Bipeds of Brookland: James Elzy

Bipeds of Brookland: introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time.

James Ellzy

James Ellzy had wanted to be a doctor since middle school. He joined Navy ROTC to pay for college.  He was already deployed in East Timor on Sept 11th. “Then we were the first ships to take the Marines into Afghanistan. We got redeployed when we went to Iraq.”

James is now a Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) in the Defense Health Agency. “I am the bridge between the doctors and IT. The IT people ask the doctors something and the doctors will say ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’  I really have enjoyed being a physician, I’ve enjoyed the IT side of things because you need somebody who understands what we do behind the closed door with the patient.”

“The Navy moved me to DC in 2008. I met my husband living in Brentwood. We came to Brookland for an open house in 2012 and we put an offer on this house. I like that you don’t feel like you’re in the middle of the city but yet you are so close. DC has been good for me. I have a nice balance of my professional side with medicine and the IT side and then I have a wonderful history of dance as well. I’ve danced ballet, tap jazz, modern. Now I am the Assistant Choreographer with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.”

“I know that Brookland is going through a lot of change. It’s really a matter of trying to manage the change and make it work for you. If you want the grocery store, fight for the grocery store, but don’t tell them you don’t want anything there. Because something’s coming.”

Interview & photo by  Tom Sabella