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Dr. Alyx Porter Umphrey
Dr. Gregory Umphrey
Dr. Marissa Vasquez
Dr. Tiffany Hardaway
Health Care Disparities and the Latinx Population (Read Article)
Latinas in Motion Impacting the Sports Industry (Read Article)
Please join us in welcoming our newest Advisory Board members…
Please join us in welcoming our newest Advisory Board members…
Please join us in welcoming our newest Board Member…
Please join us in welcoming our newest Advisory Board members…
Congratulations are in order for our Advisory Board Members Sophia Ederaine and Johanny Lopez Dominguez! We were honored to celebrate with them this #MatchDay2022, as they both learned about their residency upon graduation this Spring!
I decided to join the Board of Directors for ElevateMeD because it aligns with my core value of inclusion. The literature showed that to provide the best healthcare to our patients, we need to understand their culture, speak their language, among other factors.
Healthcare is my ministry. It is a calling and my inroad to impact social change. I firmly believe that any disparity within our industry serves as a microcosm for injustices that continue to plague society-at-large. I am on a mission to truly transform healthcare and looking to partner with anyone that shares the same mindset.
I chose to pursue a career in anesthesiology because I enjoy moment-to-moment decision making as well as the practical application of physiology and pharmacology. 3% of anesthesiologists are reported to identify as Black/African-American. Of those 3%, the majority are women.
As a CPA, I was even more drawn to the organization due to our commitment to ensuring that our scholars are financially educationally equipped and prepared to navigate through their medical school matriculation fully informed.
Despite the fact that African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American populations make up nearly a third of the US population, as of 2016 they comprised only 17% of faculty at academic medical centers.
I am very fortunate to have many positive influences in my life that fostered my dream to become a physician. As a child, a favorite toy my parents gave me was a Fisher Price Medical Kit. My personal pediatrician shared stories of his own medical school experience during my annual visits. A college professor instructed me to write a note on my dorm door that said “Dr. Shannon Smith, NOTHING can stop this dream from happening!”.
Early this year, I attended the memorial service for Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., one of this country’s all-time great medical educators. Dr. Leffall was a cancer surgeon who was an inspiration to the more than 6,300 medical students, residents, and fellows he taught during his illustrious career. Being in his presence always elicited feelings of awe and profound respect.
I had the most incredible experience as the medical director for the Undergraduate Plummer Scholars program at Mayo Clinic. We built a summer program with the exact resources that I wished I had access to as a rising junior in college. During this week I was exhausted by all that I had to give and share with these 8 brilliant students. What I did not anticipate, was the awe inspiring energy they would return such that my cup runneth over.
From a young age, I felt I was one of a kind. I was one of 2 latinas in honors classes in high school at a predominantly latinx community. The first latina to graduate as valedictorian after a 10 year span.
I began my education at Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) in the summer of 1998. Being at one of the nation’s most prestigious Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) with a reputation of producing the largest number of Black/African-American physicians in the country, I instantly felt at home at an institution designed for my success.
In my professional life, I am frequently the only black person in the room. The exam room, the workroom, the conference room, the coffee room, and the lecture room. I’ve become accustomed to the heaviness of this fact though never forget that I am in these spaces because of the sacrifices of others before me.
This letter touched me and forced me to remember…
