Community Service
Dr. Caruso is an endowment funder of 29 Acres, a safe and dynamic supported living community where adults with autism live and are supported, enabling them to build relationships, feel value, success and happiness in their lives. Dr. Caruso and her husband, Dr. David Ballard, a Mayo Clinic-trained internist, are endowment funders of the oldest student-run health care safety net in the United States, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Student Health Action Coalition Clinic, which David directed in 1980 as a UNC medical student.
Why did you become a doctor?
I decided to become a physician to care for patients and decided to dedicate my life to caring for cancer patients after my mother developed breast cancer in 1985, while I was training in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic.
Other Information
When not working, Dr. Caruso spends time skiing and hiking out of her home at 10,000 feet in Keystone, Colorado. She and her husband own and operate a farm in Tobia, Viterbo, Lazio, 40 miles north of her hometown of Rome, Italy. In Tobia they produce olive oil derived from their olive orchards and organically farm vegetables, fruits, nuts and herbs in an ancient and picturesque setting of 2500 year old Etruscan-carved caves and tunnels. Dr Caruso and her husband have two children. Their daughter, Elisa, manages a wine and olive oil importing business, Volio Imports, based in Denver, Colorado and focuses on creating authentic Italian cultural experiences. Their son, Alessandro, leads mergers and acquisitions for Press Ganey, the largest patient experience company in the world, based in Boston, Massachusetts.