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Community Corner

Moms Who Rock Around Our Towns: Dobbs Ferry's Katherine Hough

Katherine Hough is a pediatrician and co-owner of Pediatrics on Hudson

Patch shares with you a local moms whom we think are awesome. We ask them some questions and hear about how they manage life with kids and other activities. We hope you'll enjoy getting to know some of our neighbors.

Katherine Hough, MD, lives in Dobbs Ferry with her husband, Ben Hough and their three boys, Sam (11), Cass (9), Charlie (4).  She is a pediatrician and co-owner with David Siegler, MD of in Hastings.

1. How do you balance being a mom and working?

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Katherine says she "never quite achieves balance, but more of a controlled chaos." She tries to be around for her children, whether they have to handle a tough situation or if it is something special, but she does miss some moments.

Katherine is thankful that her husband is always involved and friends have been very helpful. She candidly shares that "more often than not, she is flying out of the front door with a cup of coffee in one hand, someone's forgotten lunch in the other, and actually will drive the short distance to work to make it in time for the first patient of the day!"

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Overall, while she says she wouldn't call it "balanced, being a mom and a pediatrician is wholly, fully rewarding."


2. We'd love to hear more about your work; tell us about it!

Katherine believes she is fortunate because her job is her passion. When she finished college, she took a position in investment banking. While it wasn't for her, she did meet her husband working in the field. After, she taught high school biology in the Bronx for a few years until finally taking "the plunge and going to medical school."

She  knows it is the right career because practicing medicine is really part of her. She "loves her colleagues at Pediatrics on Hudson." Her partner, David Siegler, is really a mentor to her.  She adds that "together, we work to solve challenging medical problems and strive to make our practice a place where healthy children and their families can grow, and sick children are approached with care and thought." Later this week, she is heading to Haiti on a medical mission with Pediatric on Hudson's amazing nurse, Eileen Kostik. Being a pediatrician has challenged her both intellectually and emotionally, but she "really loves what she does each day."

3. When you find time for yourself, what do you enjoy doing locally?

Katherine enjoys playing tennis or taking a walk on the aqueduct with my dogs. She reports that her "guilty pleasure is in Irvington."

4. What are some of your top things to do around Westchester with your family?

As the mom of three boys, Katherine is very busy with baseball or lacrosse games and finds that the weekends quickly fill up with these activities.

In the wintertime, the Hough gang can be found out of Westchester. Katherine says they are "committed to skiing- pretty much every weekend from December to March up north." This stems from both her and her husband's "love for skiing," she adds that they quit their jobs before she went to medical school and "lived in a camper van for 6 months and spent a winter skiing in Colorado- but that's a whole other story!!"

5. What is your favorite thing about living in this area?

Katherine "loves the small village feeling." She particularly enjoys that her boys do the kinds of things like she did growing up, like "holding lemonade stands and kicking the can in the street.  It's pretty idyllic and that is tough to find in this day and age."

She particularly likes that her son, Cass, can walk to the library after school, then across the street to the Dobbs Ferry Pottery and visit with Marian Ferrer. For her son Sam, she likes that he walks to Sugar Pond and fishes with his friends. And, for her youngest, Charlie, it warms her heart that "he walks through the same red door to Community Nursery School" that her older boys did when they were his age.  Katherine moved frequently as a child, so she deeply appreciates "the roots that the children have here in the Rivertowns" 

She participates in the , and finds it "to be a restorative place that is unique and special for the family."  Katherine also enjoys the "small store fronts who are quick with a smile-like  and ."

And, for her, she feels lucky that she gets to "see patients on the playground, at nursery school drop-off or at the grocery store- it's a bonus to live and work in the same community."

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