First and Last Name: Chris Zachar-Tirado
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
What Brought you to Fond du Lac: Work and Family! Just finished residency and the opportunity opened for my wife and I to move to WI to be near family. We always wanted to stay in the Midwest and were lucky to find this great place.
Place of Employment and Position: SSM Health. Clinical Neuropsychologist. It’s a specialist position that assess for cognitive change and diagnosis of various health ailments like stroke, hypoxia, dementia, moderate/severe traumatic brain injury. Really anything that can change someone’s thinking ability from a neurological perspective and trying to help them with recommendations on how best to move forward.
What do you enjoy the most about your career?
The uniqueness of each day. I get to meet and talk with a new person daily. I get to try to help them as well as their caregivers as best I can with their concerns and provide recommendations on how to move forward with the various challenges that they can face. It is also really fascinating to assess people’s cognition and understand how their brain is functioning after various injuries such as stroke, severe head injury, and dementia for example. When I was younger, I recovered from a significant head injury and that inspired me to learn about the brain and provide compassionate care to others like I once was given.
What words of wisdom would you share with other YP’s in relation to career building?
Be open and take in information from anywhere. I am in a unique position where not many people do what I do career wise. However, everyone can offer great nuggets of information on various topics whether that be professionalism, helping the community, or leadership for example. Maybe it’s even a style or approach to topics or groups that can be learned. Always be open to new information and learning is key!
Who or what inspires and motivates you to be your best?
I am inspired by my wife and parents as well as prior supervisors that have got me to the place I am today. I am thankful for all the help that I have received from them and hope to continue to make them proud while inspiring others as they move forward with whatever it is they enjoy.
I am also motivated by being the first in my family to go straight to college and first to receive a doctoral degree. That fills my passion to help other folks understand their educational opportunities and seek ways to reach their educational/career goals.
What are 3 Characteristics and/or Strengths that make you who you are?
Tough question. Generally I feel like it would be my openness to learn about anything and everything, my ability to think through various things thoroughly, and I guess my laid-back attitude. Pretty relaxed guy and a little more introverted, often in my own head thinking about things. Always open to try new things which has been fun with still being a semi-recent transplant to FDL.
What is your favorite thing to do in your free time/a hobby you enjoy?
I love to be outdoors! More specifically I love to go cycling. There is a lot of beautiful country roads, wooded trails, and paths throughout FDL county to explore. It is really peaceful, and you don’t have to be an avid cyclist to enjoy them. Outside of this there are really good hiking trails and lakes to go kayaking/boating. We definitely live in a beautiful area to explore and hope everyone gets a chance to take advantage of it no matter the season. Hope to still learn how to curl if there is anyone teaching out there!
What is your favorite part about being in YPF and how has it benefited you?
YPF has been great for two reasons! First, I had not known anyone when moving into the area. YPF really helped to make some close friendships and become more comfortable in the community. I am really thankful for these friendships as my college buddies are in Florida and other friends are in random parts of the US not near here. Second, it really helped with feeling more engaged within the community. I always enjoyed living in a smaller area and I enjoy helping through giving back and creating change. Being a part of YPF allowed for that and feeling a sense of community that I was completely new to.
What does community engagement look like for you?
To me, it is really about meeting with the community to better understand the current community supports, interests, and dislikes. Without this it is often hard to better understand if the work someone is doing is effective. Also, there are many great community organizations that you may not know about what they are doing without reaching out to see what has been done so far. This allows for a better understanding of how we can uniquely offer something to the community that they find to be beneficial or motivational in support for change/betterment.
Share a lesson you have learned or a nugget of advice with other YP’s:
Attempt tremendously and learn tremendously from your attempt. We aren’t failing, rather, we are continuing to learn and refine from what went right and what didn’t.
What do you love about the Fond du Lac area today and what is your hope for it’s tomorrow?
Fond du Lac really is in a great place to provide the comfort of a smaller town as well as the opportunity for great growth. There are great opportunities within the surrounding FDL area for a lot of fun activities. It is also in a prime spot for jumping to explore many other areas on day outings. I also love that it is a great area to raise a family and generally feels like a relaxing place to live. My hope is that it continues to grow and thrive. Having a new brewery in town would be pretty awesome!
