Resilience is a daily necessity within the healthcare industry. For OB/GYN and author Dr. Mimi Zieman, resilience has been a lifelong teacher from the exam room to the writing desk. Her memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest, captures a journey that medical professionals can draw upon as a metaphor for their own challenges.
Medicine as the Foundation
Dr. Zieman began her medical career in New York City, attending Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completing her residency at Columbia University. After a fellowship in family planning at UCSF, she moved to Atlanta, where she would build a dynamic career.
“I came to work at Emory and lead their family planning program,” Dr. Zieman shares. “While I was there, it was a typical academic career … I did that for about 10 years and then decided to take that knowledge and skills and do it on my own as a consultant, so I became a bit of an entrepreneur.”
Over the years, Dr. Zieman transitioned into roles that broadened her perspective on healthcare. She worked as Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood Southeast, then joined a startup as VP of Research and Development before becoming a consultant. Dr. Zieman then went to Africa for contraceptive research and teaching.
The Influence of Her Father’s Story
Dr. Zieman’s perspective on resilience was shaped by her Isaac Zieman, who was a Holocaust survivor. As a young man living in Latvia during the Nazi occupation, Isaac lost his entire family but managed to survive through ingenuity and determination. “His survival. Truly the definition of unlikely,” she reflects in her memoir.
Isaac’s journey included fighting with the resistance, enduring near-starvation in a Siberian coal mine, and assuming five fake identities to evade capture. Dr. Zieman grew up hearing fragments of these stories, which would influence her during her formative years.
In her memoir, she recounts the weight of inheriting her father’s history, describing how his trauma and resilience left a lasting mark on her approach to life and medicine. “The day I learned my father’s history, my trust in the world—in people, in the future, and in myself—was shaken. Dad’s presence confirmed life could shift unexpectedly.”
The Call of the Mountain
Amid a successful medical career, Dr. Zieman was drawn to the mountains. As she recounts in Tap Dancing on Everest, her love for mountains began during a college field biology program in Gothic, CO. The experience shifted her perspective, leading her to explore how nature could be a space for healing and self-discovery.
In 1988, she joined an Everest expedition as the team’s medical officer and only woman during an unaided climb on the East Face—without Sherpa support or supplemental oxygen—which she says tested her in many ways.
“We did experience some trauma on the mountain,” she recalls. “It’s very remote and it has a lot of avalanches … And I did have to treat severe frostbite, so that was the most extreme condition that I had to deal with.”
Healing Through Writing
After returning from Everest, Dr. Zieman transitioned to writing by blending her medical background with her passion for storytelling. Her memoir not only details her time on Everest but also reflects on her father’s story. Writing has become a tool for her to process and share lessons from her life.
“The funny thing about the writing process is that you have to let it take you where it kind of wants to go,” she says.
Advice for Medical Leaders
In a time when the healthcare industry faces unprecedented challenges, Dr. Zieman’s advice is both timely and actionable. “If we just do what we always do, it's kind of a comfortable or secure feeling, but it doesn't lead to anything very exciting or innovative. So I think [it’s important] for medical leaders to lean into uncertainty,” she advises.
Looking Ahead
Dr. Zieman continues to practice medicine part-time while pursuing her writing projects, including op-eds on reproductive rights and plays like The Post-Roe Monologues. For healthcare professionals, her journey serves as a reminder of the value of resilience, adaptability, and the courage to embrace new challenges—on and off the mountain.
Resources:
For more about Dr. Zieman’s work, check out her memoir Tap Dancing on Everest or subscribe to her newsletter, Medicine, Mountains, and More.
