Dr. Raffaella Betza poses for a photo outside the Strawberry Wilderness Community Clinic on Thursday, Oct. 20. Betsa moved to the area to take advantage of the rural lifestyle and work in a small community.

The Strawberry Wilderness Community Clinic has welcomed two new doctors, who moved to the area to work in rural communities.

Dr. Raffaella Betza is in her first month at the clinic and said she has been pleasantly surprised by how well she has been settling in. Betza came here with her husband and 3-year-old son.

Betza’s path into medicine was a bit roundabout. She began studying at Johns Hopkins and transferred to a school in Edinburgh, Scotland, and graduated in 2002 with a degree in political philosophy. She then joined the Peace Corps and moved to Côte d’Ivoire, Africa, and remained there until civil war broke out. She was evacuated and went back into the Peace Corps to central and western Africa.

“That experience doing health work is what made me want to go to medical school,” she said.

Following the Peace Corps, she moved back to the states and attended Agnes Scott College in Georgia and then University of Washington.

“I think all the experiences I had before med school really focused me on why I wanted to be a doctor and what kind of doctor I wanted to be,” Betza said.

She was drawn to John Day because of its small size and natural beauty.

“I knew my ultimate goal was to be a rural family doctor in the West,” she said.

This desire was what motivated her to attend medical school at University of Washington, where she could do her rotations in rural communities.

Betza shares a hallway with the clinic’s other new doctor, Dr. Janessa Sickler.

“Sometimes it’s helpful to have someone who started just a month before you around to answer questions,” Betza said.

Sickler and her husband moved to John Day for the rural lifestyle and to try their hand at ranching.

After traveling the world, Sickler is ready to settle down in the rural community of John Day.

Sickler has worked in Africa, India, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

She and her husband, Brandon, bought a small hobby ranch near Canyon City and already have four horses and plan to purchase cows in the spring. Though neither of them have ranching experience, Sickler said it’s coming along great.

Sickler graduated from the University of Washington, attended medical school in Iowa and completed her three-year residency in Klamath Falls. During her residency, she spent time in John Day and was drawn back by the friendly community.

She works as a family doctor, a choice she said evolved from wanting to not be too specialized during her time traveling and a desire to assist patients with long-term health.

“John Day is awesome,” she said. “There’s not a lot of places where family docs do everything anymore and not a lot of places where you can be a rancher. You can do both here.”