2023 Department of Pediatrics Academic Annual Report

Education: Pediatric Scholars Programs

SCHOLARS PROGRAMS 2023-2024

The UAB Pediatric Residency Program offers four scholars programs to provide residents the opportunity to gain experience in the target areas of medical education, health disparities, global health, and underserved and rural health.

HEALTH EQUITY SCHOLARS PROGRAM The aim of the Health Equity Scholars Program is to train pediatric and combined pediatric residents to lead advances in child health equity through a three-year longitudinal and experiential curriculum. The program was developed in 2021 by Drs. Chrystal Rutledge, Morissa Ladinsky and Madhura Hallman. In June 2023, the completion of the second year of the program was celebrated with a graduation ceremony at the Historic Ballard House, where guest speaker and author Lisa McNair discussed her book Dear Denise: Letters to the Sister I Never Knew. Lisa McNair’s sister, Denise, was one of the four girls murdered in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. The scholars also had the opportunity to participate in two immersive experiences. In March 2023, scholars traveled to North Alabama to learn about health disparities and inequities in that region. They spoke with pediatricians at Fort Payne Pediatrics to learn the great work the practice is doing to improve mental health access to children in the area. They traveled to Gadsden and toured the Quality of Life Health Complex, the largest system of federally qualified community health centers in the state of Alabama. Scholars learned more about the initiatives they have put forth to improve access to health for patients in North Alabama and throughout the state, including the development mobile clinics. In September 2023, the scholars had the opportunity to travel throughout the Alabama Black Belt and to prominent places pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s to explore the historical context of health disparities and inequities within Alabama. They visited The Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. They spoke with Dallas County District Judge Vernetta Perkins and Ainka Jackson, executive director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation, community leader Frank Hardy and middle school students in Selma. They met State Senator Billy Beasley and Dr. Deanah Maxwell Stafford (UAB School of Medicine alumna) in Tuskegee and also discussed the origins of medical mistrust by learning more about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study with bioethicist Dr. Stephen Sodeke and the lesser-known contributions Tuskegee University had to the medical field by historian Dr. Dana Chandler. They also met with local healthcare workers in Camden (Wilcox County) and learned more about Gee’s Bend. Along with the immersive experiences, scholars participated in monthly two-hour didactic sessions on a variety of health equity related topics, including the impact of environmental racism on health, health disparities in the LGBTQIA community and implicit biases associated with caring for children with medical complexity. Funding to support this program has been provided by the Carlo family.

PGY-1 Jessica Corners

PGY-1 Harshadayani Jagadish Kumar

PGY-1 Stephanie Smith

PGY-2 Renita Daniels

2023 Academic Annual Report

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