Medicine and Motherhood: Kelsey Bean Celebrates Two Major Milestones

May 9, 2025

This month, Kelsey Bean earns two new titles: physician and mother.

She and her husband Tyler welcomed their first baby just days before she graduates from the College of Human Medicine.

After spending her last two years of medical school at the Midland Regional Campus, Bean will return to Lansing where she’ll start a family medicine residency at UM Health-Sparrow later this summer.

Her journey to medicine began in a small rural town about an hour south of Lansing in Quincy, Mich.

"I am very proud of my upbringing,” Bean said. "I was definitely a 'big fish in a small pond' and had many leadership opportunities in my small community, but few educational opportunities."

As an undergrad at Case Western Reserve University, she was first drawn to biomedical engineering but later changed course to pre-med.

"Initially, I wanted to increase access to medical care through accessible medical supplies,” said Bean. “Then I realized the gaps in access were more in delivery of care versus new technologies."

While she began prepping for medical school, Bean joined Teach for America through AmeriCorps, which combined her passion for STEM education with her commitment to social justice. She spent three years in urban Washington D.C. teaching high school science.

She said the experience shaped her decision to pursue primary care, focus on educating patients and to become an advocate for patients within a complicated medical system.

Bean had known family medicine was her future path since she applied to the College of Human Medicine. As a student, she held a number of leadership positions at both the state and national level: student ambassador for the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians and state delegate at the National Congress of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students. She also attended the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation's Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute.

These were powerful experiences that reinforced “the impact family medicine has on patients, policies, and public health” for Bean. 

As she begins her next chapter in medicine, Bean is looking forward to the learning opportunities Sparrow provides through its breadth of care including OB training, addiction medicine, strong behavioral health curriculum.

She’ll also balance her new role as a mother. "I am looking forward to staying in the Lansing area with my husband and baby, with family nearby," she shared. "The program has rallied behind me as I am growing my family, which means everything to us right now."

In residency, Bean will return to her role as teacher as she guides the next generation of physicians.