ER Physician Gordon Reaches for the Sky
Atlanta native saves lives, defies gravity and climbs every mountain.
Robyn Spizman Gerson is a New York Times best-selling author of many books, including “When Words Matter Most.” She is also a communications professional and well-known media personality, having appeared often locally on “Atlanta and Company” and nationally on NBC’s “Today” show. For more information go to www.robynspizman.com.
Imagine an ER doctor doing acrobatics and high wire acts near mountain tops and above the clouds. She has climbed Everest. She walks tight ropes, does yoga stances thousands of miles high, and makes a difference for youth as well.
Her passion for highlining doing aerial acrobats is nerve wracking, frightening though beautiful and graceful. While this might sound superhero-like and reserved for the movies, it’s true — the real life of Allison Gordon. A native of Atlanta, Gordon, an ER physician to boot, has gone to great heights to reach her goals and along the way, impact the lives of youth in need.
Gordon attended Woodward Academy where she was her class’s commencement speaker, graduating in 2007. She attended Vanderbilt University on the Chancellor’s Scholarship, graduated summa cum laude and received Vanderbilt’s highest community service award in 2011. Gordon was pre-med and double majored in molecular and cellular biology as well as an interdisciplinary healthcare major called medicine, health and society. After a four-year pause in academics, she attended Wake Forest School of Medicine and completed emergency medicine residency at the University of New Mexico.
Gordon shared, “My mother, Susan, grew up in Baltimore but moved to Atlanta at an early age. My father, Neil Gordon, grew up in Atlanta and his grandfather, Abe Goldstein, is who I am named for. Abe was well known in Atlanta for his humanitarian work. My father’s mother, Betty Ann Shusterman, was highly involved at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue. We always joked that my family was a mixed marriage because my mother and her parents, Vivan and Phillip Berman, grew up attending The Temple. We would spend the Erev holiday at The Temple and the holidays at the AA.”
She added, “My grandma always said we could be anything we ever wanted as long as it was a doctor or lawyer. I had more of an aptitude for the sciences, so it was an easy decision, really. I am the first physician in my family.”
Emergency medicine interested Gordon who explained, “For many years before medical school, I had my wilderness EMT I received through the National Outdoor Leadership School. I was a full-time ski patroller before medical school at Winter Park and then Steamboat, Colo., and a couple of other ski hills. This year will be my 10th season ski patrolling, and I just finished serving as the Subaru ambassador to the National Ski Patrol. Though it was my profession initially, I now patrol as a volunteer at Sandia Peak in New Mexico. When it came time to pick a specialty in medical school, it was a natural choice given the outdoor emergency care experience I had. I love being able to work in austere environments. I recently taught a month-long wilderness medicine course in the Nepal Himalayas to a group of 90 sherpa who either already guide on Mt. Everest or aspire to guide.”
She is currently a board-certified emergency medicine physician in Santa Fe and has a Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, which combines her passion with profession. As an emergency room doctor, she said, “I am generally taking care of people in a very vulnerable time for them. I feel like I take care of the human body when in crisis, but I also care for a patient’s emotional experience. It also is a time that can be hugely impactful for people, so I attempt to inspire healthy lifestyle changes in these times as well to prevent future ER visits. It’s an honor for me to have somebody’s trust during a vulnerable time.”
Devoted to making a difference, Gordon said, “I have been highly involved in working with underserved communities since my youth, and always stay involved in the disability community in whatever area of the world in which I am living. I have three cousins with Fragile X Syndrome and coached their basketball team in middle school. I love teaching adaptive skiing, and this was one of my full-time professions in Colorado prior to medical school. My favorite things to do when I am not working or volunteering are rock climbing, skiing, acrobatics, aerial silks, running, mountain biking, traveling, and highlining. I have spent time in 45 different countries mostly doing service work or chasing adventure.”
Regarding Gordon’s love of highlining, she said, “Highlining is an adventure sport which involves walking or doing yoga on a one-inch piece of webbing between cliffs above a chasm. It requires mental and physical calm to not fall. It feels like a type of meditation. It quickly allows one access to the flow state, which I also enjoy, hanging aerial silks along the highline between cliffs in beautiful places. Don’t worry, I always have a harness and safety leash. I am not interested in free solo sports.”
She adds, “Honestly, between luck and skill, and perhaps the voice of my mother in my ear all the time about risk taking and being deliberate with my steps and surroundings, I am fortunate to have only had one accident that involved me going to the ER myself. It was quite recent while mountain biking with worn out rear brakes that have since been replaced.”
Her greatest accomplishment was, “In 2015, I was in a highline short film by Circus Picnic productions called, ‘Slack Sisters: Crossing the Chasm Together.’ A few years later, this short film made it into Mountain Film and BANF Film Festival.”
Gordon is currently preparing to climb Chimborazo in Ecuador, the farthest mountain from the center of the earth at 20,549 feet. She commented, “I will be climbing with the Range of Motion Project’s (ROMP) team of amputees and advocates to raise funds to bring underserved individuals with limb loss access to prosthetics. I believe that movement is also a form of medicine. Imagine the independence and freedom of finally having a prosthetic device and not needing assistance to go outside of your home. Imagine taking your very first steps as an adult or child. I cry every time I see somebody take their first steps. Each person has their own mountain they are working to climb, metaphorically or literally in my case.”
Gordon has promised to raise $10,000 to bring freedom through mobility through ROMP Global. She added, “All donations are tax-deductible and go directly to bringing prosthetics to individuals without access. I am getting close to my goal and would love for everyone to be a part of changing lives with me.”
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