Our mission is to support and advance the lifelong pursuit of anti-racism, equity, and racial justice across the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Anti-racism Student Fellows will work closely with Icahn Mount Sinai leaders across all functional areas of the School of Medicine and the Graduate School, and report directly to the Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education. Fellows will serve as an invaluable capacity-building resource for school and institution-wide anti-racism initiatives.
“It is such an inspiration to welcome this year’s cohort of Fellows, especially as we transition from the Center for Anti-Racism in Practice to a new Institute that is wholly dedicated to addressing racism and bias in health professions education. Our national and professional landscape has become much more complex, with new barriers and challenges to this work emerging with worrisome regularity. It is comforting to know that the passion and determination among our students has not waned, and that they stand ready to strengthen and reinforce our efforts for the coming year.”
—David Muller, MD, Director, Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education
Meet the Medical Education Fellows
Carina Seah
MD/PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“Creatively implementing our bioessentialism curriculum into the medical and graduate school, and watching learners digest and build instincts to performing better research.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“Teleportation. Five minutes between meetings? I can say hi to my mom in Oakland, or my dad in Vietnam. Being able to feed my soul with my loved ones is the key to longevity in this line of work!”
Jerrel Catlett
MD/PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I’m most looking forward to helping our institution integrate anti-racist praxis into the preclinical curriculum in a way that feels worthwhile to students and complements our growing medical knowledge.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“Definitely super-speed. The ability to zoom through labyrinthine hospital floors, do mundane administrative tasks quickly, and dramatically shorten my commute would hopefully allow me much more time to connect personally with my future patients and spend more quality time with my family after work.”
Tracy Okine
MD/PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am very honored to be selected as an RBI fellow this year, having learned so much in the past 2 years from engaging with the fellowship and students. With all the lessons, highs and lows in mind, I am looking forward to continuing to learn from all the wonderful people involved in this work, especially my direct mentor, while contributing my perspective and skills to providing solutions.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have any superpower in my future career, it would be the ability to heal anything! I have learnt a lot by engaging in the preclinical course work, and now in my PhD I’m enjoying the wonder and opportunity of basic science research. It’s been very inspiring to see how medicine has changed over centuries, and how things that we once found very confusing, become easier to solve. However, there is still so much discovery to be made, and so much discovery to translate to actual solutions. So in the meantime, I would want to be able to heal anything -disease, injury, affliction, concern- as my superpower.”
Hope Lefebvre
MD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am looking forward to collaborating with and learning from the anti-racism in medical education team! I am excited that the results of this project will have direct impacts on equity at Icahn SOM and for our class.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“My superpower would be to freeze or add time in any day. I would have more time to help patients, commit to interesting projects, and spend with friends and family.”
Francesca Silvestri
MD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am most looking forward to working and connecting with other institutions through the ART in Med Ed project. It is an exciting and novel opportunity to pilot our work through RBI to other institutions and learn about how anti-racist medical education exists and lives at other institutions.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“I am applying into Emergency Medicine, so I would want my super power to be mind reading. I think it would help me clinically and in life in general!”
Tsion Tmariam
MD/PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am looking forward to working with our admissions team to connect with undergraduate pre-health affinity groups and bridge the gap between pre-med URiM students and medicine as a whole. I hope to solidify the relationships we build throughout the year, and ensure their sustainability as our institution continues to grow.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have a superpower, it would be the power to understand and speak all of the languages of the world. This would provide me the ability to care for patients from all backgrounds and walks of life. Furthermore it would improve my cultural competency and knowledge, allowing me to understand my patients and their needs on a deeper level.”
Rachel Kasdin
MD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am most looking forward to being a member of the Anti-Racist Transformation in Medical Education Team to continue the exciting work that we began last year, especially in organizing the Challenging Norms conference. Being an ART in MedEd Fellow allows me to learn from ISMMS’s existing anti-racist practices, push the institution further towards these values and, most importantly, share what we have learned thus far with peer institutions in the United States and Canada.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have a superpower, it would be being able to learn any language I wanted very quickly! It would be great to be able to interact with patients in their own languages to connect more deeply and care for them more effectively.”
Wayland Chiu
MD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am looking forward to continuing to work with Rachel Kasdin, Chloe Martin, as well as Drs. Muller and Hess, as well as working alongside our newest team member – Francesca Silvestri! We will be continuing to establish a strong community of practice among students from the various schools in the ART in Med Ed cohort, examine the ways in which the ART in Med Ed initiative has helped other institutions integrate anti-racist practices into their curriculum, and potentially host another conference next year to highlight the amazing work people are doing across the country to implement anti-racism in medical education!”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have one superpower to help my future career, it would be the ability to slow down time within an area around me. Time is so valuable because it is a resource we can never get more of, and because it is limited we never achieve everything we want or need to do. With the ability to slow down time around me, I could achieve more and do the things I often have to sacrifice for the sake of time, like reading, exercising, meditating, and other personal things. It would also be useful in my future career as a physician, because by slowing time in the exam room, I could spend more time with patients and not rush through their visit because I have other patients to see.”
Jennifer Dias
MD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“Now with four years of medical school under my belt, I am eager to pass on my learnings and experiences to the next generation of medical students. I view mentorship as a crucial aspect of education, and I am excited to guide and support fellow students in their transformational change work.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“Microscopic vision, to operate on children with delicately complex anatomy.”
Spencer Johnson
MD/PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I’m most looking forward to working with / learning from others at the Institute, and getting a chance to apply some of what I’ve learned about health equity in real time.”
Meet the Graduate Education Fellows
KG Montes
PREP-Y2
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I’m looking forward to working directly with faculty to implement anti-racist changes at Sinai and to learning how to further elevate marginalized voices in STEM. ”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have a superpower to help me in my future career, I would choose to be fluent in all languages/forms of communication, including ASL. That way, I could effectively communicate with marginalized groups and properly represent their needs to administration.”
Taelor Matos
NIH-PREP
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am most looking forward to working with the senior leadership to meaningfully expand and deepen mentorship opportunities for trainees under the transformational change strategy.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“If I could have a superpower to help me in my future career, it would be the ability to learn new skills within minutes!”
Dania Figueroa Acosta,
PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am most looking forward to working with a group of individuals, both staff and students who are as passionate about building an antiracist learning environment and incorporating social justice into STEM.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“I would love to read minds, it would certainly help in understanding people’s interests and motivations as I work to educate and advocate for resources for marginalized populations.”
Kayla Townsley
PhD Candidate
What are you looking forward to most about your project?
“I am excited to contribute to a new educational imperative within the biomedical sciences; one that is anti-racist in practice, fully considering the intersections of racism, sexism, and ableism, and transforms the ways that we as scientists ask questions.”
If you could have a superpower to help you in your future career, what would it be and why?
“I would want the ability to get a perfect night’s rest every night – I think everyone can relate to that on some level.”
The Anti-racism Student Fellowship could not be possible without the leadership of Medical Education and Graduate Education, The Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education, our project administrators across the School, and the advocacy and dedication of our students. The Fellowship ensures that students who participate in anti-racism efforts have an opportunity to be compensated for their work, and to be directly mentored by antiracism thought leaders at Icahn Mount Sinai.
Please join us in congratulating and welcoming our new cohort of Fellows as they commence their Fellowship and take on a vital role at our school. If you have any questions about the Anti-racism student fellowship, please email jay.johnson@mssm.edu. You can learn additional details about this year’s fellowship projects here.