Welcome to the very first episode of What Brings You In, a podcast about the people and stories that shape the McGill medical community. Hosted by medical students Anastasiya Gudymenko and Katarina Kovacina, each episode sits down with a member of the McGill community to ask the question every patient encounter starts with: what brings you in?

We are joined by Dr. Lesley Fellows, Vice President of Health Affairs and Dean of McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. A neurologist, neuroscientist and former varsity rower and basketball player, Dr. Fellows opens up about the path that led her to the dean’s office, one she says she never set out to take. She talks about what team sports taught her about leadership, why stepping up should feel uncomfortable, and what it was like to be one of McGill’s first women Rhodes Scholars and its first woman dean of medicine. She shares her take on the pressure to always do more in medicine, why research should never be just a box to check, and why she’s still getting better at medicine years into her career. To close, she has a message for every medical student feeling the pressure: it’s going to be okay.