This week’s Micronesian Monday Feature is on Dr. Sheldon Riklon, a decorated Marshallese physician who has been serving his patients for over 20 years. 

Speaking from his home in Arkansas, Dr. Sheldon Riklon is all smiles. Here he is husband, father, grandfather. 

“My free time not working is basically spent with my family,” he said. “You know, I have grandkids, and having grandkids is just some magical situation. I mean, I think it's just a blessing because once you start talking with them and spend time with them and joke with them and laugh with them and just kind of play with them, you forget everything else that weighed you down that day, that week, that month.

“You take off those credentials you're just a human being, you’re just a grandpa to these grandkids and that's all that matters in life at that point in time.”

For him, family is medicine. 

“They keep you grounded,” Riklon said. His grandkids look to him to take them to the park, or the lake, or just to be together to talk story.

“They’re the ones that are going to keep me out of trouble and not overwork myself,” he said with a smile. “They’re always asking me to do things with them…fun stuff that you don’t get gray hair from like work.” 

Dr. Riklon has been working as a family medicine physician for some 21 years.

As a kid growing up in the Marshall Islands, he had a penchant for building things. He thought he’d grow up to become a carpenter.

“I wanted to make cabinets and build houses and build things,” he recalled. 

But perhaps Dr. Riklon was always fated to be a doctor. After all, he comes from a family of health professionals. 

His older sister is a health educator. His mother, from Kosrae, is a registered nurse. His father, from the Marshall Islands, is also a doctor.

Dr. Riklon recalled walking around his dad’s office or the hospital as a kid.  While his parents didn’t push him to become a doctor, his exposure to the field early on and his desire to help his people eventually evolved into becoming a family medicine physician.

He’s one of two Marshallese doctors in the world who completed medical school residence and training from U.S. accredited programs, according to UAMS. 

Dr. Riklon recently was awarded the 2021 Dr. Edith Irby Jones Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s an incredible honor given to him for his work with the Marshallese community. 

While he never really let go of his carpenter dreams, the aspirational shift from builder to doctor for Dr. Riklon can be traced to his days in high school. He was a star student—that is until he encountered high school biology, which proved to be a formidable challenger. 

“I was challenged in trying to really think through things when I took my biology class. And actually, there was this pop quiz that basically I failed because it’s like 50-50. Either you get an A or you get an F, depending on your answer,” he recalled. “I gave the wrong answer and that was my first F ever in my life.” 

While he admitted he wasn’t a happy camper after that quiz, Riklon was not to be defeated. He decided he’d conquer high school biology and in fact, he would major in it in college. 

“That’s what I did. I went to college and that was my major: Biology,” Riklon said. In his college years, he shadowed medical officials and did internships to see if he could handle all that comes with being a health care professional.

“Can I handle the blood and gore?” Riklon said with a chuckle. As he learned more he thought to himself, “OK. I think I like this. I think this is what I’m going to do.” 

From then on he set his sights on becoming a doctor. He considered becoming a surgeon, (a sort of carpenter of the body), but ultimately settled on family medicine.

“My goal was always to work with the Marshallese people, work in the islands,” he said. “Family medicine would be a perfect thing for me to work with the Marshallese community because it covers kids to adults to geriatrics….It kind of fit what I wanted to go into in life.” 

Over the past two decades, he’s served generations of families. His work took him from Hawaii to Arkansas. There’s a large Marshallese community in Arkansas, and about six years ago that’s where Riklon and his family moved and where he’s been working since. He goes between Fayetteville and Springdale a lot, working for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and then also at the community clinic in Springdale. 

The community clinic in Springdale is geared toward an underserved population and over the years Dr. Riklon has seen an increase in Marshallese patients.

“It’s been rewarding in that aspect because many of the folks that I see, I know them from before or some of them I grew up with them in the island,” he said. “Some of them, the older generation, they remember me as the little kid running around on Ebeye, playing around in the mud.” They recall seeing him as a kid, hanging on to his mom as she was trying to do her work. 

At the clinic, the waiting room becomes a place to talk story and catch up. With patients and some medical assistants hailing from the Marshall Islands, the sounds of their mother tongue fill this Arkansas clinic, a piece of home away from home. 

“I can see that they’re at ease,” Dr. Riklon said. “So we can at least speak and can address their concerns.”

Being able to help his patients, answering their questions, and helping them get chronic conditions under control has always been a rewarding part of his work. 

“You can see those light bulbs going off as I’m explaining things,” Riklon said. “Those are great moments.” 

Once patients understand what’s happening, then they can progress from there and make informed decisions about their health.

“I think it’s important that people understand that most of us Micronesians, Marshallese, Pacific Islanders, we’re like anybody else. We do things to take care of our families. And that’s one of the unique aspects of our culture is, it’s the family and the community first before you take care of yourself.”

Riklon said we want to be healthy to provide for our family.

Many people face challenges, from money, insurance, time, to transportation. These can be hurdles for some patients. 

“We have to make daily decisions that are going to benefit our families first and it's going to benefit us. And I think if folks understand that and are more willing to learn about us and the culture because everybody's different. We need to be respectful of everybody's cultures and values and beliefs. And for us, the family is important. If you want to reach the patient, you’re going to treat the patient as part of the family.”

Looking back at his career, Riklon said many doors opened up for him because he was Marshallese.

“I always take pride in the fact that I’m Marshallese,” he said. 

Wherever you are in life, Dr. Riklon said there will be challenges. He said it’s important not to let yourself down. 

“Don’t give up your heritage, don’t give up your pride in your culture. People will bully you once in a while here and there because of your culture but take pride in it,” Dr. Riklon urged. “There will always be challenges but there’s also going to be much more positive aspects in life because of who you are. So, enjoy it.”

I’d like to thank Dr. Riklon for his time. He’s a very busy person and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to speak with him and learn about his life and his family from him. Thank you Tiffany, his assistant, too for helping coordinate our meeting! I really enjoyed learning about his journey from the islands to becoming a doctor.  

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