Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, October 30, 2020
In this Issue:

Director's Corner
  • Adina Kalet, MD, MPH: Physicians Have Many Civic Duties and Voting is One of Them

Perspectives/Opinions
  • Christopher Davis, MD, MPH: Advocating for Safe Voting in Milwaukee – It’s Tough Sledding Out There
  • Libby Ellinas, MD: Defining Recognition
  • Morgan Lockhart: Shedding Light on Indigenous People of the Bemidji Area: A Cherokee Nation M2 Perspective

Poetry Corner
  • Mary Oliver: When Death Comes

Your Turn
  • See how readers answered last week's prompt: What's your favorite Halloween costume?
  • Respond to this week's prompt: What do you love most about your pet?
  • Respond to this week's character question: What are you hopeful for this week?

Announcements & Resources
  • Register for the Kern Institute's Upcoming Virtual Events
  • Kern National Network Connections Newsletter - October 2020
Director's Corner
Physicians Have Many Civic Duties and Voting is One of Them

by Adina Kalet, MD, MPH

This week Dr. Kalet explores why physicians have a stake in the enfranchisement of our patients and, despite being very busy people, must vote …


My dear friends, your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.
- US Representative John Lewis

Did you know that physicians vote at a lower rate than the general population? Would you have guessed 14% lower? In a recent study, over half of physicians were not even registered to vote. This is especially perplexing and striking when compared to other educated, wealthy Americans who typically vote at much higher rates than average citizens. I have heard many physicians say that they prefer not to mix “politics” with health care (more on that later) or that as physicians, we just do not have the time to vote. This is not inspiring news about what many physicians understand about the importance of politics to the lives of their patients.
Perspective/Opinion
Advocating for Safe Voting in Milwaukee – It’s Tough Sledding Out There

by Christopher S. Davis, MD, MPH


Dr. Davis reflects on some of the important lessons and frustrations as MCW’s Save Voting Taskforce pushed to empower voters and educate the community in safe voting practices during the pandemic …

The publication of this week’s Transformational Times heralds an opportunity for me to pen a reflection on the efforts of MCW’s Safe Voting Taskforce, which I co-chair with Dr. Megan Schultz. Mostly a medical student- and resident-led endeavor, our efforts indeed generated some meaningful successes; however, our victories and defeats were, at the same time, both enlightening and infuriating. If we could have had our cake and eaten it too, we would have actively registered hospital and clinic patients, provided the entire community with safe voting information, and created a highly visible media messaging campaign. However, largely due to the politicization of voter registration (and even mask-wearing--really?), we couldn’t bring home the gold. Nonetheless, I believe that we will still find ourselves on the medal stand, if only for dutifully fulfilling our civic responsibilities of promoting health and voting.
Perspective/Opinion
Defining Recognition

by Libby Ellinas, MD, Director of the MCW Center for the Advancement of Women in Science and Medicine (AWSM) and Associate Dean for Women's Leadership


Dr. Ellinas reflects on how each year MCW and AWSM celebrate the newly appointed women professors at the Women Full Professors Pin Ceremony. It’s her favorite of AWSM’s events because it "recognizes" ...

Recognition “acknowledges achievement, service and merit,” which our newest women professors surely deserve. There are so many obstacles between the start of a woman’s education and the achievement of professorship – with women’s skills, achievements, leadership, and brilliance frequently not “perceived as existing or true.” The numbered pin, our physical expression of our recognition, doesn’t begin to sufficiently value their successes.

We celebrate their achievements, against so many odds, not just for them, but for the women that carved the path before, and the women that will follow – those girls that will recognize our professors as something “seen, heard, or known,” and with that recognition, will be certain that they can follow them to an equally successful future. We celebrate all of them, and all of you.  
Perspective/Opinion
Shedding Light on Indigenous People of the Bemidji Area: A Cherokee Nation M2 Perspective

by Morgan Lockhart, MCW-Milwaukee Medical Student


Ms. Lockhart shares what she has discovered about research gaps, cultural microaggressions, and her vision as a medical student and descendent of the Cherokee Nation ...

Boozhoo MCW,

A novel coronavirus swept the nation and, along with it, many standard summer research opportunities. As a member of the lowest socioeconomic status, unemployment was not an option for me. Since research is one of the forefront pillars of MCW, I decided to pursue research in a field of interest and passion: exploration of my Native American heritage and culture, as I had never had the opportunity to immerse myself previously. After weeks of networking, I found the Great Lakes Native American Research Center of Health (GLNARCH) and was accepted into a research internship created and funded by the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (Glitc). I was the first school of medicine applicant, and I could not be more honored and elated.

Throughout my life, procuring health insurance, let alone quality insurance, has been an ongoing struggle: I have always been enrolled in public low-income state insurance or been uninsured. This influenced my decision to develop a research project studying health care coverage rates among Native Americans.

"Inequity in health status and in access to health services are pervasive, largely unrecognized, and poorly addressed in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. ... This theme issue considers ethical, social, and cultural complexities of what it means to deliver just care to Native patients living on sovereign tribal land and everywhere in the United States."


From the AMA Journal of Ethics, Volume 22, Number 10: E831-905

Virtual Remembrance Today Armaan Haleem


As we process the loss of a treasured member of our MCW community, Armaan Haleem, you are invited to join us in remembering his life and the impact he made at MCW. The MCW Student Affairs Leadership team, along with members of the Class of 2021 and close friends of Armaan, will host a virtual remembrance today, Friday, October 30, from 12:00 – 12:30 p.m. on Zoom. The virtual remembrance will be a space for reflection and healing. You can access the virtual remembrance using the link below.
Friday, October 30, 2020
12:00 – 12:30 p.m. CT
This week, we share a poem by Mary Oliver
for all those who are grieving.


When Death Comes
by Mary Oliver


When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.


Know someone who writes poetry? Write poems yourself?
Have a favorite poem you’d like to share? Send your submissions to odavies@mcw.edu and slamm@mcw.edu



The "Running" Forrest Gump!
–Mathew Letizia, PharmD



The Homunculus
-Laura Grogan, Medical Student


I don't have an exact favorite costume, but for the past 5 years I have been making my own costumes. One of my favorite costumes I made was for our family dog, Chloe. She was Wonder Woman and wore her costume with pride. We had matching costumes that year.

-Angela Parish, Staff


Respond to next week's reflection prompt:


What do you love most about your pet?
Please include a photo!
Kern Connection Cafe Discussion

LGBTQ Care: How National Decisions Affect Local Care

Please join us for a virtual Connections Cafe with Andrew Petroll, MD, MS, Medical Director of the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Inclusion Health Clinic and Jessica Francis, MD, OB/GYN, Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

As our medical system continues to be tested by the current pandemic and resource shortages, we must stay vigilant in providing care to our marginalized populations. Changes we see at a national level affect our ability to provide care at a local level. As we continue to evolve through these challenging times, we will discuss how we can provide optimal care under suboptimal circumstances. 
November 12, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
4:00 - 5:00 pm CT
Dan Hunt MD
Kern Grand Rounds Presentation

Creating Physicians Where a Medical School Should Not Exist

Please join us for a virtual Grand Rounds presentation with Dan Hunt, MD, MBA, Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) field secretary and Secretary Emeritus.

In this time of so many moving parts in medical education, be they the changes in USMLE scoring or increased on-line learning, we must ask ourselves how we can use these situations to maximize our graduates’ skills and likelihood of addressing society’s health care inequities. Having been on both sides of the table, both defending a school's innovative curriculum to the LCME and then later being the LCME reviewer for many, if not most, of the new schools across the US and Canada, there are lessons to be shared on how to let the LCME standards guide rather than obstruct creativity.
November 18, 2020
Live Virtual Presentation
9:00 - 10:00 am CT
The Kern National Network
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MCW COVID-19 Resource Center
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