Alumni Spotlight: Tom Chiller (M *94, PHTM *94)

Tom Chiller (M *94, PHTM *94) describes himself as being just a public-school kid from San Diego, California who grew up on the beach. But the thirst for adventure that would characterize much of his life started early. After receiving his undergraduate degree in biochemistry, with honors, from Dartmouth College, he took a bit of a gamble.

Fascinated by a Peruvian roommate’s stories of life in South America, Chiller pulled out an atlas and decided that since Paraguay was centrally located, it would be like “the Switzerland of South America.” Says Chiller, “I found out that there was a Japanese group called JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). They were going there to open up a tropical medical parasitology lab. So, I bought a one-way ticket to Asunción in Paraguay and sent a telex saying, ‘I’m coming, and you can meet me at the airport because I’ve never traveled in South America.’”

The telex would arrive about six months after he did. But even though no one picked up Chiller at the airport — and despite the fact that he didn’t yet speak a word of Spanish — he was entirely undaunted, thrilled at the opportunity to help others and excited about how much he was learning.

“I was vaccinating kids on horseback and taking care of leprosy patients on a motorcycle, delivering medicines, doing all this crazy stuff. At this hospital, I was the anesthesiologist. I started running ether so we could do C-sections. I started a micro lab so I could look at specimens. I had no idea what I was doing. But I was reading books and I was enthralled with medicine.”

Chiller’s next intercontinental communication experience was a bit better. He used the only fax machine in Paraguay to apply to Tulane.

“Tulane and the MD/Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine combined program were pivotable in my life. Clearly, Paraguay was pivotable to take me to the trajectory. But Tulane really set me in motion.”

Today, Chiller is the chief of the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA He credits his experience at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with adding invaluable depth to his outlook.

“Once I got to Tulane, I realized the breadth and scope of what public health people do. I was sort of focused on parasites and worms when I got here. But then I realized, ‘Wow, there's a lot of fascinating things and important things that we need to think about when we're talking about population, health.’ And I loved the dichotomy of being at Tulane and learning the individual patient care, which is what we do as physicians but then also putting the perspective of taking care of thousands of people with a vaccine.”

Chiller’s experience at Tulane led him to establish the Tom M. Chiller, MD, MPHTM Scholarship Endowed Fund. The scholarship supports medical students with additional consideration given to those focusing in tropical medicine.

Chiller says, “Trop med is my love, I love infectious diseases, so I figured I would target it toward that. Lowering whatever wall there is for students to consider that is great. And then let them do what they want with that information, with that education. But let them see that other side of medicine.”

In addition to establishing a generous scholarship, Chiller continues to give back in other ways – he’s served on his 25th reunion committee and is a member of the School of Medicine Board of Governors.

“You pick where you spend your time, especially at this age. I’d like to see that my time is spent in a good and important way. To come back to Tulane and New Orleans and participate, I think it was sort of destiny.”

And destiny got another feather in her cap recently, as Chiller’s daughter, Camille, joined the university as an undergraduate. “It’s totally expanded my purview and knowledge about Tulane. I’m learning all about the different amazing things that Tulane offers undergrads, and I’m getting to revisit some of my own experiences.”