Salpi Salibian freely talks about the misfortunes of her past. They helped shape the
person she is today.
Salibian, a physician assistant and director of clinical operations for
several women’s health programs at Hoag Hospital, grew up in Beirut.
From 1975 to 1990, civil war ravaged Lebanon; the fighting claimed tens
of thousands of lives.
When she was 7, in 1976, as she slept in her bed in her family’s
apartment, a rocket hit the railing of the balcony outside her window.
Her father entered the room, among the debris and broken glass, and picked
her up. Only then did she wake up, unharmed.
Three years later, armed men from a militia came and took him away. It
was the last time his family saw him alive. “His body was returned
to us, so we were able to bury him,” she says. When Salibian was
18, her family was able to leave the country for the U.S. Her mother later
returned to Lebanon but died of heart disease.
“It was just tragedy after tragedy,” she says. “But that’s
how life is, and you can’t lose focus. You just have to keep focusing
on all that’s positive around you, and keep going after your goals.”
Her grit and compassion – studying by candlelight, caring for neighbors
at a shelter – served her well. She got into Harvard and earned
a liberal arts degree, then a master’s from a physician assistant
program in Boston.
She started working at Hoag in 2015, and the next year the hospital opened
its integrated
Hoag for Her Center for Wellness. The center offers programs for
maternal pelvic and mental health and includes integrated therapies, nutrition education, counseling on
sexual health, and meditation and yoga. Salibian’s work focuses
on pelvic floor disorders, bladder and bowel issues, postpartum depression
and sexual dysfunction.
“These are things women don’t necessarily feel comfortable
talking about, because they’re embarrassed,” Salibian says.
“To have a safe haven where people can be treated for those conditions
and feel supported is so rewarding.”