Three Palos Verdes Sisters Pursue Careers as Medical Professionals, Each with Their Own Unique Path and Practice
The doctors are in.
When orthopedic surgeon Steve Wertheimer, MD, and his late wife, Barbara, married at La Venta Inn in 1971, it marked the beginning of a future with three generations of medical professionals in their family. They raised four daughters in Palos Verdes—Laura, Joanna, Amy and Erin—who went to Chadwick School before each continued their education following in their father’s health care footsteps in various fields.
Laura, the eldest daughter, was the first to pursue a medical career. “I knew in high school that I wanted to be a physician,” she says. “I went to Colgate University in upstate New York for premed and attended medical school at Emory University in Atlanta.”
She met her husband, George “Rick” Hatch (who is now an orthopedic surgeon), on the first day of medical school at a pizza and ice cream social in 1994. They married four years later and remained in Georgia for residency training. In 2003 they moved to Los Angeles to practice medicine and raise their family in the South Bay.
Laura joined her father’s Long Beach practice when she returned, which she now manages. Along with being a proud mother of two sons, she is a testament to fitness being at the heart of the Hatch family’s lifestyle. The former marathon runner enjoys running on the Palos Verdes trails, hiking, weight lifting, downhill skiing and spending time in the great outdoors in Rick’s home state of Montana.
Joanna realized her health care calling after exploring the world as a student. She was intrigued by international relations and cross-cultural communications.
“When I was 15, I spent a summer in New Zealand as an exchange student. I was fascinated by the similarities and differences across cultures,” she shares. “The following year I attended Cambridge University in England, and later I went to Israel.”
She also studied abroad on a ship with Semester at Sea before moving to Washington, D.C., to work in educational research.
“When I was in Washington, D.C., I realized that my passions and talents could be applied to working with individuals, as well as on a community level,” Joanna says. “That’s when I decided to pursue studies in mental health.”
She graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville with a degree in human and organizational development in 1998 and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University. Joanna is now a clinical and forensic psychologist in private practice in Rolling Hills Estates. Her husband, Graham Edwards, is also dedicated to helping others, working as a counselor at Peninsula High School. They reside with their three children in Redondo Beach.
“I came back to the South Bay because I love it!” Joanna shares. “There are few places in this world that offer the perfect combination of weather, beaches, mountains, great schools and commerce than here.”
Amy wanted to be a veterinarian since she was a child. “I felt responsible for the pets in my family beginning in kindergarten,” she remembers. “Medical experiences with my own horses helped solidify my interest in becoming an equine vet.”
She graduated in 2003 from Whitman College in Washington and completed veterinary school in 2009 at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona. Her first job was at an equine ophthalmology hospital in Queensland, Australia, before joining a racetrack practice and then starting her own business in Queensland.
“I intended to stay in California after I graduated, but my fiancé, Grant Garcia (now my husband), was starting veterinary school in Australia. The prospect of me working there sounded like a great adventure,” she explains. “We stayed for seven years and then returned home for our kids to have the opportunities that we did growing up in the South Bay. In 2016 we started a practice together, with my focus being equine dentistry and Grant’s podiatry.”
When not working, Amy loves riding horses with her family on the trails in Palos Verdes, horse camping, and attending rodeos and baseball games, cheering for her daughter and son. “Rolling Hills Little League field is one of my favorite places because it blends horses and baseball.”
Three of the four sisters passionately maintain their family roots in their beloved South Bay, while Erin, the youngest, is an accomplished social worker living in Colorado with her firefighter partner and their young children. Many of the Wertheimer grandchildren also have medical aspirations, with one currently a premed student and others having interests in psychology and veterinary medicine.
It appears that the next generation will continue the family legacy in the years to come.
