Lee Squitieri plays a doctor in real life

Inwood native named Lawrence High School's first Alumnus of the Month

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Lee Squitieri, who graduated Lawrence High School 14 years ago, and is now a resident physician at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles specializing in plastic surgery, is the school district’s first honoree of an Alumnus of the Month award.
Selection for the newly established school district honor is based on academic and professional achievements, along with community service, according to Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall. Squitieri was honored for July.
“She was selected because she was an outstanding student who went on to achieve outstanding professional accomplishments that include significant service to others,” Schall said. “In Lawrence we value community service as much as any other achievement. Lee’s career encompasses both and I know she serves as a role model for our school community.”
Squitieri’s residency is connected to the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and for the next two years, 2014-16, she is doing a fellowship in health policy at UCLA.
Shriners Hospital is one of Squitieri’s hospital rotations for residency. She is in her second year at USC. The UCLA fellowship is funded by a grant from Robert Wood Johnson’s clinical scholars program.

Since early childhood growing up in Inwood, Squitieri has shown an interest in the medical field, her mother, Joan, said. “At the age of three, she used to play with a toy medical kit,” she said. “She’s always been very inquisitive, outgoing and happy. She was very close with Gary Schall, active in high school in clubs, cheerleading and band. She was involved in lots of things.”
Schall, who was the district’s music director, remembers Squitieri’s presence in the band most of all. “She was in the band when it transformed from a pep band to a fully-outfitted marching band that was the first from Lawrence to perform down Main Street in Disney,” he said. “She promoted the idea of wearing marching uniforms for the first time. It was difficult for students to get used to the idea. She and her classmates selected the uniform style that we still use and helped instill a real sense of pride in the Lawrence High School Marching Band.”
After graduation from Lawrence High, Squitieri attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan’s medical school, prior to her current residency.
“By far, my pediatric and mission work with the Shriners organization has been the most satisfying,” Squitieri said. “We are changing kids’ lives. Their parents are so grateful because their children have the chance to grow up to live normal lives. Through Shriners, I’ve done plastic surgeries and burn reconstructions.” Shriners helps provide medical care to children regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
One of those cases involved a 10-year-old girl’s who had severe burns on her torso. “The patient wouldn’t have been able to develop fully, as she matured,” she said. “The surgery we did was in reconstructing her chest and stomach. Now she will be able to lead a full life as an adult.”
Between using her skills to repair lives to living her life, Squitieri said that maintaining a healthy balance is an ongoing process. “Making life work can be a challenge,” she said. “It’s important to keep everything balanced in life. I have the loving support of a great family. My work is fulfilling, and that helps, too.”
Her family will expand in August as she will marry Matthew Chong, a second-year orthopedic resident from Chicago, who is also working in Los Angeles. Squitieri said she is looking forward to returning home for her wedding. “I always love coming home and visiting the Five Towns,” she said. “Everyone in the Five Towns knows each other, and I like that.”
From that toddler who imagined she was a doctor to the real life surgeon she has become, Squitieri has matured but not changed, according to her mother. “When she comes home, she’s Lee,” Joan said.