Great Alumni Stories Karen Villalon Shea ’99 serves veterans in need When she’s treating elderly veterans in southern Colorado, Karen Villalon Shea still finds herself thinking back on the important lessons she learned as a pre-med student at Adams State University. She remembers being inspired by Marty Jones, the nowretired ASU chemistry professor who often brought in a “molecule of the week” for his students to study. One week, Jones taught Villalon Shea’s class about capsaicin, the chemical compound that gives chili peppers their spicy flavor. In medicine, it’s used in creams that help soothe pain. “I always think about him when I’m telling patients, ‘You should use capsaicin,’” said Villalon Shea. “He made it really contagious that you would want to learn about all these different molecules. He had such enthusiasm.” Villalon Shea’s journey to medicine began when she was a child. She grew up in Walsenburg, where she watched her father treat patients as a family physician. Her family spent many summers in Alamosa so that her mom, Esther (Rodriguez) Villalon ’72, could take courses at Adams State to keep her teaching license up to date. Villalon Shea followed in her mother’s footsteps and decided to attend Adams State. She majored in pre-med and loved Adams State’s small class sizes and caring professors. While in Alamosa, Villalon Shea kept busy by serving as a tutor and a lab assistant in the biology department. She also fondly remembers her time as a student ambassador in the admissions office, leading campus tours and making phone calls to prospective students. “I was able to meet a lot of people that way and talk about ASU and how much I loved it,” she said. Campus is also where she met her now-husband, Stephen Shea, who also graduated from Adams State in 1999. Together, they have two sons. After college, Villalon Shea took a gap year to build up her resume before medical school, earning EMT certifications and taking additional pre-med courses. She enrolled in the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, where she discovered her passion for geriatric medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine and a geriatric fellowship, during which she began conducting research on aging topics like osteoporosis and bone metabolism. Her research background still informs her approach to medicine today.
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Karen Villalon Shea with her family
“I like reading scholarly papers, I like evidence-based medicine, I like to know why we do the things we do,” she said. But she also missed interacting with patients. Since 2014, she’s worked for the Rocky Mountain Regional Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as a physician who specializes in making house calls to homebound veterans. She also serves as an associate professor and affiliate faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Recognizing the needs of veterans in southern Colorado, Villalon Shea and her family moved from Denver to Pueblo in August 2019 so that she could serve that community full-time. She’s since created a team that includes a nurse, nurse practitioner, social worker, dietician and occupational therapist, which has allowed the VA to serve many more homebound veterans in the region. Working together, Villalon Shea’s team takes a holistic approach to a veterans’ health, taking into account their quality of life, the safety of their homes, their access to nutritional food and their mental health. “A lot of these veterans who are elderly and homebound are definitely a vulnerable patient population,” she said. “I really like the idea of bringing medical care to people who might otherwise go without. I really like the idea of serving those who have served. You realize, ‘Wow, these guys have all served in their own way, they’ve all had their own battles.” by Sarah Kuta
“ The fact that I could do one small thing
to make their day better or improve their health is so rewarding.”