Match Day Profile: Izzi Bauer

Every third Friday in March, fourth-year medical students across the United States learn where the next chapter in their careers will be written. Match Day is the day when the National Resident Matching Program releases results to applicants in sealed envelopes, revealing where they will spend the next several years in residency, training in their chosen specialty. After years of preparation and study, it is a long-awaited and well-deserved day to celebrate. The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix is profiling several students for Match Day 2025.

Meet Izzi Bauer

Growing up in Lake Oswego, Oregon, Izzi Bauer found her interest in neuroscience in her undergraduate studies at Colorado State University.

Among her supporters, Bauer cites her family and friends as those who have loved and supported her throughout her educational pursuits. She also credits meeting Kristin Nosova, MD, an outstanding neurosurgery resident, for teaching, encouraging women pursuing male dominated fields and improving the state of neurosurgery education.

During her time in medical school, Bauer, Dr. Nosova and Robert Bina, MD, developed programs at the college that make neurosurgery education, clinical experiences and research more accessible to all medical students.

“We started the Project Waterfall Neurosurgery Research Group during my second year of medical school,” Bauer said. “One of my proudest accomplishments has been watching the growth of that program both in neurosurgery and across other medical specialties.”

Path Toward Medicine

What was the spark that led you to become a physician?

Through my undergraduate studies at Colorado State University, I studied neuroscience and found an interest in neuroanatomy and the overall function of the central nervous system. This led me to pursue medicine.

Through outstanding exposure and relations with the neurosurgical team here at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, I realized that neurosurgery was the career for me.

Choosing a Specialty

Do you have a specialty? What is it and why did it interest you, or what led you to it?

I applied to neurosurgical residency. My interest in the brain and central nervous system was piqued in college and then grew throughout medical school as I began to experience both the technical and intellectual rigor of the specialty related to the objectively coolest organ in the entire body.

What’s Next

Post-Match Day, what are your goals moving forward?

Wherever I end up for residency, I intend to continue to focus on not only surgical training but preparing to be an exceptional educator. I owe so much of my success to mentors like Dr. Nosova and Dr. Bina, and I hope to serve that role for other students and trainees. 

I believe that the desire to mentor/teach is inherent, but the ability to do so is a learned skill that I hope to continue to improve upon throughout residency training and my entire career. 

The College of Medicine – Phoenix Culture

What will you miss most about the College of Medicine – Phoenix? Any advice for incoming medical students?

Medical students should not shy away from a specialty that they are interested in just because they are afraid that it is too competitive. Pursue your interests with confidence and determination from day one of medical school. Women can be neurosurgeons, too!