A BLACK MAN IN A WHITE COAT
as a high school student, he was drawn to science and the thought of a medical career.
By the time you get to medical school or law school, you’re drinking out of a fire hydrant.”
“I was pushing myself as a student in my science courses at Episcopal,” he says. “Between biology and chemistry, I liked chemistry more. My teacher, Mr. (Joe) Shelor ’52 was also my football coach, and he was always supportive of me and whatever I wanted to do. He and Mr. (Tony) Shaver, who was my basketball coach, were both instrumental in giving me the confidence and saying I could do it. I did well in AP Chemistry. Mr. Shelor wrote my recommendation for Brown, which must’ve been a good one, because that’s part of the reason I got in.”
Cedric adapted and eventually thrived, completing his residency and taking a job running a clinic in Rhode Island. The clinic was his first window into serving as a mentor, as students in Brown’s medical school would shadow him at the clinic. While there, he published a paper in the Journal of the National Medical Association on perceived barriers and biases by race and gender in medical education. Soon after, he found himself at Duke University, assisting with minority recruitment and retention, and developing a community clinic where the students could gain valuable practice while helping those who could not otherwise afford it.
Cedric’s college experience had ups and downs, often connected to how seriously he took his work, versus when the opportunities for too much fun drew him away from it. He ended up graduating with a major in film (“Brown’s way of offering a communications major”) and then took a year off working as a paralegal to try and improve his MCAT scores. MY ROLE HERE, IN RUNNING THIS PROGR AM, IS TO HELP STUDENTS REALIZE THEY HAVE MULTIPLE WAYS TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS, TO HELP THEM KEEP THEIR DREAMS ALIVE IF THEY’RE WILLING TO WORK TOWARD THEM. “I took the paralegal job because it was the only job I could find that allowed me to wear a shirt and tie,” Cedric explains. “You don’t think about it a lot when you’re that age, but wearing a shirt and tie, it kind of sets you up for what you want to do in life. It was a constant reminder that I had to get really serious about going to medical school, buckle down, study harder, do better on my scores. And it worked. I was able to gain admission to UNC.” In the summer before he began medical school, in 1986, he attended the same Medical Education Development program he now runs. The program’s new assistant director, Larry Keith, became a vital mentor to young Cedric. “Mr. Keith made it clear: from that point on he was going to be there for me and the other students to help us get through medical school. And he was. He kept that promise.” The hardest thing about med school, according to Cedric, isn’t about a lack of knowledge or ability; it’s about managing such a high volume of information in a timely fashion. “In high school, you’re drinking from a water fountain. College is more like a garden hose. If you go to graduate school, they put a little nozzle on that hose to add pressure.
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He had achieved the goal he had set for himself as a young college undergrad with his first clinic at 28, and he developed and grew it over a decade. “Ever since then, I’ve had to keep asking, what’s next? And the answer has always involved serendipity.”
…AND RETURNING TO ANOTHER HILL In 2010, Larry Keith died from cancer at 58. The man whose mentorship helped Cedric prepare for, and succeed in, medical school, had served over 30 years at UNC advocating and supporting minority students looking to enter and thrive in the medical profession. He earned national recognition and awards for his commitment and efforts. The words “pioneer,” “hero,” and “unwavering dedication” were just some of the accolades included in the reports of his death. When the summer program lost funding for a couple of years, Mr. Keith asked Cedric to return and advocate for its re-funding, and his efforts helped keep the program alive until it found more grant funding. Upon Mr. Keith’s death, Cedric was asked to replace his mentor, which he did while understanding that “you can’t ever really replace a legend.”
“I AM A VOICE OF DIFFERENCE” One of Cedric’s passions and goals is to increase African American representation in all medical schools and the medical profession as a whole. Fewer black students currently apply to or enroll in medical school than in 1978, and the percentage of black students per capita was higher at the turn of the 20th Century than well into the 21st, he