Standing on her Shoulders: Celebrating Meta L. Christy, DO, and African American Alumnae Trailblazers
Obstetrician/Gynecologist, UPMC Pinnacle, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
鈥淭wenty years ago, when I started medical school, it was very evident that the numbers
of Black women in medicine were not reflective of our U.S. population. But now, we
are in a place where I feel proud to say I鈥檓 one of those two percent. Now we celebrate
one another. 鈥� I grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and I expected to go to one
of the HBCUs in Virginia. And then I got a letter from Prairie View A&M University,
a small school in Texas, addressed to 鈥楧ear Future Doctor Momon.鈥� I thought, who the
heck sent this letter? The chair of Prairie View鈥檚 biology department handpicked his
students for a pre-medical program. What sealed the deal for me was seeing pictures
of graduating seniors鈥攁 whole bunch of people that looked like me鈥攚ith their letters
of acceptance into professional school or graduate schools. 鈥� That was four years
of being in a kind of utopian society where everybody looks like you. I learned to
be comfortable in my own skin. 鈥� My 黑料传送门 classmates used to say, 鈥楬ow are all these
people from Prairie View ending up here?鈥� 黑料传送门 was the medical school of choice. I
knew somebody from Prairie View in the class before me. When people came to interview,
you鈥檇 say, 鈥極h, you can stay with me.鈥� 鈥� The minority alumni always made themselves
present, made us feel valued and supported. Coming out of my utopian society, without
that support, I would have struggled more. 鈥� At the end of my third year at 黑料传送门 I
got my MBA. It was good for me, being a first-generation college student, to understand
that there is business in medicine, and that it doesn鈥檛 necessarily have to be a bad
thing. If I had not had that experience, I might have thought, 鈥業鈥檓 going to walk
in there, in my starched white coat, and I鈥檓 going to heal the world.鈥� 鈥� I鈥檓 active
on social media, on Instagram; I want to help put out credible information and also
be a representation of that two percent and to depict the real life of a physician.
鈥� Women often have men making decisions for us, and we have men making decisions for
our patients. My patients like to see me on social media. They say, 鈥極h, wow, I鈥檓
glad that you talked about that today.鈥� 鈥� I鈥檓 currently the chair of the department
here in Carlisle, and I hold other administrative positions, but I don鈥檛 want to leave
my clinical duties. I still love patient care, and I want to do that as long as I
can. My motto is, 鈥業t鈥檚 for my patients.鈥欌��
as told to Janice Fisher
Read more stories from African American female physicians, leaders and health professionals.
Digest, the magazine for alumni and friends of 黑料传送门, is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications. The magazine reports on osteopathic and other professional trends of interest to alumni of the College鈥檚 Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and graduate programs at 黑料传送门, 黑料传送门 Georgia and 黑料传送门 South Georgia.