Faculty: Dr. Shaundreal Jamison
The railroad tracks split the town of Cordova, S.C., the primary school to the east and Ebenezer Baptist Church to the west, just past the flashing caution lights. About 200 people call the area well off Interstate 26 between Columbia and Charleston home.
It’s this small place that helped shape the career of Dr. Shaundreal Jamison, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.
“That’s a pretty rural community,” Jamison said. “It’s where my mom is originally from so all of her family lives there, and I was born there and I lived there until I was about 6 or 7 years old, but I spent a lot of time there because all of my extended family is there. We spent summers there and holidays there, and all of those types of things.”
Dr. Shaundreal Jamison believes a lifetime of wellness starts at an early age, which is why her focus is on pediatrics.
She said the nearest big hospital is about an hour’s drive away.
“From my family, I saw how having limited access to health care really affected their health outcomes,” Jamison said. “I had family members who were getting sick from preventable diseases such as diabetes. I had an aunt who suffered a stroke that could have been prevented had she been able to have appropriate medical access and be on the right hypertensive medication.”
After her family moved to Durham, where access to high-quality health care is sometimes just right around the corner, she saw medicine and health care in a different light.
“People have 10 different doctors to choose from, and that was not something that was the same for my other family members, so I just thought all people should have access to high-quality health care, and it shouldn’t be something that you have to travel far distances to get,” Jamison said. “I think there is nothing worse than seeing people who die from preventable things if they had only had access to things that we think of as being pretty routine.”
Those are some of the reasons Jamison came to ECU and why she is passionate about treating underserved populations.
“Unfortunately, I think sometimes there is a stigma that these people just don’t care about their health the same way, but the truth is they just don’t have access to the same level of care as people who come from more populated areas and are used to having those facilities,” she said.
Jamison said her interest in pediatric medicine started slowly. She was interested in health and science, but turned her attention toward children, believing a lifetime of wellness starts at an early age.
“Once I got to medical school, I was actually not set on pediatrics,” Jamison said. “I was pretty open and almost did some other specialties, but in the end, I had a whole lot of interest in prevention, and promoting health and wellness. What better avenue than being able to do that than pediatrics.”
She attended medical school at Wake Forest University and completed her residency training in Charleston, S.C. A faculty member there encouraged her to look at preventive medicine, so she spent two years in that program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“When I was there, I did a lot of work around health disparities and social determinants of health, really trying to improve outcomes for patient populations that were considered more high risk because of the socio-economic needs,” Jamison said.
Having found her passion, she came to ECU’s Brody School of Medicine in 2018.
“ECU’s commitment to the well-being of the community here in eastern North Carolina, I felt that an institution like this would let me take what my specific interests were and be able to really make a difference for the patients here,” she said.
Jamison was recently named the department’s outpatient medical director for general pediatrics at Brody, where her role is to ensure children in the region have access to the highest quality of care.
“It’s always important that you try to be a place parents can trust and that they know when they bring their child here that it’s somewhere that they’ll get the best care,” she said. “You don’t want to be the place that you go to just because it’s the closest place. We want to be the premier location where parents select us as their primary care doctors for their children.”
Beyond patient care, Jamison puts her research efforts into the reduction of health disparities, especially in pediatrics, and on workforce diversity.
“How do we diversify our workforce to look more like the students who come through and the patient populations we serve?” she said. “The vast majority of academic institutions are located in communities that tend to be geographically diverse with a lot of minority patients, but unfortunately when you look at academic faculty, there are not very many faculty members who are considered underrepresented minorities in medicine. … A lot of institutions talk about diversity, equity and inclusion. You’re not going to go to too many academic institutions that don’t have that as part of their mission, but how many institutions are really doing the work to truly have diversity of their faculty?”
As for the students she instructs, Jamison tells them to follow their passions.
“What is it that you feel is really meaningful to you because that’s the way you’re going to be able to continue doing the work even when it gets difficult,” she said. “There are going to be challenges. There are going to be difficulties with every program, with the call program, with different locations. There are going to be difficult patient interactions, but if you can find something that you really feel is meaningful for you, I think you’ll always be able to do the work.”
Her passion brought her to ECU and the Brody School of Medicine, and she could not be happier.
“I think Brody is in a great position because we’re located in eastern North Carolina,” Jamison said. “We have a population of people who really benefit from having access to high-quality health care that I think ECU and Vidant provide and because they’ve also done a good job of diversifying their medical student body, which I think a lot of institutions have not been able to do. I think that being able to be at Brody and work with people like Dr. (Jason) Higginson and Dr. (Alysha) Gray on the student side of things has been pretty inspiring and motivating that you want to continue to find your place and just do good work.”
FAST FACTS
Name: Dr. Shaundreal Jamison
Title: Assistant professor, department outpatient medical director and interim division chief for general pediatrics at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine
Hometown: I was born in Orangeburg, S.C., but moved to Durham when I was in the second grade.
Colleges attended and degrees: Campbell University, Bachelor of Science in biology; Wake Forest University School of Medicine, doctor of medicine; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, master of public health
PIRATE PRIDE
Years working at ECU: 3 1/2
What I do at ECU: I am a general pediatrician and take care of patients in the outpatient setting. I also serve as the department outpatient medical director for general pediatrics and the interim division chief for general pediatrics
What I love about ECU: My favorite part of my job are the patients I get to take care of. I’ve met a lot of great families and been able to get to know some of them well. It is the reason I chose primary care, the ability to build long lasting relationships with my patients. My second favorite part of the job are the people I get to work with. I feel that I am surrounded by people that are committed to service, whether that be in patient care, education or research.
Research interests: Health disparities particularly around children from rural and underserved populations and workforce diversity.
What advice do you give to students? Find whatever it is you are passionate about.
QUICK QUIZ
What do you like to do when not working? Usually when I’m not working I’m at the gym, reading, catching up on my favorite TV shows or spending time with my family.
Last thing I watched on TV: “Abbott Elementary”
First job: Teaching assistant for middle school English. It was an unpaid position, but I was able to work closely with the students under one of my favorite teachers from my childhood.
Guilty pleasure: Binge watching true crime TV shows
Favorite meal: Cheeseburgers
One thing most people don’t know about me: I have an identical twin sister who is an attorney in North Carolina.