David Hillam

David is a Family Practice Physician. David Hillam was born on August 19, 1968 in Provo, Utah. His parents were attending BYU at the time and lived in a small duplex next to the drive in theater in Orem, Utah. David’s mother is a nurse, and his father worked his way up from bank teller to bank manager at First Security Bank in Provo. He is the oldest of five siblings. At the age of 5 years old, David’s parents bought a home on Grandview Hill in Provo. It was a new subdivision at the time, surrounded by apple and cherry orchards. A lot of the streets in the area are still named Cherry Lane, or similar names, although at this point there are virtually no orchards left.   Growing up, David was active in the Boy Scouts of America, earning his Eagle Scout Award. For his Eagle Scout project, he filled sandbags for canyon flooding in Utah during what an extremely rainy year in the 1980’s. David spent a lot of time hiking and camping with his father and the local scout troop. David would take advantage of every opportunity to go camping, even visiting Zions National Park in Southern Utah with an AP Biology Class. Today, the Hillam family takes yearly camping trips to Arches National Park and Zions National Park. In addition to his love of camping and the outdoors, David was a loyal BYU Football fan. His father had season tickets and would attend games with David starting at the age of 4. Today, David now has his own season tickets and looks forward to taking his 4 kids to games each year.   David Hillam graduated from Provo High School - the Bulldogs. The high school years were enjoyable for David, as he always did well in classes. After high school, David attended BYU. As an undergrad, David worked in a lab which evaluated DNA samples from mummies in Egypt, trying to determine the differences between ancient man and modern man. The lab, as he describes, was a fun lab. David and his fellow students would get into water fights in their radiation gear and spent time camping and hanging out together. One Halloween the lab crew attended a “come as your favorite enzyme” costume party.   David was a member of the BYU Astronomy Society during his undergrad years. He wrote and presented several planetarium shows and even met his wife in the Astronomy Society. She was on the Honors Student Council. The Astronomy Society and the Honors Student Council held joint activities for various occasions, including one for Einstein’s Birthday. They hosted several planetarium shows about Einstein, which came complete with a cake on the roof of the Eyring Science Center while looking through telescopes at the stars.   In the middle of his college experience, David took two years off to serve as an LDS missionary in Australia. (David is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS church, or the Mormon church). He taught people about his faith and did service work full-time for 2 years. David later returned returned and finished school.   After his undergraduate years, he enrolled in the MD/PhD program at the University of Cincinnati. David’s intent was to spend 4 years in medical school, and three years in a PhD program studying Cystic Fibrosis. In the end, David decided that clinical medicine was a better for him and did not complete the PhD program. He loved the variety of family practice and worked with several mentors in medical school that encouraged him to go into the field. One of his favorite instructors was a family practice physician who worked in a small community clinic. He loved his patients and they clearly loved him as well.   Half way through medical school David married his wife. She moved out to Cincinnati with him while they finished medical school. The two newlyweds lived happily in their one bedroom apartment in downtown Cincinnati, just across the street from the famous Cincinnati zoo. Two years later, their first daughter Katrina was born. While David finished his medical school rotations, his wife would spend many hours with Katrina in her stroller at the nearby Cincinnati zoo.   Both David and his wife went on to Residency at a small hospital in Middletown, Connecticut. They loved the beautiful green hills of Connecticut. David’s second daughter Rachel and oldest son Benjamin were born in Connecticut. Following residency, they looked for jobs back in Utah to be near family again. They found a position in a small town ER in Roosevelt, Utah near the town where David’s mother-in-law lives. Working in an ER was exciting and hard. David dealt with severely injured patients, placed chest tubes and did other procedures that family practice doctors usually don’t get to do. They left Roosevelt after two years, despite enjoying the area very much.   Subsequently, David and his family moved back to his hometown of Provo, Utah to work in a clinic owned by the University of Utah. Provo was their home for the next 12 years. Their second son Jacob was born in Utah. During his last year in Utah, David worked at a wellness clinic and helped people with hormone replacement, weight loss, and chronic fatigue. Today, Dr. David Hillam works with patients in both Ogden and South Jordan, Utah. 

Healthcare, Hiking, Camping, BYU, College Football