Do you remember when you first made the decision to pursue a career in pathology? More to the point, do you remember the feedback you received from your peers and supervisors? Did they “approve” of your decision – or was it a “waste of your outgoing personality?” Were you accused of lacking an interest in patient care? All of these attitudes and more combine to discourage today’s medical students from considering one of the noblest fields of medicine. And that’s why a group of medical students, residents, and attending physicians with a shared interest in pathology got together to discuss the obstacles that stood in their paths, their colleagues’ impressions of the discipline, and what can be done to encourage future students to consider pathology.
The students
Lacey Durham is a fourth-year medical student at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.
Christopher Felicelli is a fourth-year medical student at Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois.
Lily Mahler is a third-year medical student at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama.
Ellie Pernicone is a third-year medical student at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.
Ashley Scholl is a third-year medical student at West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Mel Toeller-DeSimone is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
The facilitators
Adam L. Booth is a fourth-year AP/CP resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, and a 2020–21 gastrointestinal and liver pathology fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Patrick Godbey is President of the College of American Pathologists and Founder and Laboratory Director at Southeastern Pathology Associates, Brunswick, Georgia, USA.
Jennifer Laudadio is Associate Professor of Pathology and Service Line Medical Director at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
Anne Champeaux is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Christina Wojewoda is a pathologist and Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Scott Anderson is Professor of Pathology and Director of Cytopathology and of the Pathology Residency Program at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Emily Volk is President-Elect of the College of American Pathologists and Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Kamran Mirza is Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Medical Education at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois, USA.
Yonah Ziemba is a third-year AP/CP resident at Northwell Health, New Hyde Park, New York, USA.
Mariam Molani is a third-year AP/CP resident at the the University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, Texas, USA, and the founder and CEO of LibraMed, LLC.
