OneWorld Spotlight: Alex Dworak
Science, mission and fellowship combine at OneWorld for Alex Dworak, MD, whose role as Associate Medical Director of Family Medicine, is for him a dream job. He relishes using his scientific knowledge and training to help patients be free of disease and poor health so they can be fully themselves – and realize their own dreams.
“Clinical care, teaching and mentoring, and advocacy are my passions,” Dr. Dworak said. “I am inspired by the ways my patients and my coworkers overcome pervasive barriers to health and well-being in a broken healthcare system.”
Dr. Dworak joined OneWorld in 2009 as a staff family physician and was promoted to his current role five years later. Concurrently, at University of Nebraska Medical Center, he served as an inpatient attending/teaching physician for over a decade; for the past 10 years, he has also worked there part-time providing HIV care.
He earned his Doctor of Medicine from University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he also completed an internship and residency. Prior to pursuing medical training, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature, with a co-major in Justice and Peace studies, from Creighton University.
With vast and varied personal interests, Dr. Dworak believes firmly that having a life outside of one’s career is necessary for being a well-rounded human being and clinician. Yet there is overlap: his health care advocacy efforts provide fulfillment and professional connections, and his exercise regimen helps him practice what he preaches to patients.
To name just a few of his interests, Dr. Dworak enjoys cooking, reading, tropical aquariums, model building and woodworking. At age 45, he recently became a member of the Thousand Pound Club as, in his words, “someone who has to be one of the latest-in-life entrants” by lifting a combined 1,000 pounds in squat, bench and deadlift.
As he looks toward accomplishing his next strength-building goals, he also takes to heart advice he once received to read a little bit every day and to stay curious. That curiosity about our state, our nation and our world keeps his work from becoming impersonal, he said.
“I am always interested in learning more about where my patients come from and what their values are, whether they are immigrants from around the world or people very similar to me who grew up here in the Heartland,” Dr. Dworak said. “I find that we almost always have a lot more in common than we have differences.”