Alum Profile: Sean Dacus

During his time at the Academy at Charlemont, Sean Dacus suggests he wasn’t the likeliest candidate for becoming a family doctor. “The thought never entered my mind,” he says. “I did however have a very positive experience in Mr. Morganelli’s Bio class, and perhaps that planted a seed or helped to give me the confidence to pursue a career in medicine later.” Focused on humanities and sports, Sean graduated from the Academy in 1988 and went on to study both film and economics at Umass. Although he later had to return to school to take the med-school prerequisites (biology, physics, chemistry, etc.), he’s glad he took the path he did. “I can bring more perspectives to my discussions with my patients and find different ways to relate to them,” he says. “I think that communicating and relating with my patients is one of the most important things that I do.”

After college, unsure of which direction to take, Dacus began to pursue courses in outdoor leadership at Greenfield Community College. One aspect of the program was getting certified as a Wilderness First Responder, and in the midst of that training, something took hold. “I wasn't particularly interested in first aid or medicine at that time,” he says. “As we took the course, however, I found myself really enjoying it. We did a lot of simulations and were learning to assess and treat patients in a variety of scenarios. One day we spent the morning responding to simulated car accidents and then later that night as a group of us were leaving the college we witnessed an MVA and were the first people to respond. It was amazing being able to help these people and put the skills to use that we had learned earlier that day. It felt great to have a skill that would be useful in circumstances like that.” From first responder, Dacus became an Emergency Medical Technician, then a ski patroller, and as his expertise grew, so did his interest.

Dacus returned to UMass-Worcester to take his prerequisites, then went on to medical school at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Maine. “Medical school was one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had,” he said. “You’re basically just eating, sleeping, and studying. Once when I was driving back to Western Mass., I didn’t feel like I had the time to take the drive off from studying. I missed an exit on the highway because I was reading notecards, and ended up in Boston.” He noted, also, that the challenges are not simply academic: “You’re dealing with people in very intense circumstances. It challenges you intellectually and emotionally, because of the things you share with your patients, the empathy you feel with these intense things they’re going through. It’s also an intense physical challenge with the shifts you’re working, up for 36 hours straight. In a lot of ways I really don’t miss that. But it feels good that I made it through that, and got the camaraderie with the students around me. You need to rely on your peers to get you through. Your family needs to be there to support you too—it’s intense.”

Dacus finished up his residency at the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Fitchburg, Mass., where he worked at a community heath center, and then moved back to Conway to start his own family medical practice in South Deerfield. He shares the practice with certified family nurse practitioner Gail Blanchard. Although the practice is still young, he already has a large and diverse group of patients, ranging in age from two weeks to 102. “I enjoy having a skill that I can contribute to my community,” he said. “I’m able to impact lives in a meaningful way. To do that for people with whom I have a connection—I knew them before, or we have shared friends, or I went to school with their kids—is pretty special.”