Fall 2025: 2 minutes with Kathy Grewe

  Kathy Grewe (EnvDes’76)

Interventional cardiologist (retired)

Proving career paths are rarely a straight line, Grewe practiced medicine in her Portland, Oregon, hometown after completing her environmental design degree. She and her husband, also a cardiologist, retired in 2019.

Responses edited for length and clarity.

  How does one go from designer to doctor?
I graduated during a recession, when no one was building or designing anything. So, I came back to Portland and worked three jobs at once—as a phlebotomist, a typist and waitressing in a Chinese restaurant—before going back to school as a science major.

  Why medicine?
My family has always been in medicine—my dad was a doctor, and my mom was a nurse—so I was familiar with the work. Actually, I was in the same med school class as two of my brothers.

  That must have been incredible.
Our class was great—we had so much fun. And, if I missed a class, I could get notes from my brothers. We’re still super close. 

  How could you not be, after that? Is that why you went home to practice? 
I didn’t go home right away—but I was homesick. I trained in San Antonio and Atlanta after graduating, and I acquired a thick Southern accent. I’d call around Portland asking about jobs, and people would say, “Where are you from?” “Oh, I’m from Portland, Oregon, bless your heart.”

  How did studying design influence your career? 
I learned to frame and solve problems, and think about different opportunities and resources. Our designs had to answer Bronislaw Malinowski’s seven basic needs—nutrition, safety, movement, reproduction, comfort, growth and relaxation. And each applies to medicine. 

  Tell me a favorite CU memory. 
I went streaking!

  OK. I’m listening.
At the time, there was always some guy streaking across a football game, or through a classroom. And there was—well, probably a stretch to call it a plan, but once, a bunch of naked people met in Folsom Field, and we booked it across campus. My mom split a gut laughing when I told her.

  Something you miss about Boulder? 
Ralphie. I’m not a football fan, but I had a season ticket every year, and when Ralphie came out, that was my highlight.