Mountain Hawk Heroes: TFXC Alum Simon Voorhees

Every Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero - someone associated with Lehigh Athletics who is making a difference in the medical field. We continue today with track and field/cross country alum Simon Voorhees '15.

Previous Mountain Hawk Heroes
November 4: Michael Metzger (Men's Lacrosse Alum)
October 28: Jen (Lance) Sikorski (Rowing Alum)
October 21: Shannon Wright (Track and Field/Cross Country Alum)
October 14: Darren Saks (Men's Soccer Alum)
October 7: Jenny Warner Southard (Track and Field Alum)
September 30: Taylor Wise (Swimming and Diving Alum)
September 23: Matt Christman (Track and Field Alum)
September 16: Steph Fratoni (Field Hockey Alum)
September 9: Mike Price (Swimming and Diving Alum)
September 2: Yasmin Deliz (Track and Field Alum)
August 26: Evan Guerrero (Men's Lacrosse Alum)
August 19: Ross Biggs (Baseball Alum)
August 12: Cynthia Izuno Macri (Soccer Alum)
August 5: Susan Westman (Rowing Student-Athlete)
July 29: Megan Hetzel (Track and Field/Cross Country Alum)
July 22: Lexi Martins (Women's Basketball Alum)
July 15: Nii Daako-Darko (Track and Field/Cross Country Alum)
July 8: Ali Linsk Butash (Softball Alum)
July 1: Kimberly Scotto-Wetzel & Jonathan Wetzel (Track and Field/Cross Country Alums)
June 24: Robert Bonow (Men's Basketball Alum)
June 17: Morgan Decker (Softball Alum)
June 10: Jim Guzzo (Former Quarterback)
June 3: Amina Affini (Women's Basketball Alum)
May 27: Natalie Krane (Women's Soccer Alum)
May 20: Tricia Klein (Women's Golf Assistant Coach)

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

At Lehigh, Simon Voorhees didn't often speak in front of the whole team. Rather, he led on a one-on-one basis.

Today, the former cross country/track and field student-athlete is doing the same thing, but on a much bigger stage… as an internal medicine resident at Temple University Hospital.

"I believe at Lehigh, I was effective at connecting with people and having those conversations on the side – whether it's academic, athletic, motivational, helping somebody through a problem or whatever it may be," said Voorhees. "There were a lot of other people who could more effectively take control of a team, but I'd like to think my contribution was more behind-the scenes."

Lehigh head men's cross country coach Todd Etters saw Voorhees as a vocal leader, who connected more strongly through one-on-one relationships, as opposed to commanding an entire room of his peers at one time.

"Simon was always quick to aid his teammates when they needed it and more crucially, he wasn't afraid to challenge them to become better," said Etters.

As a health care professional, Voorhees is doing much of the same.

"Everyone likes to think there's a pill or easy treatment that fixes a medical problem, but most problems we have in medicine – and people's daily health – are really about lifestyle changes," he said.

"And that takes connecting with people. I'd like to think I'm able to bring some of the tactics I built at Lehigh into what I do today, and hope to keep incorporating them into my own practice as well."
Simon Voorhees

Having his own practice is the farthest thing from Voorhees' mind at the moment, but he knows it will be here in no time. After graduating medical school at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, he moved onto his residency at Temple University Hospital, which began in June.

"The time has already flown by, but it's been a wonderful experience," said Voorhees. "I feel really privileged to be here, working with the same population I trained with during medical school. It's nice to still be in Pennsylvania, close to the Lehigh area."

Voorhees' interest in medicine began before Lehigh, but his collegiate experience certainly helped him grow as a young man.

"I would go as far as saying I was pretty nerdy growing up," he said. "I loved to do different science projects and then early in high school, I realized biology really interested me. I got into running around that time so physiology and biomechanics also piqued my interest.

"I did some shadowing at our local community hospital for a full summer where I was doing night shifts from midnight to 8 a.m.," Voorhees continued. "That opened my eyes to the world of medicine."

From day one of college, Voorhees was in a pre-med track. Lehigh helped prepare him for medical school, but more than what he learned in the classroom, it was due to life skills learned as a student-athlete.

"So much of medical school is self-directed and the onus is on you to get the job done," said Voorhees. "The student-athlete experience helped me, since we had to find our own way of balancing our time. Medical school is a very stressful time for anybody you ask. I believe having that student-athlete background – and being able to take time out to run, bike and do other things – helped keep me grounded throughout school. I gained that skill by being a student-athlete."

In many ways, onus is on each student in medical school to succeed, like onus is on each individual as part of a cross country or track and field team.
Simon Voorhees

"They are team sports, but when it comes down to it, there are still individual performances within those sports that make up the team performance," said Voorhees. "Especially during the summer, the onus is really on the individual to follow through and carry out their own workouts. Even during the week, we didn't always meet for practice. Probably about 50 percent of our runs were on our own.

"It's very easy to skip out on that sort of thing if you're not really motivated or not fully committed to the cause. I believe having that individual mindset of getting things done on your own definitely benefited me in medical school."

Voorhees balanced his time effectively and thrived in medical school. He is now in the early stages of his career.

"Internal medicine basically covers the whole breadth of things you can see and do," said Voorhees. "We're not in a specific specialty during training, but when people get admitted to the hospital, the residents are the ones who help run the show. I like to describe it as the quarterback for that patient's care.

"Obviously, if they have complex needs, you reach out to other specialists for advice, but you ultimately make some decisions on behalf of the patient on what to follow through on, what kind of care is most appropriate and delegate as needed."

Etters is not surprised Voorhees ended up in internal medicine.

"The doctor who is able to pull together all the information from specialists, and the patient themselves, to effectively manage the proper care seems to be a crucial, yet overlooked piece in the medical field," said Etters. "The fact that he balanced three sports over four years on top of his studies is proof that he is capable of managing a role that cuts across different disciplines. Essentially, Simon is responsible for understanding the whole picture, and in doing so he is able to provide the best path forward for each of his patients."

Voorhees and the residents are part of, as Simon said, a "hierarchal system of care."

"As first-year resident, you're overseen by upper-year residents then above that is an attending physician," he said. "You have the liberty to make a fair amount of decisions on your own, but everything is obviously going to get a final look over by people above you. One thing I really enjoy about my institution is that you're empowered to do as much as you feel comfortable, but there's never any shame in asking for help from people around you."

Voorhees is still very much in the beginning of his three-year residency, but he feels comfortable due in large part to the people around him. Voorhees jumped into a hectic environment in June amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He admits he isn't on the front lines of the pandemic, but it has still undoubtedly affected him.

"Emergency medicine is definitely the area most on the front lines because they triage everybody who comes through the hospital; by the time they come to us, they typically have gotten a negative COVID test," said Voorhees. "Our hospital has actually been set up to essentially have two separate hospitals. They're almost functionally independent at this point and anybody who tests positive goes to a different building."

Voorhees has taken care of patients who had COVID-19 in the past. There have also been times he's taken care of patients who didn't know if they had the coronavirus.

"In outpatient clinics [which I also work], you're not necessarily sure if they are carrying the virus," he said. "So we've taken even more precautions."

What a time to begin a career in medicine for Voorhees and his fellow residents. (Ironically, another Temple University resident who started at the same time is former Lehigh teammate Shannon Wright. She is in emergency medicine – click here to learn more about her.)
Simon Voorhees

"Right now, I'm just living life, but when you take a moment to step back, it really strikes you what a monumental time this is," said Voorhees. "We did our entire orientation virtually. Typically at the beginning of the year, we would be meeting our residency class in person. I do lament the fact that we didn't really have the opportunity to get all together as a whole group because we're a pretty large class of almost 50 people. It was all Zoom hangouts, which is definitely better than nothing, but certainly not the same."

Something that has been the same for Voorhees is his day-to-day residency experience. While many aspects of life, and professions, have been affected due to the pandemic, medicine keeps going.

And that's what makes Voorhees, and everyone in the medical field, true heroes.

"In a way, I feel very lucky to be in medicine and not necessarily have my life as impacted as a lot of other people," he said. "I still go into the hospital and take care of people."

Long term, Voorhees is still figuring out his exact path, but internal medicine brings with it a number of possibilities all with the common theme of caring for others.

"After residency, you can go straight to hospitalist medicine, which is basically continuing the same thing except you're fully licensed with all your credentials," he said. "Or you can keep going and do a fellowship. Internal medicine is the path to any broad specialty in medicine. If you want to work with an organ system like cardiology, or pretty much any specialty that's not surgical, you have to go through internal medicine."

Voorhees admits if he specializes, he's currently leaning towards cardiology, but he's keeping an open mind.

"I don't want to lock myself into one path," he said. "I'm trying to embrace every single opportunity I get and be enthusiastic about everything because I might find there's something else I'm more interested in or some other opportunity I wouldn't have considered. I also haven't written off being a general attending physician in the hospital."

Voorhees wants to hold onto that one-on-one connection. That connection drew him to medicine, and was on display in his time on the cross country and track and field teams at Lehigh.

"If I just went the pure science route, I would be doing research," said Voorhees. "But I realized pretty early on in undergrad that research wasn't for me. The human connection is essential to what I do and it's one of the things I'm most thankful for now.

Voorhees is a great example of the type runners who are attracted to Lehigh cross country/track and field.
Simon Voorhees

"They are focused, hardworking, and passionate about what they do," said Etters. "But perhaps above all else, they are reliant on each other in their pursuits and are successful because they're a part of a group that can best be thought of as a family."

Voorhees treats each and every patient like family. Knowing he can have an impact on people's lives is gratifying in itself.

On the flip side, his patients also make an impact on him.

"This experience broadens my understanding of what people are going through and gives me a larger appreciation of the struggles of the community as a whole," said Voorhees.

"Interacting with people brings a high note to my day."

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country versus NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on November 14, 2025 , , 13th of 28

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country versus Patriot League Championships on October 31, 2025 , , 8th of 10

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country at Haverford Invitational on October 24, 2025 , , 1st of 7

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country at Princeton Fall Classic on October 17, 2025 , , 28th of 31

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country versus Paul Short Run on October 3, 2025 , , 29th of 40

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country at Haverford Main Line Invitational on September 19, 2025 , , 7th of 11

Completed Event: Men's Cross Country versus Lafayette College on September 13, 2025 , Win , 19, to, 41

Lehigh University Athletics

Mountain Hawk Heroes: TFXC Alum Simon Voorhees

Related News

Players Mentioned

Simon Voorhees

Related Videos