Hey everybody!
I know it's been a while since you've heard from me. I hope all of you are doing well.
How am I? I'm good, actually. The BHE and I celebrated our 17th year of marriage and both of those little boys that y'all remember so well will be in high school next year. High school, y'all!
I'm still at Grady and loving it. Oh! I got promoted to full professor in 2019. That was a huge deal for me as an academic physician. It's weird--getting promoted to the next rung on the academic ladder is always the goal. When I got that letter, I didn't really know what to do with myself.
Ha.
But let me share another reason why I was so pumped about it: Did you know that, as of 2019, there were 38,975 individuals who've achieved the rank of full professor at US medical schools? Guess how many of those 38,975 are Black women?
*waits while you guess*
307. Yup. You read that right. 307, chile. That's less than 1%!
I am proud to say that number includes me. And I am even more determined than ever to help keep those underrepresented in medicine in the academic pipeline and increasing these numbers.
Heck yeah.
Let's see. What else?
Where have I been writing? Hmmm. These days mostly on Twitter. I'm at @gradydoctor there and have taken to telling stories through threaded tweets. It's been pretty fun to do. I still do some writing for journals and such.
Here's something I published in The Lancet. I was pretty proud of it. I was especially proud to talk about my alma mater, Tuskegee. It's super frustrating to hear people equate our beautiful legacy to the awful untreated syphilis study that occurred in the area. I'm glad it got accepted for publication.
Hmmm. What else?
Let's see. The pandemic hasn't been a cakewalk. I mean, fortunately, my family has been okay from a health perspective. But the juggle of school in the time of COVID with my professional responsibilities has been rough. I can't say that the school part has been my favorite. I'm hoping we can ease into some normalcy next year on that front.
Sigh.
I'm still teaching students. Can you believe I'm about to be on my 8th small group? Yup. Small Group Theta is coming this July. Here are a few of my current babies from SG Eta. Small Groups Alpha, Beta, and Gamma are all done with training and bona fide in their fields. SGs Delta and Epsilon are trucking through residency and nearing the end of their training. Zeta just graduated and are all starting internships this week.
Nuts.
I've been going pretty hard on community outreach and education around COVID. I guess when you see so much awful from it, it hits different, man.
Yeah.
Oh! And one last thing. . .
A few weeks ago, a colleague and I started a podcast. Only about 4 weeks into it being live but it's been a really fun experience. If you are a podcast listening type, you can find it on Apple, Spotify, and Google Play.
Yup.
That's ALL? Woman, you are still rocking the world. Golly we've missed you. But here you are, busy, well, a full professor, boys in high school, a podcast, article (great article) in The Lancet and new hair! Which is gorgeous. You are gorgeous. You're amazing. And it sure is good to see your face.
ReplyDeleteHello, hello.
Would it be possible to put a link in to the Lancet article? I can increase the size of the jpeg, but then I can't see the bottom half of the screen. It's nice to see a post - I follow you on twitter, your long threads are always excellent.
ReplyDeleteI've not read long, but I am committed. Hooray for you, rising in the profession.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I found you on Twitter, but oh, it's good to see you here, too, radiating light, as you do. Pictures of your beautiful men, please? How fast it all goes.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to know you are well and thriving (can I say that) in these times in the life of. Can't wait to tune in on the Podcast, just might do that tonight while chilling before bed. Be well - I love your hairstyle too!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how you find the energy but I'm glad you do. As always, it's so nice to read your writing.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see your post, and to read your good news! And I agree with Ms. Moon— that’s ALL?!
ReplyDeleteHey Dr. Manning! I'm a former OT at Grady. I'm now at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. I was just talking over dinner with my in-laws who are visiting from Atlanta. I brought up your name as a doctor I respected so much during my time there. I was telling the story of overhearing your discussion with your med students during rounds one morning. I remember you asking your group about what they knew about the patient. One student replied with the typical stuff, blood values, etc. You said, what about her though. What do you know about this person? Did you see the ring on her hand? Did you notice her clothes, her accent? You asked again, what do you know about this person? Your students were silent. You could see the wheels turning, though. It reiterated the fact that patients are people first, and no amount of doctoring or medicine will make a difference without the connection to a person. Thanks for all you do to open the eyes and minds of future physicians.
ReplyDelete