Faculty from the Department of Radiology recently attended the Career & Residency Fair at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. A historically black academic health institution, Meharry is one of the oldest and largest educators of minority physicians in the country.
Radiology Residency Program director Edwin Donnelly, M.D., Ph.D., as well as Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion leadership and radiology faculty Stephanie Spottswood, M.D., MSPH, and Andrea Birch, M.D., met with first-, second- and third-year Meharry medical students to promote the diagnostic and interventional radiology residency programs, and to highlight additional research opportunities at Vanderbilt.
“There was great interest from students in all three classes, and we are very excited about the prospect of potentially having more Meharry graduates in our program in the future,” said Dr. Donnelly.
As part of the department’s ongoing diversity initiatives, Drs. Donnelly, Spottswood and Birch have actively participated in engaging and recruiting underrepresented minority populations for the residency program. They have given lectures and mentorship to Meharry students and have provided shadowing opportunities and rotations on the Radiology clerkship at Vanderbilt.
“Our goal is to attract talented minority medical students to our residency program, and to increase the diversity of our class of trainees,” added Dr. Spottswood.
Several members from the department, including second-year diagnostic radiology resident Drs. Brittany Burns and Eleby Washington and faculty Drs. Chirayu Shah, Laveil Allen, Nam Le and Birch, earned their degrees from Meharry.
Dean of Meharry Medical College, Dr. Veronica Mallett (left), pictured with Vanderbilt Radiology faculty Drs. Donnelly and Birch
Dr. Birch discusses Vanderbilt Radiology with Meharry Medical students at the Meharry Career & Residency Fair
