Underrepresented Minority in Medicine physicians get publishing guidance from ECU medical leadership
Seven underrepresented minority in medicine (URMM) junior faculty members from family medicine departments across the nation will spend two days at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine being mentored in scholarship and manuscript writing.
The Nov. 3-5 writing skills workshop for underrepresented minorities in medicine is part of a yearlong faculty development program and is being funded with a grant from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation (STFM) with support from Brody and the University of Utah Health Sciences Campus.
Groups that the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) considers underrepresented minorities in medicine are black or African American, Hispanic or Latino and Native American. According to the AAMC, only 4% of full-time faculty are URMM, which is far below these minorities’ representation in the general population.
“This two-day experience is part of a yearlong mentoring process in essential writing skills, in how to contribute to the body of knowledge in medicine and in how to develop a reproducible path to scholarship and promotion,” said Dr. Kendall Campbell, Brody’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, associate professor of family medicine, director of Brody’s Research Group for Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Medicine, and one of the event’s organizers. “Our goal is that they leave here with a framework for publishing at their home institutions and producing scholarly products.
“Brody is a national leader in family medicine, receiving recognition from the American Academy of Family Physicians for being the number one producer, percentage-wise, of graduates in the state of North Carolina – and number two in the United States – who choose family medicine as a career,” Campbell said. “It’s a natural fit that we contribute to producing outstanding family medicine scholars.”
Co-leaders of the workshop are Dr. José Rodríguez, interim associate vice president of health equity and inclusion and professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Dr. Judy Washington, associate residency director of
Overlook Family Medicine Residency Program at Atlantic Health System in Summit, New Jersey. Campbell, Rodríguez and Washington are all members of STFM’s Minority and Multicultural Health Collaborative, which aims to increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty in academic family medicine, including those with leadership positions.
“This workshop aligns perfectly with the mission of the Brody School of Medicine,” said Dr. Mark Stacy, dean of Brody and vice chancellor for ECU health sciences. “As an institution that aims to enhance access of economically disadvantaged and underrepresented minority students to a medical education, we strive to recruit and retain URMM faculty. This conference is our chance to show our faculty, staff and students our goal to include everyone at our table. We want everyone to seek to belong in the ECU family.”
Participants will reconvene during the STFM annual meeting in Salt Lake City in the spring to review their progress and renew their relationships.
Workshop participants are as follows:
- Kari-Claudia Allen, MD, MPH
Assistant Program Director
Palmetto Health-USC Family Medicine Residency Program
University of South Carolina School of Medicine
- Octavia Amaechi, MD
Clinical Educator
Spartanburg Regional Family Medicine Residency Program
AHEC Assistant Professor
Medical University of South Carolina
- Tanya Anim, MD
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Family Medicine Residency Program at Lee Health
Florida State University College of Medicine
- Krys E. Foster, MD, MPH
Clinical Assistant Professor
Assistant Residency Program Director
Department of Family and Community Medicine
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
- Yury Parra, MD, AAHIVS
HIV Curriculum Director
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Department of Family and Social Medicine
The University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Juan Robles, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Family and Social Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Maria Harsha Wusu, MD, MSEd
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine
Department of Family Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
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Note to media: Event organizers and participants will be available for interviews 11/4/19 at 10:45 a.m. B-roll will be available during a medical school tour at 11:15 a.m.