Name: Joe Ciccone, MD
Class Year: 1997
Organization Name: Optum MA
Title: Chief of Urologic Surgery
1. In one sentence, what does your job entail?
Caring for patients with both surgical and non-surgical conditions of the urinary system in men and women.
2. What planned and unplanned events connected you to your industry and your first employer after Holy Cross? How did you learn/decide it was a good fit for you?
Through a family connection I met Noelle Lawler, a PA at what was then Harvard Vanguard’s Fenway office. As a starving art student, she gave me a job as a medical assistant when I was about 21 and the rest was history.
3. What were you involved in when you were on campus?
Football, Track, Improv Comedy, and was an English Major with a concentration on writing (poetry).
4. What was your major and how did it affect your career decisions?
My English major led me to graduate school at Emerson College. This experience was enough to know that a career as a writer was not for me.
5. What are one or two skills that you developed at Holy Cross that you use in your work?
Certainly writing and communication are major skills for a surgeon and department leader. Mostly, I learned how to challenge myself intellectually and physically. Both of these skills allowed me to succeed in medical school and residency while managing a young family.
6. What advice do you have for students on campus today?
Play the slow game. Take classes across multiple disciplines and become well-rounded and maximally enriched. Do not feel pressured to get into medical school as soon as humanly possible. Enjoy the ride. Travel. Be with friends.