Rebecca (Becca) Same, MD, grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts, with her parents and older brother. Her father was an obstetrician. As a child, Same swore she would never become a doctor, but by the time she started college, she had started to reconsider. She attended Georgetown University and majored in Spanish and minored in French but also completed her pre-med requirements, just in case.

After college, she joined the Peace Corps and worked as a health extension agent in Madagascar. Helping manage a community health center and educating moms about everything from vaccines to clean water and malaria prevention, she realized that she really did want to pursue a career in medicine. Her Peace Corps service was cut short by a coup d’état and when she returned to the U.S., she worked for a healthcare startup while applying to medical school.

She attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she met her husband, Bob. They lived in Baltimore while Same completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins and Bob completed training in internal medicine and cardiology. She and Bob also adopted a black lab mix, Charlie, and welcomed their first daughter, Emily.

During medical school and residency, Same became interested in antibiotic resistance and other antibiotic-associated harms. She became involved in antimicrobial stewardship activities and research, including comparative-effectiveness research to identify optimal durations of therapy for common infections and characterization of antimicrobial-associated adverse events.

When she completed fellowship, Same was thrilled to have the opportunity to come to Washington University to join the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and help run the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She was less thrilled to do all of it just as the COVID pandemic was hitting, but in June of 2020, Same, Bob, Emily and Charlie piled into their cars and drove from Baltimore to St. Louis. Here, as the Medical Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, she works with lots of talented people to improve antimicrobial use at SLCH through handshake stewardship rounds, developing guidelines for the management of common infections, quality improvement projects and education. She, also, attends on the general pediatric infectious diseases service for several weeks a year.

In April 2021, Same and her family welcomed their second daughter, Lucy. In their free time, the family enjoys baking, exploring local parks and visiting the St. Louis Zoo.