The decision to stay in Las Vegas for medical school and residency is paying off in spades for charter class graduate Dr. Ashley Prandecki.

Now an assistant professor of internal medicine at UNLV, Prandecki is also a new mom, and having family around to help during this chapter in her life is ideal. Staying in Las Vegas, around friends and family, while treating Nevadans, well, it was all part of the dream.

Prandecki spent much of her time as a teenager on the tennis courts around Las Vegas, working her way up the rankings as one of the top junior players in the region. Her tennis talents earned her an athletic scholarship to Western New Mexico University, where she starred on the court while earning a degree in business management. Then, after acknowledging her long-held love for medicine, she returned to school to take science courses before applying to medical school.

Upon receiving her MD degree from the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV in 2021, Prandecki completed a three-year residency in the school’s internal medicine department and agreed to stay on for an additional year as chief resident. While the residency was a grind, the elevated chief resident role gave her a little more breathing room. She enjoyed a lighter schedule, which allowed her to have more down time to be with family.

Her initial plan was to pursue a fellowship in a subspecialty, but the delightfully positive Prandecki says she fell in love with the primary care aspect of internal medicine. “You’re the first person to see a patient typically, so your role as a diagnostician is very important, because you are guiding their care and getting them to the specialist they need.”

To Prandecki, one of the good things about practicing medicine in Las Vegas is that you see just about everything. “You have the opportunity to care for people from all over the world,” she says. “They travel to Las Vegas and a lot of times they end up at University Medical Center [UMC], which is where I primarily trained. And I think that is super valuable because you end up seeing some very rare things that you may not see somewhere else.”

As one of 18 students in the charter class who matched in Las Vegas, Prandecki watched many of her classmates leave town for residency. But she never wavered in her belief that Las Vegas was the best place for her. In fact, she happily stepped up to develop the school’s first alumni chapter.

“You know, I wanted to stay in Las Vegas. I love it here, and training here also allowed me to see the unique needs of our local population. It really just feels like the city and the program are right for me.”

Such talk is sweet music to the ears of those working to bring more physicians to Southern Nevada and her decision to join the faculty of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine was frosting on the cake. “I’ve really fallen in love with academic medicine, too, because it keeps you on your toes with all the latest research and guideline changes and all of that. It’s really fun to be a part of.”

She is also proud of her classmates. When classes began in July of 2017, they were 60 fresh-faced med students taking a chance on a brand new medical school. Now, they are all caring for patients and staying true to the oath they took during their White Coat Ceremony.

Like others in her cohort, Prandecki received a generous scholarship that paid for most of medical school. She says she will never forget the generosity of the Engelstad Foundation and hopes to pay it back by caring for the community that helped raise her.

“It is both surreal and deeply gratifying to now hold the role as faculty member after spending time as a student, resident, and chief resident at the university,” Prandecki says. “The education and experiences I have gained have prepared me to teach and support the next generation of physicians, while continuing to expand my own knowledge and expertise in the ever-evolving field of medicine.”

Appointments with Dr. Ashley Prandecki, or any of her fellow board-certified internal medicine physicians, can be made by calling the UNLV Health Internal Medicine Primary Care Clinic at 702-671-5060, or by visiting unlvheath.org.