July 30, 2024
Greetings to everyone at the start of yet another academic year! Our newsletter celebrates many conclusions and beginnings: graduations, degree conferrals, matriculation of a new cohort of summer program participants, and the welcoming of our newest class of MD/PhD students. Such milestones always inspire reflection, this year perhaps more than most for me, as it also marks the completion of ten years of serving as Yale’s program director.
This May, our program submitted its first MSTP renewal after receiving one of the “new” MSTP awards in 2020, which supported years 46-50 of NIH-funded MD/PhD training at Yale! Preparing and reviewing data about recruitment, training and outcomes made it clear that the program and its students continue to change. In academic year 2013-14, the program had a total of 104 students: 46% were women, 8% were socioeconomically disadvantaged, 8% identified as belonging to groups underrepresented in medicine. Fast-forward ten years, after a commitment from former dean Bob Alpern to increase the size of the incoming MD/PhD class and a re-thinking of our processes of outreach, holistic review and recruitment: our program looks different. 53% of the 154 students we trained in AY 2023-24 were women, 27% were underrepresented, 29% identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, and 18% were supported by accommodations for a chronic illness or disability. Each of these students accomplishes amazing things in the lab, clinic and community – embodying what our current dean, Nancy Brown, calls “inclusive excellence”.
The material and intangible joys of being a physician-scientist – the privilege of working on something that we believe matters and makes a difference; the engagement with discovery research, teaching, clinical care and mentoring – balance a training path that is long (and at times seemingly endless) and a career that is composed of struggles and setbacks as well as progress and satisfaction. Our job is to have our students’ backs as they embark on this path, providing them with the training, resources, confidence and support to stay true to this career. I thank the alumni reading this for being part of that support system: your generous gifts of mentorship, advice, community and dollars help many students navigate the challenges of training and find their best career and life.
I’m not sure who will be writing this director’s letter ten years from now – but I want the program that they lead and the students that it trains to remain the embodiment of inclusive excellence. To make this happen, we have set a goal of fundraising to support our students in times of critical financial need, when an unforeseen expense can’t be met by a family gift or loan. Donations to our existing alumni fund can therefore be directed specifically to support students in need or earmarked for subsidizing student conference participation (the main use of these funds currently). If you find yourself in a position where you can pay it forward in this way, thank you.
With best wishes to all,
Dr. K.
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Barbara Kazmierczak, MD PhD
Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation MD-PhD Program Director
Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and of Microbial Pathogenesis