LCU’s Lanford twins to take on med school together

Louisiana Christian University’s Ethan and Leanna Lanford, of Pineville, have been doing everything together even before their birth—and that isn’t going to change once they graduate from college in May.

Both have been accepted into the LSU Shreveport School of Medicine in the fall. Only 150 applicants were selected from a pool of more than 5,000.

The twins have been together from grade school through high school, then opted to both attend LCU, after a visit their long-time neighbor-turned-mentor Dr. Wade Warren, professor of biology.

“Dr. Warren sat us down as juniors in high school and told us exactly what to take and when,” Leanna said. “We came here [LCU] because he gave us a plan, four years all down on paper. I’m OCD and needed that. I wanted to go where I had the best shot of getting into medical school.”

Their parents, Clay and Pam Lanford, were excited about them staying home for college, but also because they are both LCU alumni themselves.

“Neither had LC at the top of their undergrad college choices until we shared how important the small class size and personal relationships with the professors mattered to us as alumni,” Pam said. “They agreed to meet with Dr. Warren. Both of them are Type A personalities and need know every detail and fact available. Dr. Warren graciously summarized their entire pre-med life down to when and which classes to take within 30 minutes. They were relieved and excited! It helps tremendously that LCU’s pre-med program has a fantastic reputation in the local medical community with many of our local doctors as alumni. They were sold!”

That, plus some strong financial incentives because of their strong high school academics, convinced the local honors students to stay close to home to pursue their college degrees.

Leanna is a Smith Scholar and honors student, and Ethan is a STEM to STEAM Scholar. They will both graduate from LCU debt free.

“Ethan and Leanna Lanford are part of an exceptional group of graduating seniors,” Warren said.  They are academically talented students with drive and determination mixed well with compassion and maturity. They do more than they are asked to do in every setting.  They are both going to be exceptional doctors and will be healing and caring for people for many years.  The faculty at LCU are so thankful they selected this school to do their undergraduate work.”

Interestingly, while Leanna said she has known since she was a baby that she wanted to be a doctor, it took a lot longer for Ethan to come to that conclusion.

Originally, Ethan wanted to pursue a military career, but a congenital back disorder ended that dream. He also considered becoming a lawyer.

But after taking debate his freshmen year in high school, he said law absolutely wasn’t for him.

“Our sophomore year in high school, our grandpa had a stroke,” Ethan said. “From that point on, that sent me to medicine. Watching him be uncomfortable and in pain made me want to help relieve others’ discomfort.”

While they are both going to LSU Shreveport, their paths to get there were not the same.

Leanna, who is getting married in May, applied for early acceptance so that her fiance Cameron Page could get settled in his career in Shreveport, and she has known since October 2024 that she was accepted. Ethan applied to multiple schools before deciding on LSU Shreveport because of its diverse patient population.

“Pray for our parents,” Leanna said. “They have two kids going to medical school and two daughters getting married this year.”

Older sister Ashlynn Lanford also attended LSU Shreveport, earning her doctorate of physical therapy there. Leanna’s wedding will be on Ashlynn’s birthday, and Ashlynn will be saying her vows on the twins’ birthday in December.

While the twins say they both wanted to separate for medical school, ultimately the culture of cooperation and homey feel of LSU Shreveport won them both over. And Leanna said she knows her brother is also looking forward to coming over to homecooked meals at her place.

Where they will diverge, they said, will be in the specialties they will pursue.

Ethan is interested in areas like anesthesia and interventional pain management—areas that require a physician to know every single surgical operation—in order to minimize a patient’s discomfort.

Ethan shadowed anesthesia for a month and interventional pain for a week.

“During my shadowing experience, the anesthesiologists were able to multi-task between several different responsibilities in the hospital and do so efficiently, which was very appealing to me,” Ethan said.

Leanna said she did a weeklong rotation shadowing an anesthesiologist, and that is not for her.

“I don’t want to spend every day in the OR,” she said. “I want more patient interaction with them awake.”

She did two weeks shadowing an OB-GYN and said she was drawn to a specialty like pediatric gynecology, working with an underserved population.

“For peds patients, going to the gynecologist is scary for them already, and sometimes it is really uncomfortable to come into a waiting room of pregnant women especially if there are men in the room. Pediatric gynecology is not currently served as a specialty in this area.”

Leanna wants to work in a specialty where she has long-term relationships with patients.

“Both Ethan and Leanna have been a pleasure to have as students here at LCU,” said Dr. Sarah Payne, chemistry professor and director of the C.S. Lewis Honors Program. “Not only are they both academically gifted, but they have also been actively involved in Cavanaugh Hall life as lab assistants and tutors. Both have worked hard to successfully matriculate into medical school. The bittersweetness of college is that students are only here for four years. It has been a fun and unique experience teaching a set of twins while raising my own set of toddler twins at home.”