Dr. Tim Lepore is a local expert in the realm of tick-borne diseases.
Dr. Timothy J. Lepore is well-known on the island for many incredible things, but nothing more important than being one of only a handful of full-time, year-round doctors on Nantucket. He first came to the island with his friend Paul Thompson (now Chief of Cardiology at Harvard Medical School) in the early 1980s. From there, he worked in Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s Emergency Room for a couple of summers, but would eventually return to his home in Providence, RI with wife Cathy Lepore. “My wife and I would be on the boat [to the Cape] and say, ‘Why are we heading back?” said Dr. Lepore, as he explained that living on Nantucket just seemed like the natural thing to do.
At the time, Lepore was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Brown University; when he made the decision to move to Nantucket with his wife (Lepore said, “The best thing about being on Nantucket is being on Nantucket with her.”) and leave his job at Brown he said, “The didn’t believe me.” But leave, he did, and, after a trip on the noon boat on January 1, 1983, Dr. Timothy Lepore became an official year-rounder on Nantucket. “I haven’t looked back,” said Lepore confidently.
For more than 25 years Dr. Lepore has been an integral part of our Nantucket community as a medical surgeon and physician. He’s also heavily involved with research on tick-borne diseases (Nantucket has the highest recorded tick-borne disease population in the world) as well as a member of the Nantucket School Committee. “I get to do a lot of things here, and there are a lot of different challenges,” he said, “My kids got a good education here.”
Dr. & Mrs. Lepore have three children: Meredith is a nurse practitioner on Nantucket; TJ is currently attending medical school in Ireland; and Nick is studying at law school in Seattle, WA.
When he’s not caring for patients, sitting on the School Committee Board, or researching tick-related diseases, Lepore takes in the beauty that Nantucket offers. “I like to go running in the fog out in the Moors, I love the beaches, except for Memorial Day to Labor Day,” he said with a chuckle. “If you ask me, the one thing I really love to do is to shoot,” continued Lepore, an avid hunter, “They should bring back the shooting range.”
“For me, having an opportunity to do all of this tick stuff and medical surgery [is great], I never could have done it at Brown,” Lepore added, “There’s so much to do. I’m never bored.”
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