. While engaged in overseas programs in Honduras, he began wedding the ideas of disease prevention, health promotion, and community development to wellness. Through extending a semester in Honduras to three, Jeff Evilsizor became conversant in Spanish and remains so today.
Working among the urban poor in Arizona won out over medical school in the years following college. Jeff realized that formal training in counseling would equip him to meet the challenges endemic in his community. A Master’s Degree in Counseling was completed at night while working as a psych tech during the day. Several years followed working with at-risk youth in court-ordered family therapy.
Never being able to shake his interest in medicine, Jeff ventured back to school to become a physician assistant. Incorporating his community development and counseling knowledge to benefit patients, his next years involved work within different diverse conventional medical settings as a physician assistant. He had the privilege of offering medical services to and knowing inmates at the county jail, patients in the emergency room and in family practice, uninsured children in school based clinics, and opiate recovery patients. While caring for patients he was paying attention, listening, and differentiating what factors promote wellness.
After a family move back to the Midwest, Jeff was offered the opportunity to train in integrative/functional medicine at K.U. Integrative Medicine at the University of Kansas Hospital. Because he had seen his own family go through a transformative experience in their health through gut healing, nutrition, & detoxification protocols, he was incredibly open to adding this knowledge to his growing therapeutic arsenal. This led to a transition from his reliance on pharmaceuticals to trusting the healing potential of the human body. Fast-forward nine years and Jeff is incredibly grateful for his wonderful patients and co-workers who have influenced who he has become. He would like to thank and acknowledge the investments of his Kansas City area collaborating physicians (Dr. Jeannie Drisko MD, Dr. Ourania Stephanopolus MD, Dr. Ron Hunninghake MD, Dr. Ted Williams MD, and Dr. Kyle Gillett MD*) over the course of his career.
If Jeff is not working, he is outside. You will likely spot Jeff somewhere on his property weeding another garden, planting another tree, tending to his bees, harvesting asparagus, fixing a broken water line, or moving cows to another pasture. His wife of 30+ years and three grown daughters just edge out his love of nature.