Dr. Shanna Verma Kautzmann, MD

About Dr. Kautzmann

Dr. Kautzmann, describes her job as a pediatrician as fun and interesting, which is reinforced by her patients daily. “I love interacting with kids,” she says.

Providing medical care to children, newborn through adolescence, her days vary according to what a patient is experiencing. “For a child who is well, a visit may be focused on growth, development, safety guidance, and immunizations,” she says. “For an ill child, a visit could be for treating an ear infection, sore throat, or a rash. I also care for children with health conditions that may need closer monitoring, such as asthma, ADHD, skin disorders, or special needs.”

Dr. Kautzmann says she seeks to provide excellent medical care to families and to support parents in the medical decisions that they make for their children. She also tries to make children part of the process by encouraging them to start making decisions about their health. “I encourage them to decide for themselves that it makes a lot of …sense to have healthy habits in their life,” she says.

Dr. Kautzmann enjoys seeing her patients grow from newborns to high school graduates. “I am grateful to play a small role in their journey. I consider it a privilege to have families trust me to be their pediatrician,” she says.

In her own words…

Who is or was the most influential person in your life?  During the summer before I entered 9th grade, a friend asked me two questions that had a big impact on my life:

1. “Do you like running? There is this sport called cross country that we could sign up for.”

2. “Do you want to go to (church) youth group with me?”  

What was your first job growing up? What do you remember about it?  An interesting job that I had one summer in high school was working at the U.S. Geological Survey office. One interesting task I had was crushing up rock and soil samples from all over the country so the samples could be analyzed.

What is your favorite food?  Concord grapes. I look forward to when they are in season in the early fall.

What was your best/worst subjects in school growing up?  I loved math.  My worst subject was middle school orchestra. I played the violin and was the last chair of the second section. 

If you could sit down to dinner with anyone (alive or deceased) who would it be and why?  I would like to have dinner in Philadelphia with Benjamin Rush. He was the only physician to sign the Declaration of Independence. Topics I would like to discuss with him – early American history, medicine (then and now), and sports. He was an early promoter of golf in America, but discouraged running for exercise and considered it unhealthy.

In addition to medicine, what are you passionate about?  I enjoy running. My favorite locations to run locally are Oxbow Park, the Pumpkinvine Trail, and along the St. Joseph River. My favorite race distances are the 5K and half marathon.

What is something most people don’t know about you?  As a child, I watched the Brady Bunch episode when they take a family trip to the Grand Canyon. I made a goal then that I would take my family there when I grew up. When my son was a senior, I realized I needed to accomplish this childhood goal. So, over Spring Break, we enjoyed a family road trip to the amazing Grand Canyon!