In the September/October 2025 issue of Boca magazine, we named Dr. Heidi Schaeffer a Hometown Hero for her work supporting social work and healthcare students, as well as helping pass legislation for continued education about human trafficking and domestic violence.
“Being a mom, I know my son is safe, but I want all kids to be safe. I think every kid deserves an opportunity. Every kid deserves to be protected,” she says. “I think it’s the entire community’s responsibility to look after children and do the right thing at all times.”
She had much more to say, more than we could fit in print. Here’s more from our interview with Schaeffer.
GOING FULL CIRCLE
I was a struggling student myself back in the day of medical school. Medical school is expensive, and most people graduate with a lot of debt, but that’s kind of how I got involved with the Social Work program, and now I’ve been working with [Dr. Naelys Luna, founding dean of the College of Social Work and Criminal Justice].
I had a difficult childhood, and I think because of that I’ve always wanted to advocate for others, especially children. That’s pretty much my niche. And ironically, going back to medical school, everybody kind of placed the bet that I do pediatrics, and I thought I was gonna do pediatrics…but I couldn’t handle the loss of the children. I just wanted to hold them.
ON TEACHING
It’s not something I ever thought about doing, and I feel like I’m inspiring the next generation of students, getting them really excited about the field of medicine. It’s a difficult choice to be a doctor, as I said at [the Rotary Club of Downtown Boca Raton’s luncheon] Honor Your Doctor. I didn’t want to just sugar coat it and talk about, “This is the best profession ever, and you save lives,” but you also have that other side of the coin, where sometimes you have to deliver bad news. Treatment options aren’t always available, and remembering that you have a live patient in front of you who’s like, literally hanging on to your every word. It’s really important we remember their mental health and what we’re saying could affect the trajectory of their outcome.
ON SCHOLARSHIPS
At least one or two of [the students] told me, “What that meant for me is that when I’m going to my internship or my clinicals, I can actually fill my gas tank…I can actually let it go all the way until it clicks, until it’s full.” And that just blew my mind. Because I think most of us, especially in Boca, we don’t think about when we have to cut off the gas because we can’t afford more than a couple gallons? That was extraordinary. Another one said, I actually was able to treat myself to chicken wings, which are $12 which means they’re probably living off of ramen and other very cheap food sources. And these are the people that are counseling people in crisis. I want them to be healthy so that they can be their best for their patients.
One of them said, “Now I could afford to get some new clothes, so when I see my clients, I look more professional,” because they’re wearing the same old outfits again and again, because that’s what struggling students can afford.
FAU’S MEDICAL SCHOOL
I think FAU medical school has some of the most amazing students. They’re doing amazing things. And I love that FAU is also willing to explore these topics that a lot of traditional medical schools don’t want to talk about. Human trafficking should be part of the curriculum. Sexual violence should be talked about. Mental health should be a primary focus, especially for the students that are training in this.
DIAGNOSING TRAFFICKING
If you’re in medicine and you’re failing to make a proper diagnosis of anything, including human trafficking, then you really need to think about why you’re in that profession. We shouldn’t discriminate about certain topics. We diagnose diabetes, we diagnose hypertension. Why are we not wanting to learn about and properly diagnose human trafficking? The same way pediatricians are expected to be able to spot child abuse.
This Web Extra is from the September/October 2025 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
