SOM Pride: Building community through visibility
Students and residents reflect on how openly identifying as LGBTQIA+ has shaped their careers and experiences at the VCU School of Medicine.
Liam Guenther, M.D., a resident in the Department of Psychiatry, came out as transgender early in his training. (Photo by DeAudrea 'Sha' Aguado, VCU School of Medicine)
Gerald Coronado
Medical Student
He/Him/His and They/Them/Theirs
Why was it important to you to add your name to the OUTlist? Did you have any reservations about doing so?
Going into a new program and a new school, it can be difficult to assess how welcome I might be in any and all aspects of my personality and self. I think as a member of what may often be an invisible identity, it was important for me to add visibility and representation. There were some hesitations about having my image and contact information made so public, but I decided that it was outweighed by the good that it could do for others who needed it.
Do you have LGBTQIA+ mentors or role models in your field? How has the visibility (or lack thereof) of LGBTQIA+ people in your field impacted your education and training experience?
Prior to enrolling [at VCU], I had found myself a few out mentors who became the people to whom I asked most of my questions regarding designing my Step-dedicated study period, shaping my schedule and how to prepare for residency applications while deliberating over my future career aspiration. They have become my go-to people for questions.
What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about practicing medicine?
I have the privilege of caring for people who may have had negative experiences in the past, and I have the opportunity to help make amends for past wrongs. I think one of the most challenging part of the practice of medicine is being able to recognize and address systemic and institutional barriers to health equity.
Sam Wickman, M.D.
Resident, Department of Internal Medicine
She/Her/Hers
How would you describe your experience as an open member of the LGBTQIA+ community at VCU?
My experience has been mostly positive. When my identity comes up in conversations with colleagues, the vast majority are supportive (or at least neutral). I have unfortunately still heard negative or insensitive comments about LGBTQIA+ folks. I'm grateful to feel confident enough to speak out against these comments when they occur, even if it's just to the other residents and students around me.
Why was it important to you to add your name to the OUTlist? Did you have any reservations about doing so?
I wanted my name on the OUTlist for personal reasons and as a resource for the VCU community. Personally, it took me a long time to realize I was bisexual, and it is not a very visible part of my life otherwise, so being on the OUTlist is one way to publicly acknowledge this part of myself. It's also one way I wanted to honor all the LGBTQIA+ people before me who made it possible to be out publicly. And in general, I wanted anyone looking at the OUTlist to know that there are LGBTQIA+ residents here in many departments.
I remember looking at the OUTlist for the first time and being happy to see some attendings' names on there. I think just knowing they are here and open about their identities makes me feel more confident about being open and about speaking up when I need to.
What do you hope to see, both at VCU and in your field, in terms of accepting and supporting people with diverse backgrounds?
For residents specifically, I think there's a need for more education on how to make health care accessible and inclusive for those within the LGBTQIA+ community. For VCU and internal medicine more generally, I hope to see diversity celebrated and valued in all roles because I know that my patients get better care when my team has people with different experiences and identities.
Martina Hernandez
Ph.D. Student, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
She/Her/Hers and They/Them/Theirs
How would you describe your experience as an open member of the LGBTQIA+ community at VCU?
I completed my undergraduate degree at VCU from 2014 to 2017 and started my doctoral program in 2017. However, I was not out to anyone until August 2019. It was because of my fellow students at VCU that made me feel comfortable enough to share my authentic self.
Why was it important to add your name to the OUTlist? Did you have any reservations about doing so?
Scientists have been portrayed to only be interested in the pursuit of science. The stereotype and culture that plays into that can remove a scientist's humanity. Whom we choose to love or be in a relationship with, or even who we are, comes up in casual conversations when we discuss our day-to-day lives with classmates, mentors and other staff we meet along our professional journey. I had not met any students who were out in my program, and I did not know of any faculty either, until 2019. Since I did not know there were other LGBTQIA+ scientists, the initiative of the OUTlist sparked hope and a sense of community. I was hesitant because I feared the bias could impact my further career development.
Amélie Foumena Nkodo
Medical Student
She/Her/Hers and They/Them/Theirs
Do you have LGBTQIA+ mentors or role models in your field? How has the visibility (or lack thereof) of LGBTQIA+ people in your field impacted your education and training experience?
I have received mentorship from several faculty members who identify with the LGBTQIA+ community during my undergraduate studies and into the present. I am inquisitive and analytical by nature, so a career in research is my goal. Unfortunately, academia can be conservative, and I have not always found acceptance in research environments. Guidance from supportive mentors has shaped my research to focus on areas of medicine that are welcoming to individuals ‘othered’ in academic spaces. For me, this has translated into an interest in community-oriented primary care and geriatric medicine.
What do you hope to see, both at VCU and in your field, in terms of accepting and supporting people with diverse backgrounds?
Health inequities are often presented as mutually exclusive issues: one lecture on LGBTQIA+ health, social determinants of health, and another on elder abuse. For example, in practice, our patients exist within overlapping identities and experience health care through this lens. My hope is that the VCU School of Medicine and the field of primary care will work towards conceptual frameworks that recognize the complexity of the human experience. An understanding of the intersectional nature of social identities is useful for developing models of care delivery that address the root causes of health disparities.
Liam Guenther, M.D.
Resident, Department of Psychiatry
He/Him/His
How would you describe your experience as an open member of the LGBTQIA+ community at VCU?
My experience as an out member of the LGBTQIA+ community at VCU has been fantastic. I struggled with my gender identity for a long time and came out as transgender at VCU, beginning my transition almost a year into residency. People in other departments have made me feel very supported – from the senior students I have worked with sending me kind messages to my own providers through VCU taking the extra time to seek out quality hormone replacement therapy providers in the area when I needed help. Within my own department of psychiatry, my co-residents have been like a second family to me, and without their support, I know this transition would be a lot more difficult.
Why was it important to you to add your name to the OUTlist? Did you have any reservations about doing so?
It was important for me to add my name to the OUTlist to increase the representation of transgender providers in the health care field. I also wanted to create an avenue for people to reach out to me, should they be going through the same thing I went through, to help build a community here at VCU. I did not have any reservations because of the overwhelming support from my co-residents.
What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about practicing psychiatry?
The most rewarding thing about my specialty is working with stigmatized populations and using my own experience to empathize with my patients. The most challenging thing is the emotional toll it takes to listen to the stories of my patients and the challenges they have gone through, especially when it comes to the overwhelming amount of trauma most of my patients have endured.
Dawn Jessup
Ph.D. Student, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
They/Them/Theirs
How would you describe your experience as an open member of the LGBTQIA+ community at VCU?
Very positive and extremely supportive. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a graduate mentor that is highly invested in diversity and inclusion. Hamid Akbarali, Ph.D., has always been completely encouraging and supportive of my identity and has shown genuine interest in my well-being. Our lab team is made up of many students and postdocs that come from a variety of backgrounds, so I never felt like I wasn’t completely free and encouraged to express myself, thanks to my mentor and colleagues.
What do you hope to see, both at VCU and in your field, in terms of accepting and supporting people with diverse backgrounds?
The first thing that comes to mind that I always love to see is the more established professors, scientists and clinicians creating space for LGBTQIA+ voices to share their experiences and be celebrated. I think putting the spotlight on those students and faculty will help others see themselves in similarly successful careers. It’s absolutely essential that we as a university and medical campus continue to champion for better LGBTQIA+ representation in our student body and health care at large.
I’d also really like to see more chances for people to have open discussions about their curiosities and questions around pronouns and gender identity. I think we do a great job at VCU of showing overwhelming acceptance and encouragement, and I think it would help demystify the gender identity spectrum for those students and faculty who just aren’t aware of what it’s all about.