Most of the time, the jobs we dream about when we are kids usually don’t come true. However, Dr. Karen Heveron can remember as far back as the fourth grade that she wanted to be a pediatrician. “I remember asking my teacher to spell pediatrician, because that’s what I thought I wanted to be when I grew up,” she explains. “My mother was a nurse and I always enjoyed science so I thought being a doctor would be a great idea.”

It was while attending medical school that Dr. Heveron cemented the decision to become a pediatrician. “A fellow student said to me, ‘decide who you want to see every day of your life. Do you want to treat adults all day or do you want to see kids all day?’ I knew that I loved being around kids – and I knew that would make me happy. So that’s why I decided to pick pediatrics.”

Dr. Heveron says that more and more of her practice is devoted to taking care of the mental health of her patients. “I don’t know how we got to this point, but that’s where we are right now. Anxiety and depression is a problem for many young people, and it can really affect their functioning. For pediatricians, treating anxiety and depression is a lot more complicated than treating something like an earache. I often refer my patients to therapists and I will handle medication management if needed. In the past, pediatricians didn’t often handle these problems but now it’s a big part of almost every pediatrician’s practice.”

One of the things that Dr. Heveron enjoys most is watching families change over time. “I love watching families grow up and I love to hear what the children wind up doing with their lives after they get older. I’m very lucky in that I get to watch the whole thing unfold…that’s the greatest joy for me.”

When she is not busy with her pediatric practice, Dr. Heveron enjoys running, something that she has done since she was a child. Most of all, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.