Kathleen Dooley Stokes, MD, PhD, knew she wanted to be a doctor from an early age, having been inspired by the doctor who would visit her house to take care of her grandmother. Throughout high school, she volunteered at Georgetown University Medical Center, where she spent two years in the operating room and learned how to set up a Mayo instrument stand and operating table. Joining Georgetown University as a student, she continued volunteering at the hospital as a nurse’s aide and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1964. Subsequently, Dr. Stokes matriculated at Yale University, where she earned a Master of Science in psychiatric and mental health nursing in 1966.
In 1979, Dr. Stokes achieved a Doctor of Philosophy in sociology, with a focus on demographic statistics, from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Following this accomplishment, she obtained a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1988 and completed two residency programs, one at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and one at the Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Stokes concluded her formal studies with a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Moving to Texas, Dr. Stokes became the first board-certified pediatrician in the town of Frisco, Texas, when she established Frisco Pediatrics, P.A. in 1997. She excelled as the owner and primary doctor at Frisco Pediatrics until she retired from practice in 2023. In order to keep abreast of new developments in her field, she maintains affiliation with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Texas Medical Association and the Dallas County Medical Society. Attributing much of her success to her passion and love for her work, she considers her greatest achievement to have been getting into medical school. For her excellence, Dr. Stokes received a commendation as the winner of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in 1960 and has been named a Marquis Who’s Who Top Professional.
