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The new emergency room physician at St. Luke’s Monroe Campus, Marissa Cohen Zwiebel, MD, is a familiar face to many at St. Luke’s University Health Network. She was a student in the first class to graduate from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University/St. Luke’s University Health Network in May 2015.

Dr. Zwiebel then completed her three-year residency in emergency medicine at St. Luke’s. Now she and her husband, whom she met while she was in medical school, are Emergency Medicine physicians at the Monroe Campus.

St. Luke’s Chief Academic Officer Joel Rosenfeld, MD, is not surprised by Dr. Zwiebel’s success. “Dr. Zwiebel was a very good student and always had not only good basic knowledge but also great clinical skills,” he said. “We are excited to be able to hire someone with such great talent from our regional medical school.”

Dr. Rosenfeld said additional homegrown talents will be hired once they complete their four-year residencies.

New York native grew up wanting to be a doctor

St. Luke’s had an important role in Dr. Zwiebel’s career path. A native of Roslyn, New York, Dr. Zwiebel had wanted to be a doctor since she was 12. She always thought she would become a surgeon but changed her mind after her rotation in Emergency Medicine. “I loved the Emergency Medicine program at St. Luke’s so much, it completely changed my plans,” she said.

Dr. Zwiebel is drawn to Emergency Medicine because it gives her the opportunity to “act as detective” to diagnose what brought patients to the ER. She also likes that “every day is a little bit of a surprise” and that she works with patients of all ages, from infants to the elderly.

Dr. Zwiebel chose St. Luke’s as her first choice for medical school, residency and her first job as a doctor.  The biggest attraction when applying to medical school was living and working in the Lehigh Valley, she said. Students spend their first year at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia and then complete years two, three and four at the Temple/St. Luke’s regional campus across from St. Luke’s University Hospital - Bethlehem . 

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A family affair

Dr. Zwiebel first met her husband, Sean Zwiebel, DO, while filming a commercial for St. Luke’s new medical school. As two Emergency Medicine doctors, they’re able to work alongside one another with similar shifts. The Zwiebels make their home in Easton.

Dr. Marissa Zwiebel’s brother, Dylan Cohen, is in his second year at Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine.

St. Luke’s a major teaching hospital

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is a major teaching hospital – the only one in the Greater Lehigh Valley to be designated as a 100 Top Hospital by IBM Watson Health.  In 2011 in partnership with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus, which trains more than 120 medical school students annually,. St. Luke’s is also home to the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884.

“Collectively, St. Luke’s various education programs serve as a critical source of medical talent for the Lehigh Valley, helping the region’s hospitals to be staffed despite a nationwide physician shortage,” Dr. Rosenfeld said.

Dr. Zwiebel is excited about the distinction of being St. Luke’s first graduate of its medical school to join the Network’s staff. “St. Luke’s is a special place. It’s like family to me,” she said.