Associate Program Directors

Meet our Associate Program Directors

Debra Craig, M.D.

Dr. Craig grew up in a small town in southern Kansas. She had asthma as a child and her desire to become a physician was born as early as age seven when she decided that she would do what her doctors did – make little kids breathe. The family physicians in her small town made house calls with subcutaneous epinephrine and portable medneb machines; she regarded these treatments as miracles.

After college in Nebraska Dr. Craig then chose Loma Linda University School of Medicine over the University of Kansas after visiting Southern California in February. The warm sun, orange trees, snow on the mountains and a slight sunburn after a trip to the beach convinced her to accept her admission to LLUMC.

During her studies she had to admit that dying children and the effects of child neglect and abuse were not what she could do the rest of her career. After soul-searching she decided on Internal Medicine and felt fully at peace with her decision immediately. She completed her residency at LLU and then accepted the offer to be the Chief Resident at the Jerry Pettis Veterans Hospital. It was there, caring for mostly WW2 Veterans, that her love of geriatrics led her to seek a position with a predominance of senior patients. Dr. Craig went to work for the LLU geriatric clinic where she worked for 11 years.

When the clinic was sold she was offered a position at LLUMC as a hospitalist, a new specialty at the time. There she was able to advance this new program to a Division in the Department of Internal Medicine. In 1993 she completed a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Ethics and was responsible for the medical centers' ethics committee and for bedside clinical ethics consultations. During all of her career she has been able to work with students and residents.

When the opportunity to begin an ACGME program at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center arose she moved from LLU to work with the talented AOA faculty and residents. Dr. Craig states that the greatest joys and most wonderful laughs of her professional life come from being able to associate with students and residents. The growth of the program and the leadership of Dr. Arabian after her time as program director has been, in her words, the most professionally satisfying time of her career.

Dr. Craig loves Siamese cats, Corvettes, March Madness, reading history and biographies, as well as walking in nature. Her recent, COVID driven, accomplishment has been making food instead of reservations for dinner.