Dr. Karen Deveney is a Portland native who grew up in Gresham in the 1950s when it was still a farming community. Initially she graduated from Stanford as an English teacher. However she became disenchanted with teaching during the chaotic 1960s. She finally took her medical student husband's suggestion to join him, and switched careers. She graduated from UC San Francisco, and followed up with a surgical residency, only the second woman to do so. She speaks of the disrespect and harassment women faced then. She became faculty there and at the local VA. The couple spent two years with the Army in Germany and then at University of Pennsylvania. They were recruited by OHSU in 1987. She was the only female then. She specialized in colorectal surgery and as program director expanded rural residencies. She favors general surgery education. She is proud of the number of women now in leadership positions.