Dr. Hannah Ray has delivered hundreds of babies, treated thousands of patients and worked almost nonstop throughout a worldwide pandemic.
And all of that has been done here in Indianola in just under seven years.
Ray was recognized last week by the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians as the 2025 New Physician of the Year.
“Dr. Ray has already become an invaluable member of her clinic and local hospital,” the academy said in a social media post. “Recognizing the importance of competent family physicians, she continues to provide residency training and remains a staunch advocate for women’s health issues. She is heavily involved in community service as a way of ‘paying it back’ to her patients. Dr. Ray championed her hospital’s campaign against COVID, teaches Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics and conducts several women’s health outreaches in her community.”
Ray told The Enterprise-Tocsin this week that the award is given each year to physicians who have seven or fewer years of post-residency service.
“It was definitely not something I expected,” Ray said, adding that she is finishing her seventh year of practice this year.
Since joining Indianola Family Medical Group and South Sunflower County Hospital a little over six years ago, Ray has been an advocate for patients, especially when it comes to women’s health.
“That’s something that I have a passion for and something that I end up doing a lot of and so that has been where I’ve been able to contribute the most,” Ray said.
Ray was just a couple of years out of residency when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. She spent countless hours at the hospital and clinic, treating patients, and even though COVID could be an isolating experience for many, Ray said that she connected and bonded with many members of the community because of the virus.
“I will still see patients that will come in, and they will say ‘you took care of me during COVID’ or ‘you know you took care of my family member during COVID,’” she said. “To go through something like that, it's just interesting, because as a whole, we think of COVID as being a very isolating experience--at least I did because we were so separated from each other--but I have seen in time since then how in certain ways it helped me connect. It connected me to people in the community in a way that I didn't realize at the time.”
Family practitioners generally see patients from birth to old age, and Ray is no exception.
As she prepares to enter her eighth year of practice, some babies that she delivered during her first year are seeing her as first and second graders.
“I love it. I think that's part of one of my favorite things about this job is just a continuity in general, but especially you know seeing babies and watching them grow and watching them start going to school,” Ray said. “Sometimes, I'm as bad as the grandmas that are like ‘you're growing too fast you know.’ Sometimes I feel the same way because I remember when they were little. But it's a special privilege I think as a family physician to get to watch that growth and development and then maybe you know deliver a sibling or something like that as the time goes by so it's a blessing to me.”
