{"id":58203,"date":"2025-02-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=58203"},"modified":"2025-02-17T15:18:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T20:18:24","slug":"dr-philip-zapanta-96-shares-life-lessons-from-a-career-in-health-care-spanning-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/dr-philip-zapanta-96-shares-life-lessons-from-a-career-in-health-care-spanning-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Philip Zapanta \u201996 shares life lessons from a career in health care spanning decades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One early spring morning in 1994, Philip Zapanta \u201996<\/strong>, then a sophomore biology major at Eastern Mennonite College, boarded a bus in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with the rest of his intercultural group and set out for the retreat center where they would be staying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when things went wrong,\u201d he recounted during a Suter Science Seminar on Friday morning. \u201cThe bus had no brakes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loaded full of Eastern Mennonite students and their luggage, the bus barreled over sidewalks and hurtled through intersections without control, said Zapanta, reading aloud from a letter he sent his parents at the time. The driver pulled to a stop several times to fix the brakes, but they would soon malfunction again, sending them careening into danger. Eventually, the group of students piled out and waited along the side of the road for another bus to transport them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was harrowing moments of chaos like this one that proved formative for the EMU alumnus, who is now a highly accomplished otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat doctor) with Sovah Health in Danville, Virginia. After graduating from EMU, Zapanta earned his MD from the University of Virginia and completed his residency at George Washington University (GWU). He spent 16 years in academics, running the GWU otolaryngology residency program and teaching at the medical school. The doctor, who specializes in facial trauma and sleep apnea surgery, also is a U.S. Army colonel and has numerous awards through his deployments and mobilizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to campus to dispense some life lessons for today\u2019s health science students, Zapanta shared the importance of intercultural experiences at EMU. Before his semester spent abroad, which took him to France in addition to the Ivory Coast, Zapanta said he was an introvert. Through \u201cthe power of immersion\u201d and having to navigate conversations with his host families, he said \u201cspeaking in a second language tricked my mind into not being shy\u201d and he broke out of his introverted bubble. Through the \u201corganized chaos\u201d of the Ivory Coast, he learned to be flexible and embrace the moment. All of these things, he said, taught him how to comfortably talk to his patients and to \u201cbe comfortable with the uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to stories from his time in the West African country\u2014one other lesson: don\u2019t rely on a photocopy of your passport\u2014Zapanta spoke about his Christian faith, shared photos and tales of memorable trauma patients he operated on, and explained why he chose to leave Washington, D.C., to live and work in rural Danville.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to work in an underserved area,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to work somewhere I felt appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zapanta also spoke to students about the science of sleep apnea and introduced them to a new treatment called the Inspire device that protrudes and stiffens the tongue while asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of his lecture, in response to a student who asked what advice he would give his younger self, Zapanta said, \u201cI would tell myself, \u2018It will all work out. God has a plan.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zapanta and his wife, EMU alumna Anne Charbeneau Zapanta \u201997<\/strong>, have two adult kids and \u201ca very naughty husky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two more Suter Science seminars scheduled for this semester! For more information on those, visit: emu.edu\/science-seminars<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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