2018 NMQF Leadership Summit on Health Disparities and Spring Health Braintrust Recap

SNMA Past Presidents with Congressman John Lewis and Congresswoman Maxine Waters

***Yes, I know what everyone is dying to read about, but I’m still behind on the updates and I’m also in the process of revamping the blog, so bear with me for a few days and then you’ll be up-to-date on all the graduation goodies****

A few days after I returned from my trip to Colombia last month, I had the pleasure of attending the National Minority Quality Forum’s (NMQF) Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. This is a yearly summit where healthcare leaders from across the country convene to discuss healthcare issues affecting minority communities. Due to my position of being this past year’s SNMA National President, I had the pleasure of being invited as a guest of the American Medical Association (AMA) Minority Affairs Section (MAS), and they graciously covered all my expenses to attend the summit. I was especially excited to attend the summit because it is also where the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Healthcare awards are given, and two fellow past SNMA national presidents were being honored.

Love the A3 and E2 token given to me by a physician in attendance

I attended sessions with topics ranging from ending cancer disparities to reducing risky health behaviors in young adults. My daughter was not happy with all the inquisitive texts I started to send her as a result of the panel, LOL. I also got to hear from many notable speakers such as Dr. Jerome M. Adams, who currently serves as the 20th Surgeon General of the United States. It was simply an amazing experience being in a room filled with US senators, CEOs, and University Presidents, and listening to all their knowledge on various healthcare topics really inspired me. 

African American museum fun with my mentee and her fam!

On the final day of the summit, the last session ended at 245pm and the awards dinner wasn’t until 7pm, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to get in touch with my mentee who lives in the Washington D.C. area. Another plus was since I had to wake up early each morning for the summit, I was able to grab same day tickets to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and take her and her sons to the museum. We were pushing it with time, and only had an hour and a half to spend at the museum before it closed, but it was an amazing experience. I will definitely be making plans to go back, because there was so much I missed. It was great, but it is something that a full day needs to be carved out for.

Speaking into existence: next year's 40 under 40

When it came time for the awards dinner, I had a blast! I sat next to an internist with a great personality as well as a fellow medical student representing the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA). My LMSA buddy and I pretty much decided that next year we’re going for the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Healthcare Award, so be on the lookout for us! Additionally, both Congressman John Lewis and Congresswoman Maxine Waters were award recipients, and their speeches were so inspiring. I was elated to take selfies with both of them afterwards, and they also agreed to be a part of a picture with all the SNMA past presidents in attendance. It was an awesome experience.

Teaching, mentoring, and volunteering at a local high school

On my last day in town before flying out, I had the pleasure of being a part of the AMA’s Doctors Back to School visit in conjunction with Mentoring in Medicine. We went to a local high school and taught over 200 ninth and tenth grade males how to dissect chicken wings. My class consisted of 9^th graders who were a joy to teach. I went over the anatomy of the human arm with them, related it to the chicken wing, and then we went to work. Their comments about how gross the chicken was had me cracking up. Afterwards, myself along with two physicians discussed our backgrounds and had a Q&A session with our class. It was my favorite moment of the week, and I look forward to doing more volunteering and mentoring as a physician.

That pretty much sums up my time at the summit. My next posts will be all graduation related, so get ready!

Selfies with great and influential people :)

SNMA Region III RMEC 2016 Recap – Jackson, MS

Pictured with SNMA Past National President Dr. Loretta Jackson ('92-'93)

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Student National Medical Association’s Region III medical education conference in Jackson, Mississippi. The conference was hosted by the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and it was a wonderful weekend filled with great pre-medical and medical student tracks that had everything ranging from simulation labs for the pre-medical students to one-on-one talks with current residents for medical students. It was nice being able to interact with the membership of SNMA and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the conference.

Pictured with the founders of White Coats Black Doctors

Since I became involved with SNMA on a national level, conferences have typically meant either sitting in full day meetings or running around making sure that workshops or anything else I was involved with is running smoothly. This conference was the first time in a while that I was able to just sit back and enjoy the programming. I also met some pretty awesome individuals such as the founders of “White Coats Black Doctors”, MAJ Ezella Washington – a family medicine physician and fellow DO (Woot! Woot!), and I was extremely excited that one of the speakers was a surgeon and that there were a few surgical residents in attendance.

College Buddies!

What made the conference even more exciting for me was that it served as a trip down memory lane. Although I am a proud SNMA Region IV member at the moment, I started off with the organization as a pre-medical student in region III, so it still carries a large piece of my heart. Speaking with the pre-medical students in attendance reminded me of where I used to be and it gave me a lot of inspiration for my presidential agenda that I am currently hard at work on. I even ran into one of my old college buddies who is now a physician. Just reminiscing about how we made it through the struggles of undergrad (that biochemistry major is a beast!), to now one of us being a physician and the other on the way, really makes me feel blessed. This journey is definitely not an easy one, so it warms my heart to see those around me succeed.

Selfie with the parents!

The other highlight of the trip was being able to stay with and see my parents since they live fairly close to the medical center. My mother’s birthday was the day before the conference started, and it had been almost a year since I had seen her, so it was nice being able to celebrate and spend some time with her. I had already seen my dad a few times this year since he came to pick up my daughter for the summer and brought her back, but it was pretty cool hanging out with him too. I made sure to take a selfie with them both before I left because I just love my parents!

But other than that, it was a great experience attending last weekend’s conference, and I look forward to the rest of my travels with SNMA. Oh, and shameless plug: registration for SNMA AMEC 2017 is now open, so sign up now! It will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on April 12-16, 2017 and I am looking forward to seeing you all! Feel free to head on over to www.snma.org to register and find out more :-) 

Featured in AACOM's July/August "Inside OME"

Feature in AACOM's latest edition of "Inside OME"

Hi everyone! I recently was given the honor of being featured and voicing my opinion about diversity in medicine in the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine's July/August edition of "Inside OME". I appreciate the AACOM allowing me to discuss an issue I care strongly about, while both promoting and sharing my love for the Student National Medical Association, and I would love it if you all would check it out. The article can be found HERE. Let me know what you think! 

The SNMA NLI January 2016 and Other Updates

2015-2016 SNMA National Osteopathic Schools Co-Chairs (ends) and National Secretary (center)

It feels like it has been forever since I last posted, but it’s only been a week, LOL. As usual, I’ve been super busy and so much has happened! To start, this past weekend I attended the Student National Medical Association’s National Leadership Institute (NLI) and Board of Directors meetings in Tampa, Florida. It was also held in conjunction with the Florida Health Disparities Summit, so I had the opportunity to interact with physicians from the National Medical Association and with researchers from the Moffitt Cancer Center. It’s always nice being able to network with physicians and medical students from across the country, and I learned a lot from the different sessions I attended. This was my last NLI for the year as the SNMA National Osteopathic Schools Co-Chair, so it was also a very productive time spent attending meetings and handling official business. I took the above picture with my fellow co-chair and the National Secretary (center), and we are all very excited for next month’s Annual Medical Education Conference that will be held in Austin, Texas. So much work has been put into making sure the conference is an informative and amazing experience for all attendees, so if you haven’t registered, do so now!!!!

Returned home to my little cutie looking extra cute :-)

I drove to Tampa because I waited until the very last minute to buy plane tickets, and there was no way I was going to pay over $300 for a six hour drive, so right after our final meeting on Sunday, I made my way back to Atlanta. I hate losing study time though, so I made sure to download Goljan pathology lectures to my mp3 player. My drive alternated between pathology lectures and ratchet music breaks to get me through :-) I made it back home with good timing, picked my daughter up, and made it into my door right as the halftime performance was starting. That and the commercials are the only thing I care about when it comes to the Superbowl, so I was really happy to be able to catch it. I was also extremely happy to pick my daughter up with her hair fully done. One of my schoolmates watched her for me again while I traveled, and is a true lifesaver! I honestly don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the amazing support of people helping me out on this journey, so words can’t express how wonderful it was to return home with a few less worries.

The GA-PCOM SNMA recognizes Black History Month

Outside of that, last week was pretty eventful as well. I never really got a chance to celebrate my birthday because I was too busy, but the week and conference more than made up for it. Last Monday, for Black History Month, the GA-PCOM SNMA organized a “Black Out” day and that was a pretty big success. On Tuesday, we had Oliver Bullock, DO come to speak to our school, and I was in charge of the Q&A session for that. On Wednesday, we had a “Pink Out” day in order to honor the life of my friend/classmate’s mother who recently passed from stage IV breast cancer, and we were also able to raise and surpass our goal of donating over $1000 to the Breast Cancer Research Fund, so I was extremely happy about that. We also had a suture clinic that day, and I learned that silk thread is hard to deal with, and while I am still a beast when it comes to interrupted suturing, I still need more practice on everything else. I honestly can’t remember what I was doing last Thursday, and somewhere in between all of this, I still managed to fit in studying for board exams and going to class. We have a lot more mandatory lectures this term, so my schedule has pretty much been packed, but I’m making it through! Other than that, life is the usual. At this point, I am probably the busiest I have ever been since starting medical school, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I continue to love every moment of this journey, and hopefully I can continue finding the time to blog about it so that you all can share in my joy too :-) Until next time!

Pink Out Day in to raise Breast Cancer Awareness

Working on my suturing skills!

USF Health Center Selfie :-)

Meeting the 14th Surgeon General of the United States

Pictured with Dr. Antonia Novello, 14th United States Surgeon General

Yesterday, I had the amazing honor of introducing Dr. Antonia Novello, the 14^th Surgeon General of the United States to my school! Not only was she the first woman AND Hispanic to hold the position, but that's just one huge accomplishment out of a long list of many that includes being the New York State Health Commissioner during 9/11. She is such an inspiration, and the lecture she gave was really powerful and on point!

My daughter and Dr. Novello loved each other!

The evening before Dr. Novello came to my school, I had the opportunity to join a group of student leaders in having an informal dinner with her. I almost did not attend the dinner because I had a major exam yesterday morning to prepare for, and I also had a conference call Sunday night that conflicted with the dinner. At the last minute, I decided I would stop by to introduce myself and I asked if it would be OK to bring along my daughter (which received no objections) since I did not get a babysitter due to my original conflicts. The dinner ended up starting earlier than planned, so I was actually able to stay for the entire time, and I was so glad I brought my daughter because Dr. Novello loves children! My daughter also Googled Dr. Novello prior to the dinner and wrote a list of questions for her to answer, which apparently surprised everyone, lol. They ended up talking and taking pictures together, and now my daughter is super inspired to go into medicine.

Always an honor to introduce amazing individuals

As for the actual GA-PCOM Diversity Speaker Series, Dr. Novello gave a very powerful speech that focused on the disparities between minorities in both a personal healthcare aspect, and in a medical profession aspect. It was shocking to hear the small number of black men there are entering into medical school, and the fact that black women make up the largest number of applicants to medical school, but the number accepted absolutely does not reflect it. It definitely hit a nerve with me, and made me even more determined to become a leader in healthcare, so that I can be a part of the change that is desperately needed. I especially liked the ten principles to live by that she added at the end of her speech. I was not writing as she spoke, so the bolded below was taken from a blurb about the event on the GA-PCOM Facebook page:

 “She discussed her 10 principles, born from her experience, that have helped her in her life journey. They include: 10) Be a pioneer. Don't be afraid to forge into new directions; 9) Do not deny your roots as you walk the ladder of success; 8) Never underestimate your capabilities; others will do it for you; 7) Achieve the highest level of education - it is the key to the door of opportunity; 6) Set goals for yourself and when doing so, make them realistic and then share them with those who believe in you. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit; 5) When you get to the top, don't forget you owe something back to your peers, your family and your community; 4) Don't be afraid to speak your mind; 3) Take care of yourself spiritually, physically and mentally; 2) Never lose your sense of who you really are, even when others believe they know you better than you know yourself; and 1) Plan big and dream greatness.”           

Dr. Novello's note to my daughter. Such an amazing gift!!!!

I honestly wish I could get a transcript of the entire speech, because it was really good and by far, one of my favorites! Afterwards, we all presented Dr. Novello with gifts from the different student organizations, and she was really happy to receive a framed group picture of all of us from the night before. She made it a point to mention my daughter to the crowd and how impressed she was by her, so you know this made me an extremely proud momma! I even made sure to give Dr. Novello pictures of her and my daughter from the night before as she requested, and she returned one of the smaller pics to me with a note for my daughter that really made my day. I am definitely going to have it framed, and I know it is something that my little one will cherish forever :-) This will be added to the list of one of my most memorable moments as a GA-PCOM student, and I am so incredibly blessed to have wonderful opportunities like this, AND be blessed to have the ability to expose my child to great people and experiences at the same time.

GA-PCOM SNMA Leaders