Name: Justine Schaff From: Newfield, NY Family: Husband – Mitchell; Children – Sofia (5) and Samar (3); Willow (our dog) and Elmo (our cat) Hobbies: Yoga, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, trail running with Willow Volunteer Work: Ithaca Free Clinic Quote to Live By: “Don’t worry you’ll figure out how to handle this.”

Please consider Dr Justine Schaff as a candidate for this year's 20 Women Candidate's You Should Know. I have worked closely with Dr. Schaff for years at Cayuga Medical Center's Emergency Dept. In addition to being an excellent Emergency medicine Physician, Dr Schaff was instrumental in starting the Ithaca Free Clinic where she also continues to volunteer her time. She also runs a nursing recruiting company, Dream Nurses with 2 other partners. She is a busy working mother to 2 daughters, ages 3 and 5. Dr. Schaff works tirelessly to provide excellent care to her patients both at Cayuga Medical Center and at the Ithaca Free Clinic. Her involvement with the Ithaca Free Clinic demonstrates her concern for the many members of our community that remain uninsured and lack access to affordable health care. Nominated by Karen Dumont I am originally from Rockland County NY, I went to undergrad at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, P A and graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering. It had always been my dream to become a doctor. After 2 years of work in pharmaceutical packaging, I realized I could achieve this dream. I did a one year post- bacc program at UPenn in Philadelphia and then applied to medical schools. I graduated with my MD in 1998 from Temple University Medical School. I then went on to do a 4 year residency program in Emergency Medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland California. I moved to Ithaca in 2002, and started working at Cayuga Medical Center in the Emergency Department. I met my husband at CMC in 2003 and we married at the end of 2004. In 2004 , I joined the board of the Ithaca Health Alliance with the specific goal of opening a multi- disciplinary free clinic. We formed the clinic subcommittee and with hard work and dedication the Ithaca Free Clinic opened in December of2005, just weeks before the birth of my first child, Sofia. I continued to work on the clinic and be involved with the Alliance until the end of2006. In 2009, I returned to the clinic as a volunteer provider. In 2007, my family moved to Queensland, Australia. There, I was a consultant in the Emergency Department at Redcliffe Hospital in Recliffe, Queensland. We had our second child Samara in September of2007 in a beautiful home birth. In February of 2008 we returned to Ithaca. In June of 2008 my husband Mitchell Schaff and I started Dream Doc Locums, which essentially allowed me to practice Emergency Medicine both in NY and in ND (where my in- laws are located). I worked as an independent contractor at 6 different hospitals until May of2010, when our family decided it was time for me to settle down. I am currently back in a full time role as an emergency medicine attending at Cayuga Medical Center. In April of 2009, Mitchell, myself and Kansas Mead started Dream Nurse Travel a local nurse travel agency. We have spent the last two years working to grow this company with the ideals of delivering great customer service to our hospitals and to our nurses.