2. Dr. Yolanda Lawson Calls for a Pivot to Mentorship & Highlights the Need for More Mentors, Networks & Collaborations.

The supreme court opinion on affirmative action over a year ago brought challenges to pipelines and pathways programs. During that time additional legislation has also closed offices of DEI. Outgoing NMA President Dr. Yolanda Lawson discusses the implications of a changed environment during a discussion at the NMA 2024 Convention and Scientific Assembly with Dr. Randall Morgan, President and CEO of the Montague Cobb Institute. 

Together they highlight the urgent need to place greater emphasis on mentorship, linking this to outcomes, and to refining the value proposition for building a diverse workforce providing racially concordant care. During the discussion Dr. Lawson calls for a major pivot to mentorship, and highlights the need for more NMA members to become mentors. Dr. Lawson describes her efforts as NMA President to establish a formal mentorship network, and to initiate local mentorship collaborations between NMA State and local societies and educational institutions.  

Dr. Yolanda Lawson, MD, FACOG, is a Doctor of Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She was previously the founder and leader of MadeWell Obstetrics and Gynecology in Dallas, Texas, and an Associate Attending Physician at Baylor University Medical Center.  Dr. Lawson is deeply committed to the issue of health disparities of Black women and common issues faced by Black physicians. She addresses maternal health, cardiovascular issues, and HIV/AIDS. Her focus also includes the study of how to use digital innovation to close the gap in healthcare disparities faced by Black people, and the impact of health care in the workforce of Black physicians, including racism and burnout. 

In addition to her Presidency of NMA in the past 12 months, Dr. Lawson recently became Executive Medical Director of Maternal Infant Health at the Health Care Service Corporation, an organization that is dedicated to improving access to care and targeting social and economic factors that influence health. 

Excerpts

“Affirmative action was in place and we still were not able to achieve our goals of racially concordant care and having enough Black physicians to take care of the population in this country, even with affirmative action.” 

“One of the things we have been talking about this past year is creating a formalized national mentoring network.” 

“Many students have an expectation that mentors need to be reaching out to them. You need to assert yourself as a mentee - that is a very important nuance for all individuals to understand.”

“With legislators, when you talk about workforce, that engages others…the hospital lobby, industry, pharmaceuticals, the pharmacist, it engages nursing, it engages the heart of the engine. Everyone is interested in the outcomes piece because there is a cost to that.”

“What is the value proposition for me or for them to make investments to reduce these disparities? That piece has to be refined, that is the whole point.”  

Timeline

0:00 Excerpts

2:00 Introductions

4:00 Talking points for the NMA/Cobb Annual Symposium: “Then and Now, Navigating Best in Class Mentoring Innovation. 

6:00 Importance of mentorship at all stages of career development. National mentorship network. How to select, train and support mentors. 

8:30 Expanding the public health workforce and integration with HBCUs. Inviting public health students interested in health disparities to get involved with NMA. Structured opportunities for mentorship. 

10:00 Insights from Cobb Scholars program: many scholars but a shortage of mentors. Call for more NMA members to become mentors. Opportunity to work with the sections of NMA and invite them to put forward mentors to create a network of mentors. 

12:00 Importance of being assertive and proactive as a mentee, the need to ask directly for mentorship instead of waiting for busy people to reach out. 

14:00 Opportunity to encourage SNMA members to partner with the state and local societies of the NMA to establish local mentoring relationships. 

16:00 Concerns about the reduction in the public health workforce since COVID, CDC and other organizations responses. 

18:00 Sometimes students do not get into medical school. Studying public health as an alternative path. Thinking about healthcare careers broadly. 

20:00 Educational institutions are seeking partnerships at the local level to enable diverse workforce development through partnerships with organizations such as NMA. Collaborations to enable these partnerships. 

22:00 Since the affirmative action opinion, has a consensus emerged for more effective ways that organizations and educational institutions can increase the numbers of underrepresented populations? Impact of legislation on DEI in Texas. Developing offices of Inclusion and Belonging to replace DEI. 

24:00 Building consensus across multiple organizations to create an advocacy block. Concerns about medical education debt as a barrier to healthcare careers. 

26:00 What messages resonate with legislators around workforce diversity? The value proposition and ROI for workforce diversity development and disparities reduction. The power of the business case. 

30:00 Remembering Dr. Montague Cobb and how his approach inspires current thinking. The importance of the Civil Rights Act 1964, ending hospital and medical segregation. Dr. Cobb's writing on the Civil Rights act in the JNMA and expectations for impact on healthcare. How Dr. Cobb led with equity, civil rights, and how current students may not understand the importance of this history. 

34:00 Dr. Morgan remembers being an anatomy student of Dr. Cobb in 1965, and not realizing until years later that Dr. Cobb was a pivotal figure in NMA and other organizations. How President Joe Biden was inspired by the Civil Rights Act and his friendship with Dr. Richard Allen Williams to enter politics. 

38:00 Closing remarks.