Meet Dr. Dean!

Sky Dean, M.D. recently joined the medical team at the Hattie Larlham Center for Children. With a little over a month under her belt, we sat down with Dr. Dean to get to know her a little better.

She shared that she grew up and attended school in Idaho before moving to attend medical school at the University of Utah, Salt Lake. Dr. Dean completed her medical pediatrics residency in Arizona and then made the cross-country trek to Ohio, where she completed a fellowship at Akron Children’s Hospital. During that fellowship, Dr. Dean spent a month-long rotation at the Center and fell in love with our residents and staff. She set her heart on joining our medical team and we are fortunate to have brought her on board. Dr. Dean spends each day getting to know each resident’s unique needs and tailoring her care accordingly. She’s already established some very strong bonds, and she says she’s excited to keep going. She shared that one of the primary motivators for coming to Hattie Larlham was her personal connection to our mission. Dr. Dean said that she grew up having very frequent interactions with children with disabilities due to her grandmother’s career as a special education teacher. From a very young age, she felt connected to helping and empowering people and it inspired her career path forward. For her, her career here at Hattie Larlham is a continuation on an important family legacy- her mother also worked in the ID/DD field as a developmental specialist for children and infants.

When she’s not here with us, Sky enjoys a very full life at home. She and her husband, Spencer, live in Cuyahoga Falls with their dog, Eleanor, and cats Darla and Theodore. She was excited to share that she enjoys horseback riding and has an alpaca, Juliana, who lives on a farm nearby and they enjoy frequent visits with her and her young son, Mr. Santiago. She said that their names were chosen as an homage to their heritage, as alpacas are originally from South America. Aside from spending time with her four-legged friends, Dr. Dean enjoys travelling and says that Cape Cod is her favorite place to visit.

We are very lucky to have Dr. Dean as part of the medical staff at the Center and her compassion and positive spirit have been a great addition to the team. Please join us in welcoming her!