By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Daily News Correspondent
ROn the wall in Dr. Ainsley Roberson Rusevlyan’s waiting room hangs a portrait of the local podiatric physician’s late father, Dr. James “Bunk” Roberson.
The portrait is one of many tributes to the elder Roberson, a longtime podiatrist who died a little more than a year ago.
Also scattered about the waiting room are smaller reminders of Rusevlyan’s father, including a miniature tobacco barn and more items that are symbolic of his other passion: farming.
With its comfortable furniture, warm tones and current magazines, the waiting room perpetuates the homey feel inspired by Rusevlyan’s father.
“That’s because you’re a guest in my home,” she said.
Though inspired by the late Roberson, the atmosphere of the office is also reflective of the young doctor who is a self-described “Southern lady.”
“You know what I call it?” she asked.
She followed up with her own answer: “Southern hospitality.”
After completing her undergraduate education at East Carolina University, Rusevlyan went on to graduate from Temple University.
Before returning to the area, she was chief resident at a veterans hospital in Philadelphia.
“I got great training, very hands-on training,” she said.
She is nearing her third year in practice in Washington.
Though she received job offers in Philadelphia, Rusevlyan wished to come back home.
“I came back to be with my family and practice and continue that tradition,” she said.
Her offices, located on 15th Street where family farmland used to be, are the same ones she worked in alongside her father when she was a little girl and, later, after she reached adulthood.
Rusevlyan said she was drawn to podiatry because it is a hands-on healing art and science.
“I like the idea that it’s very procedural-based,” she said.
She performs procedures that range from cutting an ingrown toenail to conducting surgery.
Rusevlyan has hospital privileges, which means she can admit patients and perform procedures in surgery at Beaufort County Medical Center, said Pam Shadle, a spokeswoman for Beaufort Regional Health System.
“I think people are excited about me being back,” Rusevlyan said.
She has seen her practice grow, and she would like to see it grow even more.
“I’m enjoying doing surgery,” she said, adding, “I’ve got all I can manage at the moment.”
She even gives patients her personal cell-phone number.
“They can call me if there’s any kind of emergency,” she said.
Over and above her local devotees, Rusevlyan has something of an extra-regional following. Around six of her former patients from Philadelphia have come to Washington to see her for treatment.
“It’s a great compliment,” she said.
The doctor indicated that her bedside manner was inspired in part by own experience.
Rusevlyan is a breast-cancer survivor. In 2008, she was one of 17 people honored in Philadelphia by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a national organization that fights breast cancer.
The honor was, perhaps, especially poignant to Rusevlyan, whose father died of cancer.
She suggested that her personal trials affect the way she interacts with patients.
“I really do feel like it’s made me sensitive to patients,” she said.
Asked for additional sources who could speak about her, Rusevlyan provided a list of local doctors as well as an e-mailed quote from Dr. Tracy D’entremont of Bryn Mawr, Pa.
“As women in medicine, we are constantly putting our personal lives on hold for our professional goals,” D’entremont said. “Ainsley had to fit in a very personal and extremely challenging struggle in the midst of her vigorous academic pursuits and she never missed a beat.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Jennie Crews, director of oncology at the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center in Washington.
“She is a wonderful individual,” Crews said. “She is a woman who has excellent perspective on life and lots of energy and compassion for her patients in spite of everything she’s been through in her personal life and overcome to share her talents with everyone else.”
Speaking of Rusevlyan’s father, Crews added, “I know he’d be very proud of her.”
Rusevlyan has been married for 12 years to David Rusevlyan, who is in sales for a prosthetics company. The couple lives between Bath and Belhaven, but they hope to move to Washington at some point, she said.