Listening skills grew into career for Oaklawn outpatient psychiatrist Andrea Landesman

MARSHALL – While growing up in northern Indiana, young Andrea Landesman always seemed to have a knack for picking up on other people’s emotions and understanding their backgrounds. 

“I listened to people and wanted to know their stories,” she recalled. “I would try to connect with them. But I never knew what that meant as far as a career goes.”

A life-changing insight arrived when she volunteered at a South Bend pediatric physical therapy clinic and worked with children struggling with the physical and emotional challenges of cerebral palsy. That step drew her further toward a career in medicine, and eventually in psychiatry.

Recently married and a new resident of the Marshall region, Andrea Landesman, M.D., is joining the Oaklawn Medical Group’s Bear Creek Campus as an outpatient psychiatrist. 

All this comes as a surprise to the onetime engineering technician reared in rural Walkerton, Ind., where she went to high school. Her early work in automotive research and development for a company in Elkhart came to her chiefly because her father Patrick Landesman was connected to the company. 

“I actually really enjoyed that job because it further introduced me to hard science and mathematics,”  Landesman said. 

Another insight came when Andrea saw that it was difficult for many people in her rural community to obtain the kind of help they needed for medical and mental challenges. 

“My mom Pamela worked with nonprofit organizations in a day program for adults with developmental disabilities, and I had spent a lot of time with her at her work,” she said. “We would talk about how hard it was to get psychiatric care in the community.” 

When the young woman pursued college classes that focused on medicine, “I enjoyed my classes more because I was able to challenge myself in ways I had never been challenged before,” she said. 

Landesman received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and pre-medical studies in 2011 from Indiana University, and a doctor of medicine degree in 2015 from the American University of the Caribbean in St. Martin, Netherland Antilles. She completed her residency in October 2019 at Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in Kalamazoo. 

Today, she is a member of the Michigan Psychiatric Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. Her board certification in psychiatry is anticipated in the autumn of 2020.  

In Landesman’s role as an outpatient psychiatrist, she will be working with other psychiatrists and therapists at Oaklawn’s Bear Creek Psychological Services Campus at 15209 W. Michigan Ave., Marshall. Appointments may be made by calling (269) 781-9119. 

In late October 2019, Landesman married Andre Jonsson, a participant in Michigan State University’s psychiatric residency program. 

At home, Landesman likes to cook ethnic food, indulge in crafts and outdoor activities, and take care of the couple’s pug dog Butterbean. She also particularly enjoys world travel and has done some backpacking, visiting such locations as the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Greece. 

Landesman, a longtime Kalamazoo resident who has family members in northern Indiana, with her husband recently purchased a home in Charlotte. She said she is enjoying becoming more acquainted with the Calhoun County region, which she described as a “comfortable, close-knit community.”