First female paramedic in the United States.
Program Titles
- Lori’s work as a physician inspires her as an artist, & her artistic vision inspires her work as a physician
- Physician Brings Relief
- Lori combines her passion for art and science
Lori Justice Shocket, M.D., the first female paramedic in the United States, broke long-standing traditions in fire departments and ambulance services.
She earned her M.D. degree at 56, but instead of private practice or working at a hospital, she shifted her focus back to art and is now a full-time artist.
She has spent many years producing award-winning ad campaigns, trade show exhibits, and packaging. She studied graphic design and advertising, and although her dream was to become a doctor, she was diverted by a lucrative position for an international beauty/fashion manufacturer.
She launched a new community-based arts project, The Human Element Project. Her work is exhibited at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, CA.
Lori combines her passions for art and science by creating collaborative installations that are not only art pieces but also the result of community engagement projects, where sensitive and powerful stories are told, and memories are preserved. The Human Element Project is currently working with the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Australia to complete a permanent installation of the Memory Reconstruction Project.
Lori’s work has been exhibited at Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Arts Festival, The Institute for Genetic Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine, The Whole 9 Gallery, Breed Street Shul, TAG Gallery—Bergamot Station, and the La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
She was featured on the cover of Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Treatment. Her work is permanently installed at the Beverly Hills Synagogue, LAC+USC Medical Center, and DOW Research and Technology Center in Collegeville, PA.
Lori has found a unique niche as a creative link between art and science. Her work as a physician inspires her as an artist, and her artistic vision inspires her work as a physician.
She managed a department of 26 creatives in the development, advertising, and interactive media of OPI Products. She was responsible for the conceptual development and production of consumer and trade advertising, packaging, trade show exhibitions, and interactive media. She also managed a 12 million dollar advertising budget and actively engaged in business development and partnership affiliations with companies such as Sony, Disney, Dreamworks, Ford, and Dell.
She produced and directed over 70 photoshoots in the studio and on location with a variety of talent and celebrities, including The Kardashians, Anna Paquin, Carol Burnett, Nicki Minaj, Serena Williams, Cyndi Lauper, and Kristi Yamaguchi.
She and her husband, Neil, both licensed physicians, have more than 15 years of volunteer experience, responding to natural disasters in Haiti, Guatemala, and even Houston, where Hurricane Harvey hit. With the island ravaged and accommodations hard to come by, they were offered the JCC ballroom, its event space, as a place to stay.
Founded in 1958 by American Jews, the JCC of Puerto Rico serves 130 families in and around San Juan, the capital. It has a sanctuary, a ballroom for events like B’nai mitzvb’naind weddings, a cemetery, a Holocaust memorial monument, a garden, a religious school, and an active youth group associated with Young Judea. Puerto Rico, as a whole, is home to approximately 1,500 Jews. The Shockets arrived on Sept. 29, erev Yom Kippur, in one of the first waves of volunteers flown in by Project Hope, a global health education and humanitarian assistance nonprofit organization they had worked with previously. Their impact was almost immediate.
Just an hour before taking off for Puerto Rico, they secured a leukemia medication they had been asked to procure for a 59-year-old man who was in desperate need of the life-saving drug. When they stepped off the plane in San Juan, they were met by the patient’s npatient’sger to get the medication to his ailing uncle.
“They stop “their lives; they stop earning money for their sustenance to help people in need and volunteer. Shocket and her fellow volunteers got to work, setting up a base in the ballroom and laying out medical supplies they brought, as well as their drinking water and food. They slept there and showered in a basement bathroom. The building ran on diesel generators and a finite amount of fuel, so no air conditioning existed.
Most days, they started with a stop at the local Walmart, stocking up on as many supplies as possible. Wearing scrubs and flashing medical volunteer paperwork, they could bypass snaking lines that kept people waiting for hours. Their main relief target was Loiza, a small coastal municipality just over 20 miles east of San Juan gutted by the storm. Mendelbaum and JCC volunteers have donated over 1,200 tarps to Loiza residents to serve as makeshift roofs for damaged homes.
In Loiza, Shocket and her group used walkie-talkies. They spent their days going back and forth between the two cities, making Walmart runs and delivering prescription medicines, water, food, and other supplies to people in schools made up as shelters. Shocket said people in San Juan waited in line for many hours for a cold Coke at a Burger King, one of the few restaurants still open.
People need their prescriptions filled. She said that stress and the struggle to fulfill basic human needs like hygiene are also evident. One of her patients, a diabetic amputee woman, told her she hadn’t shown up in over a week.
“She gave me” detailed instructions on where to find her favorite perfume at her house, and I got it for her.”
“To see” a” community getting together in the middle of all this desperation—because, remember, the people in the sanctuary are victims, having lost homes and businesses—to see them still listening to music and davening, it was pretty incredible.”
Books by Lori and Neil Shocket, M.D.
- MEMORY RECONSTRUCTION: A Sacred Culture Rebuilt
- Small Sanctuary: Shabbat Shacharit Service
- Service of the Heart: From Generation to Generation / Shabbat Siddur
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