Meet Jennifer Arnold, MD
What brought you to SIU Medicine?
I was born in Springfield and spent all of my childhood here, leaving only to go to college, then medical and graduate school.
I always knew I wanted to return home eventually. I am fortunate that we have an excellent academic medical program as well as an outstanding hospital system in my hometown. It was an easy decision to move back home when I finished my training to establish my career.
Why did you choose neurology as a focus?
I was always fascinated with infectious disease stories when I was young, and this led me to start research with Dr. Linda Toth here at SIU, studying the effects of infection on sleep. I became enraptured with the neurology of sleep and never looked back. I turned my focus to the brain when I started graduate school at the University of Illinois.
My graduate work in this area led to ongoing fascination with cognition and consciousness, and when it came time to choose a focus in medical school, it was easy for me to choose the brain. I haven’t regretted this decision and each time I see a patient with an unusual cognitive symptom it reminds me about the complexity of our minds and how they function.
