Reede Scholars Live

In this episode, we are joined by Gloria Richard Davis, MD, who is a tenured professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division Director for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility & Executive Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. 

Dr. Richard Davis’ career encompasses clinical, academic and administrative roles across the southwest from Louisiana to Tennessee to Arkansas. She speaks with us about disparities in fibroid management, infertility treatments, maintaining the pipeline and community engagement.

In this episode, we are joined by Jabbar Bennett, Ph.D., Vice President, and Chief Diversity Officer at Michigan State University. 

Dr. Bennett started his career at Harvard in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Partnerships and has since held leadership positions at Brown and Northwestern where he has improved access to the pathway into biomedical sciences and clinical healthcare.  In his new role, he looks forward to addressing health equity and increasing & improving community partnerships in East Lansing, MI.

In this episode, we are joined by Kameron Matthews, MD, JD who currently serves as Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Clinical Services at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

As a family physician and lawyer, she is uniquely trained to understand policies that affect our vulnerable populations, one of them being the veterans of this country.  She speaks with us about her journey to medicine and law, as well as the various opportunities to be a change-maker in the VHA.

In this episode, we are joined by Martha Carvour, MD, Ph.D. a practicing Internal Medicine & Infectious Disease physician, epidemiologist, and researcher at the University of Iowa in Iowa, City.

As a population health specialist, she speaks with us about the challenges to health care in rural America, the importance of access to care, the science behind the Covid-19 vaccine and her hopes for the future.

In this episode, we are joined by Michelle DaCosta, MD, MBA a practicing pediatric and adult anesthesiologist and health equity advocate who participated in the recent Moderna Clinical Trial for the Covid-19 vaccine. 

As a physician, she is astutely aware of the challenges of Covid-19 for vulnerable populations in this country.  She discusses why she decided to participate in the trial, the importance of diversity in clinical trial research and why she encourages us all to receive the vaccine.

In this episode, we are joined by Kimberly Novod, an educator, advocate, doula and the founder of Saul’s Light Foundation.  This Foundation provides comfort and support to those families with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to those who have experienced infant loss. 

As a mother, Ms. Novod knows personally what it is like to navigate the clinical and personal experience of delivering an infant prematurely.  She discusses her journey, how Saul’s Light works with families and the importance of gratitude and grief.

In this episode, we are joined by Kimberly Cauley Narain, an internal medicine physician and health services researcher in Los Angeles, CA.  A California native, Dr. Cauley Narain completed her undergraduate degree from UCLA and her medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine.  She attended UC San Francisco for her residency training before moving to Boston for the California Endowment Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.  She returned to California to matriculate into Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar program before completing her PhD in 2016.

As a mother, Dr. Cauley Narain struggled to have the conversation with her young daughter about the significance of the death of George Floyd and reconciling the significance of the civil rights movement in 2020.  This prompted her new book, The Cycle of a Dream, A Kid’s Introduction to Structural Racism in America.

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Keith Perkins , a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor in Selmer, TN.   A St. Louis native, he completed his undergraduate degree at DuPaul in Chicago, his medical degree at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, and his residency training at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center- Memphis.

Dr. Perkins loves the doctor patient relationship and being able to interact with both children and adults.  His love of primary care led him to rural Tennessee where he can interact with the community inside and outside of the office.

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Arnold Henry, family medicine and sports medicine physician in Indianapolis, IN. A Baltimore native, he completed his undergraduate degree at Morgan State University, his medical degree at Meharry Medical College. He finished his training in Sports Medicine in Indianapolis and has continued to make it his home. Dr. Henry loves family medicine because he is able to interact with the whole family, and sports medicine comes naturally to him because he’s always been an athlete. By combining his two specialties, he is able to help his patients create balance between the physical and mental aspects of normal, daily life.

In this episode, we are joined by Uchenna Umeh, MD, affectionately known as Dr. Lulu, a pediatrician, medical director, and CEO of Dr. Lulu’s Youth Health Center in San Antonio, Texas. She attended Ahmadu Bello University Hospital for medical school in Nigeria and obtained her pediatric residency training at Howard University Hospital Washington D.C.

 In addition to running her own practice, she is a mother of three boys and recently completed a four-year stint in the Air Force as Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Umeh journals her own struggles with intimate partner violence, underscores the complexities of suicide and the unique factors in the pediatric populations and challenges us to be supportive of those in need of help and to be kind to ourselves when the stakes are high.