Dr. Sadaf Sohrab is a Woman Who Means Business

Dr. Sadaf Sohrab often says she didn’t come to Springfield by choice, but she did stay by choice. Seventeen years later, that distinction matters. As Mercy Springfield Communities’ chief medical officer, Sohrab leads with a sense of purpose shaped not only by medicine, but by a deep belief in community, trust and service—values forged long before she arrived in Springfield.

Born in London in a Pakistani family, Sohrab spent her early years between England and Pakistan before attending medical school straight out of high school. Although she didn’t know at the time, the school’s acceptance rate was around three percent. After five years of schooling, marriage and moving to the United States, she completed her residency and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at Indiana University. She then took time off to care for her father in England after he was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. Soon after, her daughter in tow and pregnant with twin boys, she moved to Springfield for her first job as a physician.

Her first day could have easily become her last. Hours before starting work, Sohrab learned her father was out of time. Torn between duty and family, she remembers telling her mother she couldn’t leave. Seconds later, the physician who recruited her, Dr. James Hargis, noticed she was upset. Although they’d met just a few times, he told her, “You’re going to go be with your father.”

She recalls: “That act of kindness, he represented Mercy for me. I realized I had come home, and I was exactly where I needed to be.”

Sohrab never set out to be a leader. She began as a pulmonologist, became department chair in 2015, and gradually stepped into broader roles before serving as chief medical officer. Still, she practices one day a week. “My main goal in life was always to do this,” she says. “There are days it feels overwhelming, but it gives me a lot of joy and I don’t ever want to forget why I went into medicine. It was always to take care of patients.”

Her passion for care and leadership philosophy trace back to her grandmother, who raised her. “She taught me two things,” Sohrab shares. “Always believe in yourself, and do whatever you can to have a positive impact on others.”

Raised in Pakistan in the 1930s, Sohrab’s grandmother couldn’t become a physician, but she ran free dispensaries and a small hospital in her village. She taught Sohrab that in hardship, “you can either become a victim or you become a victor.” It’s a mindset that continues to guide her work.

That drive led Sohrab to pursue an executive master’s degree in health care administration through Cornell University last summer, studying finance and economics while continuing her work at Mercy.

At Mercy, Sohrab assigns stewardship the same priority as leadership. “My one goal for Mercy is to be a place that continues to do what it was supposed to,” she says, referencing founder Catherine McAuley’s 200-year-old mission to serve the vulnerable. “I consider it a responsibility to keep doing what she started.”