Meet MAC Member Dr. Nicole Salvo

Member since: 2016

Occupation: OB/GYN at Aurora Sinai and St. Luke’s. She is also the Program Director for the Aurora Health Care OB/GYN Residency and the Chair of the OB/GYN Department

Resides in: Mequon and is originally from Council Bluffs, IA

Family: Matthew Holbrook, six-year-old and three-year-old daughters

Hobbies: Cheering on the Brew Crew, reading (big fan of author Tayler Jenkins Reed)

Claim to fame: A great sense of humor 

Drink of choice: Diet Mountain Dew

Favorite MAC event: Derby Day – It’s all about the shoes

I have a special love for Nikki because she brought both of my children into this world. Almost more importantly, she took amazing care of me before, during and after the crazy process. 

She had just come off a 24-hour shift at the hospital and still showed up all smiles. Nikki hates the spotlight, but loves a real challenge. When I asked her what she’s passionate about, she fired back right away: “Three things—marginalized individuals in the healthcare community, complex surgeries, and [medical] resident education.”

In medical school, Nikki was dead set on practicing orthopedics, but she now knows she’s exactly where she should be: taking care of the community she loves. In her 10-year career, she has likely delivered close to 5,000 babies, but she doesn’t keep track.

We talked a lot about the type of language she uses when working with patients and how nuanced it can be, especially when dealing with patients who have encountered trauma. 

“I always talk to people about how they’re going to feel rather than what I am going to do to them, to take away some of the anxiety,” she explains. Patients all need something different and Nikki has an amazing ability of knowing how to anticipate that. I was one of those people who needed her to hold my hand the whole time. Luckily, we can laugh about it together now.

She also uses language like “People who need OB/GYN care,” rather than “Pregnant women,” which is inclusive to all, especially people who have become even more marginalized since the overturning of Roe v. Wade last June.

Nikki grew up with an Italian father and a Mexican mother, and because her mother was one of eight kids, there was plenty of Mexican influence. She met her husband Matthew in 2009 when she moved to Milwaukee and needed a roommate. The romance evolved after Nikki took him to her sister’s wedding with an “outrageous number of Mexicans,” and he forced her to admit that they were clearly boyfriend and girlfriend. 

Like many women in healthcare, she struggles with the “fake notion” of a work-life balance when both she and her husband want to have successful careers and raise kids. “The guilt is real,” Nikki admits. But she is happy to set an example for her daughters.

She’s most proud of her work creating a specialized program at Sinai to address a rare complication in pregnancy called placenta accreta. It has a high mortality rate and requires a very complex surgery. Because she’s so capable and well-respected when it comes to her surgical abilities, she is now also the director of the center. She deflects my praise and says it happened “by accident.”  

Check out this heartwarming story of Nikki being reunited with a woman she saved while delivering her baby.

To finish up, I asked her a few rapid-fire questions, some serious and some silly (which is also a great way to describe her personality).

JR: Because you were trained in the Western system of health care, do you believe in holistic medicine?

NS: Yes, they all have their place. You can’t silo any one treatment when it comes to  healthcare. 

JR: How has becoming a mother affected you as a doctor providing care to new mothers?

NS: It hasn’t changed things all that much. But I’ve been told by the medical residents that I now say “Be careful” and “Hang in there” a lot. That didn’t happen before kids!

JR: Clearly blood and guts don’t gross you out, does anything?

NS: Yes, the sight of saliva makes me gag. And, dog vomit. 

JR: So who takes care of you when you’re done taking care of others? 

NS: My golden retriever Mila, she’s unconditional and always up for a run. No I’m kidding…I usually need someone to feed me, sneak me out for happy hour, and force me to sleep, and that is Matthew.