FEATURED ALUMNI OF THE MONTH

Dr. Joni C. Stuart Cazeau

Hometown – Stuarts Draft, VA
Undergrad – Xavier University of Louisiana, BS, Biology
Graduate School – Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 2008, MD
Employer – Providence VA Medical Center
Title – Medical Director, Versalus Health, and Family Medicine Physician

Greatest Impact

As a mother, her greatest impact has been, and will be, in the lives of her children. Beyond the walls of her home, she has organized and participated in missionary work domestically and abroad, including mission trips to South Africa, Jamaica, and Haiti. She was even able to coordinate and participate in mission projects during her military deployment in Afghanistan. One mission project close to her heart, was the development and organization of a disaster preparedness training camp for children in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, LA. Currently she is working on a children’s French and English book series. One of her main focuses is to get the books to children and education systems in under-served areas in the United States and other countries, such as Haiti, to help promote early childhood literacy in English and French. The first three books of the series were published in 2021.

Bio

Dr. Joni Stuart Cazeau is a double board-certified physician with specialties in Family Medicine and Health Care Quality and Management.  Her medical career has been filled with great variety including military service with deployment to Afghanistan, during which time she served as the department head of the largest combined aid station in the Helmand Province.  During her time in Afghanistan, she also held multiple leadership positions including serving on the Joint Theater Executive Medical Board, Base Emergency Management Team, Rabies Advisory Board, Interdisciplinary Clinical Care Committee, and Sexual Assault Committee.  After returning from deployment, Joni continued to wear multiple hats, holding multiple leadership positions including Research Integrity Officer, Litigation Review officer, and Sexual Assault Program Manager.  Following her career as a military physician, she has continued to serve the nation’s veterans as a physician at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center.  Joni has also served as a telemedicine physician for Doctor on Demand, serving in an emerging area of medicine becoming ever more important during the COVID pandemic. 

Joni has recently embarked on the new endeavor of children’s book author.  With her children and husband, she published the first three books of their new series, “Learning With Gabriel and Ellise” in 2021.  The family plans on publishing many more books in this series as well as releasing their premier book of a second series in January of 2022.    

When not practicing medicine or writing books, Joni loves giving back to the community in any way possible, whether serving at the local homeless shelter, organizing cancer walks, giving educational health care talks, organizing health seminars, or serving in her local church, she just wants to always be a positive light and source of encouragement to others.  Her last mission trip was in 2015, just prior to the delivery of her first child.  With a 5-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter, and 1-year-old son, Joni is looking forward to resuming one of her passions, mission trips, and incorporating her children in these service opportunities.  Haiti is at the top of their list.