Meet Our Residents

Lena Bichell
UVA School of Medicine
Pronouns: She/Her 

Hi! Welcome to Charlottesville and UVA Peds. My name is Lena Bichell, and I’m a UVA Peds superfan. I grew up moving around the country, but consider Nashville, TN, and La Jolla, CA, home. I studied Environmental Biology at Georgetown University and, after soul searching and trying out a myriad of careers (ask me about studying wild bottlenose dolphins in Australia, management consulting in DC, and ski bumming in Jackson Hole), decided it was medical school for me. Next came a post-bac year, then a year as a research fellow at the NIH Clinical Center. I came to Charlottesville for medical school at UVA and loved it so much that I had to stay.

I had an inkling I’d go into Pediatrics, but my third-year rotation in the UVA Pediatrics department sealed the deal. The residents were all so mutually supportive and cared as much about each other as their patients. The attendings and residents alike clearly wanted every trainee — from medical students through to fellows — to succeed and took the time to help us learn what we needed to learn. I am thrilled to now pay it forward to the next cohort of students. I’m not sure whether I will specialize or in what, but I know that I will get exposure to everything I could imagine as a UVA Pediatrics resident.

Outside of the hospital, I love running, biking, hiking, walking my dog, Jolene, along the Rivanna River, and trying out new restaurants with my husband, Chris. Charlottesville is unique in that you can just as easily go on a world-class hike, attend a concert, browse a local thrift store, or sip vino at a nearby winery. There is something for everyone here, and it’s all so accessible! I wish you the best on your residency path and would love to answer any questions you may have.

Good luck!

Ryan Visser
University of Virginia School of Medicine

Hey y’all! My name is Ryan Visser, and I was born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. I went to UNC-Chapel Hill for college, where I studied environmental chemistry and became a huge college basketball fan (Go Heels!). After graduating, I moved up to Charlottesville to do research at UVA and pretty quickly fell in love with the area. The unmatched access to the outdoors, incredible food and music scene, and the wonderful people I met convinced me to stay in town to scribe and then for medical school for the last four years at UVA.

While looking at programs, I knew I wanted to be in an academic center with a wide range of cases and access to all subspecialties, but also a place where residents were happy and well-supported and where faculty were approachable and invested in residents’ lives and education. Through my rotations and interviews, it was clear that UVA had everything I was looking for in a program and that this was where I wanted to train.

On my days off, you’ll find me hiking, grabbing a bagel from Bodo’s, running on some of Charlottesville’s many trails, or playing some tennis or golf. I’m glad that you’re thinking about UVA pediatrics! Please reach out if you have any questions about the program or Charlottesville in general. This truly is an incredible place to be, and I hope you come check us out!