For nearly two decades, putting students of color in Los Angeles on a path to medical and health professions has taken a village—a legion of teachers, tutors and mentors as well as deep-pocketed donors and parents eager to propel their children further in life than they’ve ever been.
It has also taken the devotion of an individual who’s determined to immerse Black and Hispanic students in STEM and the belief that “they can do anything.”
Since spearheading the Saturday Science Academy II in 2000, this has been her way of expanding her students’ world and equipping them for a journey that could lead to medical school and beyond. But these days, Lorraine Grey, director of the Saturday Science Academy II (SSAII), based at the historically Black Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, talks almost as much about being “ready to retire and pass the baton” as she does about ensuring that her students of color, no matter how young, know that a career in medicine is possible.
Nearly 20 years ago, when Grey, a former nurse, was tapped to run SSAII, it wasn’t long before this urgent call went out to the nation’s medical schools: they need to “bridge the appalling diversity gap that separates medicine from the society it professes to serve.”
It wasn’t just a call for equal access to the profession—it was a call to improve public health. Studies were clearly showing that diversity among physicians meant better health for patients of color, better access for the poor and underserved, and more.
But even as the long-running SSAII thrives and newer pipeline programs such as MedAchieve at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine spring up to help move the needle on diversity in the physician pipeline, U.S. medical school classes are only slightly more racially and ethnically diverse than they were in 1997, according to new findings from a team of University of Michigan Medical School researchers who have studied these issues.
At about 12 percent, Black, Native American and Hispanic students are underrepresented in the nation’s medical schools. But long before they apply for medical school admissions, most face a steep climb, says Grey.
