Lynne Holden, MD, was an emergency medicine physician at the hospital affiliated with Albert Einstein Medical School in 1997, serving on medical school committees and fielding other responsibilities — and a rare example of a black woman in medicine. She was also pregnant with her first daughter. After giving birth, she developed life-threatening cardiomyopathy that led to heart failure and a nine-month recovery. She felt “knocked to her knees,” she recalled.
As Holden struggled with the sudden transition from a busy career to barely being able to walk across a room, she wondered if she would be able to practice medicine again. It was then that the accomplished entrepreneur Andrew Morrison approached her with a project to work on as she regained strength. So many young people want to become health professionals or scientists, he said, but they don’t know where to begin. How about starting a nonprofit to educate and inspire them?
Holden didn’t think there would be any interest, but she was wrong. A kick-off event held at the Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem attracted 400 people, with coverage in The New York Times. Ultimately Holden and Morrison founded Mentoring in Medicine, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit with programs for students from middle schoolers to postgraduates in New York City.
Today, Mentoring in Medicine’s reach extends to preschoolers and internationally. More than 80,000 students, parents and educators have participated in its programs or events, more than 550 mentored students have gained acceptance into medical school and another 500 have pursued health careers.
Now Professor of Emergency Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Holden also is the President Emeritus of Mentoring in Medicine. Morrison, founder of Small Business Camp, serves as President and CEO of Mentoring in Medicine.
Numbers alone are not the only measure of the organization’s achievements. At a time when many organizations have similar goals to increase diversity in the healthcare workforce and address health disparities, Cure talked with Holden and Morrison about the working philosophy and strategies that launched Mentoring in Medicine and have sustained its success.
Build relationships.
“A lot of our funding has been through relationships,” said Holden. An introduction to WellMet, a women-led giving circle that provides grants to New York City nonprofits, led to one of Mentoring in Medicine’s first grants.
“Since then, I’ve been able to find like-minded grant-writing partners and find other ways to fund it,” noted Holden, who also meets people through boards and other activities. “It’s all based on relationships.”
Welcome everyone.
“We work with young students regardless of their academic performance,” said Morrison. “All of our students have been told ‘no.’ Every single student has been told by someone in authority ‘you’ll never be a doctor,’ and they have been able to fight against those odds. We recognize that brilliance is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t everywhere.”
The power of word-of-mouth.
“We don’t actively market,” said Holden, although Mentoring in Medicine does work with schools. “It’s a lot of word of mouth.”
For example, someone at her church heard about it and passed on the information to the mother of a boy who enrolled. Or one sibling will tell another, and a family gets involved.
Role models and volunteers.
Mentors follow students throughout their school years. As the program has grown, so has the pool of volunteers. By now, “our secret weapon is a very strong core group of pre-health students, college students and grad students,” said Morrison. “They also build their resume by working with us.”
In addition, Mentoring in Medicine makes it easy for time-strapped working scientists and physicians to donate an hour or two to mentoring.
Open doors.
Students from disadvantaged communities rarely have access to the physical spaces where science gets done. For several years NIH headquarters near Washington, D.C. has opened its doors to Mentoring in Medicine.
“We invite students from local schools, and scientists come down with hands-on interactive activities,” said Morrison. “The students are able to make connections — and if they can see it, they can be it.” At another event, first-year medical students from Albert Einstein Medical College recently had the opportunity to visit Cure’s facilities in midtown New York City.
What does the future hold for Mentoring in Medicine? Among the challenges Morrison sees students facing is housing. One idea would be a “Mentoring in Medicine Mansion,” where students can study, live and work. “Many of our international students have a hard time getting student loans,” he adds. Starting a student loan organization to help them is another project.
In the long term, Morrison has further career ambitions for his students. He tells the mentees who are now physicians that he is tired of producing doctors. Next, he said, “I want to produce someone who becomes CEO of a hospital system.”