Fran Lebajo Wu, MD, MPH

Name: Fran Lebajo Wu, MD, MPH

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Undergraduate school attended: BSE in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Duke University

Hobbies: Music - piano, voice, and dabbling in percussion and bass guitar. Dance. Food - making and eating. I recently took up crochet.

Languages I speak: English, Arabic, Spanish at an elementary level

Furthest I've traveled from home: I’ve been to several places in Asia, Africa, and Europe. I lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a year while doing my fellowship in Global Ophthalmology.

Favorite activity in the Twin Cities: Biking along the Mississippi River in the fall. Canoeing on Lake Calhoun in the summer. Eating all the good food in these great cities any time of year.

What is your specialty: Pediatric ophthalmology & strabismus

Why I chose my specialty: I love that the bread-and-butter procedure of ophthalmology, cataract surgery, is one that can bring sight to the blind in a few minutes, with potentially little cost, which is especially useful in resource-poor settings. Also in these settings, children can make up more than half the population. I like the comprehensive and preventive nature of pediatric ophthalmology, and I like working with kids.

Why Medicine: I initially worked as an engineer in the medical device industry, but it was medicine’s ability to touch individual lives in a personal and profound way that made me realize my true calling to become a doctor. Even before this, it was my goal to serve others in cross-cultural settings, and medicine has been a great fit for that. Though medical training was a long, hard road, it was worth getting to this point, and I have never once regretted changing my career.