A Dream Comes True

"To make a dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence -- a faith in that dream."
Hans Selgr, M. D.

This passage truly describes the dreams and persistence of Joyce E. Scott, D. O. In 1979, Joyce Scott entered Tennessee Tech with the dream of becoming a doctor and returning to Clay County, Tennessee to practice medicine.
Joyce wasn't just a young high school graduate in 1979, she was a wife, a mother and a seasoned teacher with an undying desire to improve the health care available to the residents of Clay County.

Joyce became Dr. Scott in June when she graduated from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. It was the 16 years from the start of that dream in 1995 that required the persistence and faith that Joyce so often refers. Joyce was often told by her instructors, friends, counselors and sometimes total strangers "you'll never make it, give up." However, her persistence paid off and she completed the pre-med requirements and spent the next eight years applying for different medical schools. When she was unsuccessful in admission to medical school she took a detour along the way as a registered nurse working for local hospitals, home health agencies and nursing homes.
Joyce said she enjoyed this work but never really felt that her dreams had been fulfilled.
Joyce's vocations have always centered on helping others. Prior to entering medical school she was also a Home Economics teacher and administered the Sex Equity Program where she designed and implemented several federally funded programs, one of which was designed to assist rural female students to overcome sex stereotyping and bias. Joyce has often felt this stereotyping and bias one of the reasons entrance into medical schools was s o difficult for rural females in the seventies and early eighties.
Joyce never gave up on her dream and was finally admitted into Kirksville College in 1988. In talking to Joyce, she says she thought getting into medical school was hard but staying was harder. But stay she did and on June 5, 1994 she graduated from Kirksville and became Dr. Joyce Scott.

Dr. Scott now says she has only one regret and it is that her grandfather, the late Barton Bailey, a prominent community leader instrumental in getting Clay County Hospital built, will never see her practice medicine in that hospital. Dr. Scott says that her only dream in life has been to become a doctor and return home to Clay County to care for the people that she knows and loves.
Joyce is married to Perry Scott and is the mother of three children--Edmond, Rachel and Rawlin.

Dr. Scott opened her solo practice on July 17, 1995.