Dr. Marcia Stefanick has been living in California since she got her Ph.D. in physiology at Stanford University, but she still makes it back to her hometown of Hermitage at least a few times a year.

"It's interesting to me that Sharon and Hermitage still have this kind of Norman Rockwell quality to them," she said. "I'm in a really different world otherwise.

Dr. Stefanick is an associate professor of medicine and associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.

"Stanford University is an intense and exciting environment to work in," she said.

Dr. Stefanick is also chair of the steering committee for Women's Health International and the liaison for the director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

She works in medical research and has done studies of exercise and weight control and women's health. Dr. Stefanick has also participated in the largest study of post-menopausal women in the United States with the Women's Heart Institute in Pittsburgh.

"I was always interested in biology," she said. As the daughter of veterinarian Dr. John Stefanick, she also had an interest in veterinary medicine and said it was her second choice for a career.

"I got into biological research," she said. "Having grown up the daughter of a veterinarian, I couldn't do animal research. It didn't feel right to me. So I got involved in human research."

After graduating from Hickory High School in 1969 and spending the next two years as an exchange student in West Germany, Dr. Stefanick enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She received her bachelor's degree in biology in 1974.

After college, Dr. Stefanick worked at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center.

"Once I decided to go into research I became interested in primate behavior," she said. "I went to graduate school, and once I was doing basic research on animals I found I could not do animal research."

Dr. Stefanick said she has done a lot of research on diet and exercise in relation to weight loss. She has done studies on breast cancer patients to see if diets high in green, leafy vegetables help prevent the recurrence of breast cancer.

She has also started a large research study to determine risk factors for osteoporosis in men.

"Now that people are living so long, (osteoporosis) is becoming a men's health issue, along with cancer and heart disease," she said.

Dr. Stefanick now lives with her husband, Dr. Robert Horowitz, in the Silicon Valley of California, which she describes as "not really a city, not country, but easy to get to a city." Palo Alto is situated between San Francisco and San Jose and is near parks and redwood forests.

"It's not congested like LA," she said.

But twice a year Dr. Stefanick trades the Silicon Valley for the Shenango Valley. Two of her brothers and a sister still live in western Pennsylvania, as well as her parents. She also has a brothers in Phoenix and North Carolina and a sister in Mississippi.

This year Dr. Stefanick was able to make it back to town for Buhl Day.

"When I was growing up I had much admiration for the Buhl family," she said. "Between Buhl Park, living on Buhl Farm Drive and going to the Buhl Club for tap, ballet and gymnastics ..."

As a runner, Dr. Stefanick has a personal interest in exercise and its health advantages and used to train for marathons at Buhl Farm Park.

"When I was a little kid, Buhl Park seemed huge. As a marathon runner it seemed small. Now it's just right," she said.

Dr. Stefanick said she has a strong attachment to the community and enjoys her visits home.

"How special it is to come back to Sharon and Hermitage," she said. "People who are growing up here probably don't realize how special it is."