The success of Sims

Jul. 30—Doctor Steven Sims, graduate of Bluefield High School (BHS), has seen much success in his life, and is now a renowned laryngologist and throat surgeon.

He is the son of Herb Sims, who was a very prevalent part of the Bluefield community for many years where he was the recreational director, and he is now memorialized in the community with the Herb Sims Wellness Center on Stadium Drive.

Dr. Sims no longer lives in Bluefield and has been living and working in Chicago for almost 20 years now, and he is the Director of the Chicago Institute of Voice Care at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center.

However, he says that he really loved living and growing up in Bluefield.

"Growing up in Bluefield was great because I had a lot of family around all the time," said Sims.

He also said his mother's and father's parents lived very closely to them while he was growing up.

Sims is a graduate of BHS and was in the class of 1984, and straight out of high school, he began his journey to where he is today.

"I left Bluefield to go to New Haven, Connecticut for college," said Sims.

Here, Sims attended Yale University which is an Ivy League collegiate institution, and this was where he would go on to complete his undergraduate degree.

He would also go on to Yale School of Medicine for a medical degree and he would go on to complete his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Sims said that he thinks it was his "curious mind" is what drove his desire to become a health care professional.

"I've always had an interest in the scientific method," he explained.

Sims has also been involved in music for his whole life, and he feels that too was a big part of why he chose to go into otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat doctor).

"Hearing about Annie Lennox's vocal issues is what really opened my mind up to the idea to work with the throat," he said.

He explained that Lennox's problems were highly publicized his junior year of high school.

Sims also said that another thing that had some influence on his decision to pursue medicine was his brother being shot shortly after Sims' graduation.

"My family was pivotal in supporting me, so it was critical that I continue to make my family proud," he said.

Sims said he is so thankful for his family and all they did to support his education and career.

Throughout his medical education, Sims got to travel to several places within the United States.

"Before making it to Chicago, I lived a lot of different places," said Sims. "I moved to Nashville after Yale then to Omaha, and then finally to Chicago."

These different places allowed him to continue learning and working as an ear, nose, and throat specialist and surgeon.

"I did my fellowship at Vanderbilt Voice Center," he said.

It was there that he completed his clinical fellowship, and this was after he had completed a research fellowship with the National Institute of Health in Neurolaryngology and Voice Disorders.

He was also appointed as an advisory board member to the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders Advisory Council with the National Institutes of Health during the Obama Administration.

After leaving Nashville and Vanderbilt, Sims went to Omaha to continue his career, and he said it was one of his favorite places to live.

"There was just a lot of interesting, nice people in Omaha," he said.

Sims said he really just loved getting to move around and getting to experience so many different places and cultures.

He said the same thing about the difference he noticed when he moved from Bluefield to New Haven in order to attend Yale.

"It showed me a very different environment though I had traveled before because of my parents, so I was used to seeing different places," Sims explained.

He added, "Culture at Yale was more liberal and progressive than it was in Bluefield."

He said everything interested him there because it was so different compared to where he grew up.

"I was used to being the minority and being one of only a couple of other minority people in the advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math subjects) classes at Bluefield, but in college the concentration of different people was much larger," said Sims.

He also added, "It was so radically different there, sometimes scary but was also often welcoming, and I really liked having people who looked like me in the same classes."

As an otolaryngologist, Sims specializes in several different parts of the profession including Neurolaryngology (subspecialty of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery), Gender Confirmation Voice procedures, Laryngeal Robotic Surgery, and Performing Arts Medicine.

Therefore, through his career, Sims has treated several well-know vocalists and singers.

According to Sims' bio on the Chicago Institute for Voice Care (CIVC) website, "He has worked with opera soloists and cast members of "Wicked," "Hamilton," "Jersey Boys," "Book of Mormon," and numerous other shows as well as Chicago's Oscar winning "Dreamgirl."

Sims also mentioned that he had listened to the artists that he had the chance to treat, which he found really great.

"It was really cool to have that full circle experience of listening, and then meeting and treating those people," he said.

Sims said he grew up in a family of musicians, so he describes his profession as "very comfortable" to him.

He is also a very accomplished musician himself as he sings and plays the trombone, bassoon, and piano.

Dolores French, long time family friend of the Sims family, said, "He's just an outstanding musician.

She also added, "He was in the band and choir when he was young, and he was in a choir at Yale too."

Because of Sims musical background, he really empathized with his performing arts patients.

"I always identified with the singers I worked with because of their backgrounds, and my life with all of the musicians I grew up around," expressed Sims.

The CIVC website also added, "His personal experiences and education are employed to address the problems of singers, performing artists, and other voice professionals."

It also describes Sims' job as a laryngologist as "an extension of his two passions, medicine and singing."

Sims said that working with these people is great and so interesting.

"It's what I always wanted to do," he said.

French said she was not surprised that he went on to become a doctor and is doing what he is today.

"The kids on Wayne Street are so smart," said French. "Steven Sims has always been just a phenomenal kid."

She added, "I think he came out of the womb smart, but he is also just so kind."

French describes him as a very selfless person, and says he "would give you the shirt off his back."

Seeing patients is the main part of his job, but he is also an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Eye and Ear Infirmary. This means he speaks in a classroom, and he often speaks at events all over the world.

In the coming future, Sims is set to be a keynote speaker at the 30th Congress of European Phoniatricians in Turkey on April 27 through the 30 in 2023.

"This is not the first time I have traveled for something like this," said Sims. "I've been to Nigeria, Argentina, and France as well."

Sims said he loves this part of his job because he enjoys seeing other parts of the world, hearing more about work that he does, and it was something that he had envisioned while living in Bluefield.

He also calls it "very rewarding" getting to teach others of the work he does.

Though he is not in Bluefield anymore, he said that it goes with him everywhere.

"I always carry Bluefield with me when I go to these things, and I often use picture of Bluefield in my lectures," Sims said.

Working as a health care professional Sims has seen many things, which also means he saw the major effects that COVID had on his patients and other health care workers.

"All of us had the initial shock, trauma, and grief that the pandemic brought, and it was really hard seeing patients," said Sims. "It was hard because people couldn't or wouldn't come in for treatment because of the fear and threat that COVID posed."

As time moved on through the pandemic, Sims said because people could not come in to be seen which led to progressed stages of illness, disease, and even cancers.

"We have since transitioned into a phase of patients coming back, but the challenges that come with that were that people were coming in sicker making treatments harder," said Sims.

He also added, "All of the stress that we as a country are experiencing, health care is seeing first hand."

Not only did Sims see the effects of COVID at work, but also at home.

Sims said he usually sees his family every year for their annual family reunions, but because of COVID, this year was the first time his family had been able to do an in-person celebration in two years.

Though these reunions bring him to his family, they do not always bring him back to Bluefield because their celebration tend to move around. This year's reunion was in Washington D.C.

Sims said that he has been back to Bluefield a few times in recent years, but they were for memorials rather than happy reasons.

"I went back in 2015 for my mother's memorial, and I want again in 2019 for a close high school friend's mother's funeral."

He added, "It's bittersweet to go there now."

However, Sims adds that living in a small town was a big part of his success now because of family and family friends like French.

He described French as a very "positive, nurturing force" in his life growing up and today.

"I've been friends with Dolores' daughter for as long as I can remember, and we are still very close today," he said. Sims also said she was a great support system not only during school and growing up, but also when his brother's incident happened, French was a big help to his family.

"Small town living allows you to grow with your family you were born into and ones you create along the way in your community," said Sims.

Sims feels that Bluefield offered him what he needed to get to where he has gone now within his life and career.