INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The newest member of the WISH-TV family is an avid reader, a “vegan-ish” foodie, and an extraordinarily well-qualified physician – areas which frequently overlap in her own life story and career.

Dr. Janel Gordon is board-certified in family, obesity, and lifestyle medicine. She took a path that would sound familiar to many who grew up in Indiana and then moved away, only to eventually realize that home is where the heart always was.

“Born and raised here in Indianapolis,” she told us on a wide-ranging Daybreak conversation. “The city is known as Naptown, right? So back then, I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s so boring. I have to get out of here.’” That wanderlust and a love of learning took her to North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky, picking up life experience (and several degrees) before coming full circle to return home to practice medicine.

She says family was the main reason for her return, followed closely by a love of good restaurants. “The food scene has grown tremendously,” Gordon explains, urging others to venture out. “When we grow up somewhere, we stick to what we know and don’t really branch out.”

Dr. Gordon describes herself as ‘vegan-ish,’ which led the conversation to one of her certifications. “So as a Board-certified Lifestyle Medicine physician, we do talk about plant-based nutrition and a lot of people think, ‘Oh my gosh, so I can never eat animal products again?’ That’s not what we’re saying. We’re saying most of your nutrition should be plant-based.”

In her role as a medical expert on WISH-TV, Gordon hopes to help people navigate their health through insight and accurate information. “Especially now in the digital age, there’s so much misinformation out there. And if we talk about our future, the younger generation, a lot of them are on various social media platforms, and they think what they’re reading is solid, and it’s not.”

She’s enthusiastic when describing her new venture into television, saying her love of reading and libraries should serve her well as she helps viewers boil down health questions to their essence.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s now helped me be able to quickly go through data and figure out. ‘OK, this is the key point.’”

Expect to see her each week on News 8, offering expertise whenever health and headlines meet.