March 2016 - Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Office of Diversity Enhancement
March 2016
Recruitment
Advisement
Support
To be one,
to be united is
a great thing.
But,
to respect
At Einstein,
diversity is our strength.
the right to be
different is maybe
even greater.
Bono
Message from the Associate Dean
Hello from the Office of Diversity Enhancement!!!
It has been an amazing year of transitions here at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Firstly, we witnessed the unification of Einstein and Montefiore, moving from beyond a partnership to becoming one institution
sharing many common beliefs.
In addition, we have seen various changes in the Office of Diversity Enhancement. Ms. Heather Archer-Dyer joined us as the Director of CommuIrene Blanco, MD, MS
nity Based Service Learning, and I was appointed as the Associate Dean of
Diversity Enhancement. Together we joined Assistant Dean Nilda I. Soto, Ms. Ana-Julia Cruz, Ms. Medina Byars, Ms. Deborah Negron-Cordero and Ms. Maddy Ebanks to form the new core staff of the Office
of Diversity Enhancement.
In this time of transition, we have broadened and expanded the role of the office. We have begun
working with Dr. Victoria Freedman to ensure that graduate and PREP students are included in the mission of our office. We have also partnered with other groups such as the Student Collective for Action
on Diversity and the LGBTQIA Curricular Working Group to continue to move forward in ensuring a constantly inclusive and welcoming environment for all groups on campus.
However, the group that likely has seen/will see the most transition is our graduating class of 2016! We
had a wonderful match on March 18th as you can see from the list included in this newsletter. We have
future surgeons, pathologists, pediatricians, ER physicians, psychiatrists, anesthesiologists and internists, to name a few. We congratulate you, and as a fellow physician and soon to be colleague I welcome
you and am so proud and excited to see such wonderful people joining our ranks.
My prayer for you is the following:
May you not only “do no harm,” but do good.
May you always exemplify our core mission and pursue social justice and effectively work towards the health of all communities.
May your continued training and development help to lift you to the great heights that we
know you can and will achieve.
May you always find love, compassion and support from both your colleagues and loved-ones
to guide you on the road ahead.
As we all make our way through these transitions at Einstein, I am humbled by the reception that I have
received in the ODE office and beyond. I thank Drs. Spiegel, Burns and Grayson for entrusting me with
this responsibility. I look forward to continue working together with our core staff and multiple offices
and groups on campus to promote our mission of developing a broadly diverse cadre of clinicians, researchers and educators in order to effectively promote health equity and address health disparities in
our community, in the nation and abroad.
Heather Archer-Dyer, MPH, CHES
Heather joined the department of Family and Social Medicine in November of 2012 as the new Director of Community Health Outreach
and Instructor.
Heather Archer-Dyer
Formerly the Assistant Director of Public Health Practice at New York
Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice, she brings
skills in managing medical and graduate student practica and internship experiences. She has considerable expertise working with communities to advance public health, and developing public health projects for students.
Additionally, Heather served as the Assistant Director of Community Outreach and Education of
the Children’s Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley (CEHCHV) at the Maria Fareri
Children’s Hospital Westchester Medical Center Health Network. She has demonstrated educational leadership in her community activities by developing and implementing many successful
public health presentations and workshops.
As a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) who completed a graduate certificate in Health
Information Technology, Heather has been a resident of the Bronx on and off for eighteen years
and remains an active volunteer on several task forces and coalitions in the area.
Many of her experiences in both the community and classroom have focused on prevention and
health promotion in at-risk and underserved populations.
Heather is excited to take the reins from Dr. Maria A. Marzan and help the CBSL program, which
is integral to the Einstein students, continue to grow and flourish. She shares our vision to involve our students in mutually beneficial service-learning activities and will help develop a robust program that will include all medical and graduate students of Einstein. Heather also desires to overhaul the evaluation system in order to measure the impact of these programs on
both student learning and the community in which our students work. Heather can be reached
via e-mail at: [email protected]
Match Day 2016
Match Day 2016
NAME
DISCIPLINE
Nicole Agcanas
Adela Aguirre-Alarcon
Family Medicine
Anesthesia
Surgery/Preliminary
Emergency Medicine
Nafeeza Ali
Lagu Androga
Donald Apakama
Albert Bararwandika
Emmanuel Appiah-Kubi
Internal Medicine
Emergency Medicine
Family Medicine
Neurodevelopmental Disease
Surgery/Preliminary
Steven Carbonaro
Tamika Coy
Dana Cruz
Stephanie Duarte
Psychiatry
Internal Medicine
Orthopedics
Internal Medicine
Sinmisola Ewumi
Olatomide Familusi
Faye Korich
Angelo Landriscina
OB/GYN
Plastic Surgery
Pediatrics
Dermatology
Internal Medicine/Preliminary
Internal Medicine
Psychiatry
Pathology
Pediatrics
General Surgery
Anesthesia
Pediatrics
Pediatrics
Jorge Muñoz Pineda
Fatima Nagaya
Ujunwa Okoye-Okafor
Vera Osafo
Woodson Petit-Frere
Dahlia Townsend
Nathalie Trinidad
Nerissa Velazco
a
SNMA/LMSA
Executive Board
SNMA
LMSA
Tonya Aaron
President
Patricia Rivera
Co-President
Carla Anderson
Vice President
Roberto Valdovinos
Co-President
Shacelles Bonner
Treasurer
Israel Orta
Treasurer
Kristine Alexander
Secretary
Marjorie Morales
Secretary
Takiyah Mitchell & Priyanka Datta
Community Service Co-chairs
Marjorie Morales
Community Service & EEP Chair
Taylor Thompson & Kristine Alexander
MAPS Liaison
SMNA
LMSA
SNMA
Elise Mike, 3rd year MD/PhD, and the 2015 2016 SNMA Einstein chapter Co-President, is
seen here being sworn in as the SNMA Region
IX's new Associate Regional Director. Elise was
re-elected to serve a second term 2016—2017.
As the SNMA Region IX Associate Regional Director General, Elise is responsible for planning and
coordinating the regional conference; support
the activities of officers and chapter presidents;
officiate for the regional director in his/her absence or at his/her request; assume the responsibility for filling the office of the regional director
in case of the director’s removal by resignation,
illness, death or other; recruit and maintain active and/or associate chapters and organize the
selection of the Chapter of the Year Award.
Seen here, fourth from the left, is Elise and fellow medical students involved in planning and
coordinating the 2015 SNMA Region IX Medical
Education Conference held on November 14,
2015, at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of
Medicine. Elise served as Chair of the Conference Planning Committee, and she coordinated
the largest conference in Region IX history.
The theme of the conference was “Black Lives
Matter.” The keynote address was given by Dr.
Roger Mitchell, MD, Chief Medical Examiner for
the District of Columbia and Chair, NMA Commission on Violence and Name Deaths in Police
Custody Committee.
SNMA
Natalie L. M. Ramsey, 3rd year MD/PhD, has
been active in the SNMA at the local, regional,
and national level.
She served as the 2015—2016 Treasurer and Copresident of the Einstein chapter of SNMA, was
elected Regional Research Liaison (RRL) for 20162017, a position that she also held in 2014-2015,
and the 2015-2016 Physician Researcher Initiative Fellow. In this position Natalie will work in
tandem with the National Research Diversity
Committee, research and assess research opportunities for minority premedical and medical students and promote SNMA’s research programs
among the region: the Dr. Wilbert C. Jordan Research Forum and the SNMA David E. Satcher,
MD, PhD Research Fellowship.
Seen here with Natalie are fellow SNMA Einstein
chapter members attending the 2015 annual conference held April 1—5, 2015, in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Featured are, from left to right, Sean
Schnarr, Abed Jean-Louis, Elise Mike, Natalie
Ramsey, Ariel Love and Uzochukwu Davis Anugo.
Reflections
After having worked with Dra. Gonzalez, from BronxLebanon Hospital Center during my Psychiatry clerkship
in third year, we encountered a unique case that we decided to pursue as a Case Report with one of the residents at Bronx Lebanon.
The case consisted of a patient that was found to have a
unique comorbidity of frotteurism and schizoaffective
disorder. Since there are no reported cases of frotteurism with a psychotic disorder, we decided to write it up
and submit it for a poster presentation at the American
Psychiatry Association annual conference, as well as the
European Psychiatric Association (EPA) annual conference. We were accepted to both, but decided to go to
the EPA conference, it being a more rare opportunity.
We travelled to Vienna, Austria for the conference, at
which we presented our poster, engaged in the various
talks and events of the conference with world renowned
psychiatrists of Europe, and also got to enjoy the tourist
sites that Vienna has to offer. Overall it was a wonderful
opportunity that was enriching both academically and
culturally.
I hope to keep representing under-represented minorities at international events like this as my career continues. And I would like to give a big thanks to Dra. Gonzalez and Dr. Gunutur of Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center
for the chance to work with them on this project.
Jorge Muñoz Pineda, MS-IV
Class 2016
Reflections
“Now I know I can do it. I feel empowered. I’m not
going to give up!” She had taken a three-year break
from school and only returned to college last semester. Her interest in becoming a Doctor of Nursing
Practice remained as strong as ever. Hence, she had
taken her counselor’s advice to attend my seminar.
This 26-year-old explained to me that she felt motivated after listening to my talk. There were a lot of
doubts in her mind that made her question her candidacy for a doctorate degree. She worried about being
“too old” and the “bad grades” from her freshman
year.
I had visited the University at Buffalo during the fall of
my senior year in medical school. After four very
beautiful years at UB, it always feels refreshing to visit
my alma mater. My college professors, mentors and
advisors are always happy to see me and hear about
my academic progress. I had offered to hold a seminar
to speak to the pre-medical undergraduates about
medical school: the application process, the ups and
downs, the challenges, life as a medical student, my
personal journey, my academic and my private lives,
career outlook, etc.
The weekend before my trip to Buffalo, I sat on my
living room couch working on my presentation. What
do I want to talk about? What do they want to hear?
What will benefit them the most? I thought about a
poster on the living room wall of my classmate that
read “The Journey Is the Reward!” That will be the
title of my talk! I thought this was a good way to think
about medical school. We love what we do. And we
should! That is a good way to survive the highs and
lows in medical school, at least in my opinion. It does
hold some truth too. It has been a rewarding
journey for me thus far. It will be fun to talk to
the pre-meds about all the fun we had in medical school: the mentally and financially stressful
application cycle, choosing Einstein, the first year
boat cruise, the diversity retreat (the highlight of
my first year), the very difficult first month adjusting to medical school course load, my first
experience with a cadaver, late night studying
with friends over Thai food and pizza, my Global
Health trip to Ghana, Step 1 studying (and the
vacation to Montego Bay that followed), third
year experiences, among others. It gives me a
chance to reflect on my experiences whiles
providing an insight into medical school for these
pre-meds.
I have always enjoyed mentoring. As a college
senior applying to medical school, I desperately
wanted a “big brother” in medical school who I
could ask questions, learn from and just look up
to. My advisors and professors were very helpful
but it was nothing like interacting with a student
who was actually “living my dream”.
Continued
Reflections
I want to be the change I desired. Medical school has
given me the opportunity to talk to and mentor premedical students (in both high school and college) on
the path to post-graduate education. It has been
heartwarming visiting high school students in the
Bronx, empowering them and instilling confidence in
them to strive for greatness. Through my college prehealth committee I have been able to reach out to pre
-medical undergraduates who are applying to medical
school and support them through the process. I have
built good relationships with many pre-medical students over the years, most of who go on to medical
school and most of whom I have never met and only
communicate via email.
Mentoring has been a very enjoyable part of my medical school career thus far. I hope to continue reaching
out to the younger ones throughout my career. I want
to be the change I desire. My message to them is simple.
The Journey Is the Reward!
Emmanuel Appiah-Kubi, MS-IV
Class 2016
Reflections
I was born and raised in Michigan. After the
completion of my undergraduate studies at the
University of Michigan, I was presented with the
opportunity to attend Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. Coming to New York for medical
school was a difficult but necessary step in my
life and academic journey.
During the first week of medical school, during
orientation, discussion facilitators asked us all to
write a quick reflective essay. In that essay, I
wrote about how the students, staff and faculty
members at Einstein were so supportive and
how the Bronx felt as if it was a home away
from home. In that reflective piece, I also wrote
about how I was excited to interact with the
people in the Bronx community because I felt as
if they had so much to teach me. That handwritten reflective piece was so important to me
that I kept it. Now as I look back over the last
six months I can analyze my experiences that I
have had so far. The Bronx still feels like a home
away from home.
I have found a good support system through the
Office of Diversity Enhancement and the Office
of Academic Support and Counseling. In addition, I’ve found a family through organizations
such as SNMA and LMSA. I cannot express in
words how thankful I am for those organizations. Ever since arriving at Einstein, the students of SNMA and LMSA have welcomed and
supported me.
The members of these organizations have provided me with great examples of leadership and excellence. Their presence reminds me that although the journey maybe difficult, it is attainable.
They are amazing students and they will be extraordinary physicians.
As I continue to reflect on my experiences over
the last six months, I think about how the people
of the Bronx community have impacted me and I
realize that the people and the patients of the
Bronx community teach me more empathy, humanity, patience, and social justice everyday.
They have made me realize that as future physicians, we initially think we have this idea of what
it means to be a doctor.
Over the last six months, every day hasn’t been
easy. However, medical school is a journey. As I
look down the winding road, which is my journey,
I can’t always see the road as it curves around the
bend, approaching obstacles. However, this is ok,
you’re not supposed to foresee every moment of
your life. The most important thing is realizing
whether or not you have the tools and support
that you need to achieve your goals.
Continued
Reflections
The support that I have from my family back home,
from the offices of Diversity Enhancement and Academic Support and Counseling, and from my fellow
classmates, especially those from SNMA and LMSA,
have given me a strong foundation. I hope as the
new vice president of SNMA that I will be able to
pay it forward to other students.
Carla Anderson, MS-I
Class 2019
ODE’s New Arrivals
Congratulations to Eugene Palatulan, MS-III, and his wife Demetrice Guenevere “Guen” Palatulan on the birth of their daughter Elise Adela Palatulan,
born on June 2, 2015, weighing 7 lbs. and 14 oz.
Congratulations to Adela Aguirre-Alarcon, MS-IV, and her husband Rafael
Emilio Alarcon, Sr., on the birth of their son Rafael Emilio Alarcon, born on
August 29, 2015, weighing 8 lbs, and 20 inches long.
At Einstein, we believe a diverse approach to medical education
better prepares future doctors to meet the needs of a globallyinterdependent world.
ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Office of Diversity Enhancement
1300 Morris Park Avenue, Belfer Building, Room 507
718.430.3091 ph — 718.430.2146 fax
www.einstein.yu.edu/education/diversity