What happens when compassion, strength, and military medicine collide?

In this Echo Episode, Dr. Andrea Austin speaks with Dr. Kat Landa, a Navy emergency physician whose career has taken her from a nontraditional path in medical school to a groundbreaking role as the first female battalion doctor assigned to a Marine Corps artillery unit.

Kat recounts her childhood working in nursing homes, discovering medicine through geriatrics, and initially matching into family medicine before realizing her passion for emergency medicine. Her story takes a dramatic turn when she is unexpectedly assigned to 29 Palms as the first woman integrated into a previously all-male combat arms battalion—an environment shaped by intense hierarchy, alpha culture, and unspoken rules.

She shares vividly, the shock of Marines lining up with “testicular pain” to see the new female doctor, navigating sexism, boundaries, and expectations to be the battalion’s “warm fuzzy”, the emotional labor women physicians disproportionately shoulder, the traumatic burden many Marines carry through TBI, PTSD, and toxic norms, the deep meaning she found advocating for vulnerable service members—sometimes saving lives and how burnout, deployment, and personal crisis pushed her toward meditation and self-reclamation

 

Dr. Landa’s journey is raw, insightful, and deeply human, a reminder that leadership requires both backbone and heart, especially when systems aren’t built with you in mind.

You’ll hear how they:

• Navigate gender bias and male-dominated culture while staying authentic
• Build boundaries to survive overwhelming workloads and emotional labor
• Use compassion strategically—in 45-second doses—to transform patient interactions
• Advocate for Marines suffering from PTSD, TBI, and weight-related stigma
• Recover from burnout through meditation, mindful routines, and self-care practices
• Find strength in vulnerability and redefine what it means to lead in uniform
  
   

If you’ve ever struggled to find your voice in a demanding system, this episode will move you, challenge you, and help you rediscover your center.

About the Guest:

“At your core, it’s still just you—and you have control over you.” – Dr. Kat Landa

Dr. Kat Landa is a Navy emergency medicine physician whose career spans urgent care, family medicine internship, operational medicine with the Marine Corps, multiple deployments, and emergency department leadership.
She was one of the first women assigned to a Marine Corps artillery battalion, where she learned to navigate gender dynamics, advocate for Marines suffering from invisible wounds, and lead with courage and compassion.

Her interests include meditation, women’s leadership, stress physiology, military wellness, and redefining what it means to thrive in demanding environments.

📍 Connect with Kat

She will soon launch a public-facing Instagram (to be added here when available).
Show notes will be updated once her profile is live.

📚 Resources + Mentions:

• Meditation practices for stress reduction
  
   
• Concepts from military medicine: GMO tours, HPSP pathway
  
   
• Research on compassion in clinical encounters (45-second compassion study)
  
   
• Discussions on gender dynamics in medicine and the military
  
   

🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways:

• Soft heart, strong back: Compassion and boundaries can coexist.
  Kat’s story shows that warmth doesn’t undermine authority—when combined with firm boundaries, it builds trust and impact.
• Advocacy saves lives:  Her willingness to push for care, evaluation, and disability processing protected Marines who were suffering silently from PTSD, TBI, and burnout.
• Your center is your anchor: Meditation, walking, mindful habits, and internal stillness helped her survive operational chaos, Afghanistan deployment stress, and professional overwhelm.

🩺 About the Host:

Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out.

With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart.

💫 About the Show:

Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.

Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare leaders, innovators, and quiet disruptors who are challenging the way things have always been done.

Each episode explores real stories of change—from redefining leadership and communication, to reimagining systems built on burnout and hierarchy. This is a space for truth-telling, for asking better questions, and for reconnecting with the reason we all got into medicine in the first place: to make it better.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress—with heart.

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🎓 Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• 🔥 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Recalibrate: Group Coaching for Physicians⁠⁠

Starting  2026, I’ll be co-leading Recalibrate with psychologist and coach Sharee Johnson. This 6-month group coaching program supports physicians in rediscovering mindfulness, meaning, and wholehearted practice. I'm an alum myself—this program transformed my career. Learn more and enroll here, and please share with colleagues who may benefit.

• ⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠AAWEP St. Lucia Retreat | March 5–8, 2026⁠⁠
  • For women EM physicians. Sun, connection, and reflection in a stunning setting.
• Heart of Medicine in Uluru, Australia

o   Join us for this incredible one of a one-of-a-kind event in the heart of Australia at one of our most spectacular locations—Voyagers Resort in Central Australia in 2026.

o   Learn from some of the world's medical leaders in compassionate care, and how heart-centered healthcare can empower and heal healthcare workers and their patients. 

o   For: Doctors, Nurses, Allied Health Clinicians, Healthcare Leaders,
Coaches and Supervisors of Medics, Patient Advocates and all healthcare workers.  

o   When: 29-31 July 2026
Where: Voyages Ayers Rock Resort, Central Australia

• Women in Medicine Summit | Chicago, Sept 24-26, 2026⁠⁠

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🎧 Thanks for tuning into Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare!

🌟 Learn more and book a free discovery call today at ⁠⁠andreaaustinmd.com/coaching⁠⁠.

Stay connected and keep making a difference:

✅ Subscribe to the ⁠⁠Heartline newsletter⁠⁠ for insights into reclaiming your well-being as a healthcare professional, improving teams around you, and transforming the system.

📱 Follow us on social: ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

📚Discover Dr. Austin’s book Revitalized: A Guidebook to Following Your Healing Heartline.

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