JOEL LAZAR

Joel earned his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1993, and he completed his Family Medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia in 1996. Since then, he has happily served as a primary care physician and clinician leader in sites as varied as the Indian Health Service in Northern New Mexico and both academic and community-based practices in the Upper Valley. In all these settings, as also now at Little Rivers, Joel places special priority on patient and family empowerment, relationship-centered shared decision-making, and whole-person integration of physical, mental/emotional, and social health. In this spirit, Joel has also devoted several years to training as a teacher of mindfulness meditation, and he brings this experience both to his clinical care and to service offerings in the larger community. 

When not working, Joel finds continued delight and deep peace in the great outdoors of beautiful Vermont, where he has lived with his wife for more than 20 years, and where they raised their two wonderful sons. He is also a lifetime lover of music, and for decades he has sung as an enthusiastic tenor in community choruses.