Biography

If you were to ask five-year-old Dr. Burton what she wanted to be when she grew up, her response was almost always “a doctor.” Her answer was likely attributed to her parents, whom she credits with instilling her value of community contribution. She watched as they demonstrated this value daily – her father as a military officer and her mother as a teacher and guidance counselor. With a desire to follow in her parents’ footsteps and serve her community, Dr. Burton was destined to become a physician or teacher. And after a volunteer experience in Spain working with Romani children, 16-year-old Dr. Burton knew she wanted to work with children in some capacity.

As a freshman in college, Dr. Burton worked on a reservation in Oklahoma, where she saw children with hearing loss due to recurrent ear infections and others suffering the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and obesity. At that point, she committed to medicine and knew she was headed in the direction of pediatrics.

Having been in practice for nearly 30 years, Dr. Burton still enjoys working with families every day and developing lifelong relationships, which now include caring for multiple generations (even though she feels too young to have grandpatients). She is inspired when something she says or does makes a difference in the health of a child, the way they are parented, or how they think about the future. And she feels very fortunate to be able to make a difference in the community.

In her personal life, Dr. Burton is passionate about her three children, travel, food, and living each day fully. She can often be found in the throes of planning a medical mission trip and is especially excited about opportunities that invite her children to journey with her! To date, she has enjoyed short-term mission trips to Romania, Jamaica, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan, and Honduras.