Melanie F. Molina, MD

I am currently a fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program (NSCP)—a program that trains clinicians as change agents to drive policy-relevant research, cultivate health equity, and eliminate health disparities. Prior to fellowship, I earned a bachelor of science and a bachelor of arts at the University of Texas at Austin, a doctor of medicine from Harvard Medical School, and completed residency at the four-year Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency. As a queer Latina woman in medicine, I have witnessed firsthand the ways in which the experience of the underrepresented minority (URM) physician differs from that of their non-URM counterpart. My personal experiences as well as those of my colleagues have inspired my work advancing DEI. As a junior resident, I wrote a perspective piece highlighting microaggressions in medicine, their impact, and how they could be addressed. The article, 'Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Microaggressions in Medicine,' was published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, featured in the New York Times, won the 2021 AWAEM Outstanding Research Publication Award, and led to multiple national (ACEP, Kaiser, Columbia) and international (Alberta Health Services, Calgary Department of Emergency Medicine) presentations--enabling me to raise tremendous awareness of these issues. Locally, as co-chair of the Social Emergency Medicine Interest Academy during residency, I developed a longitudinal health equity curriculum for the residency, which consisted of didactics, journal clubs, and a 3-hour residency retreat focused on racism, implicit bias, and microaggressions. The didactics spanned topics from immigrant health to ageism to intersectionality. At the hospital and institutional level, I lent a voice to the needs and concerns of URM residents and staff as a representative on Harvard Medical School’s LGBTQ Dean’s Advisory Committee, the Brigham and Women’s ED Health Equity Committee, and the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Minority Affairs Section.