USA Health’s commitment to diversity and inclusion marked by new class of surgery residents

The incoming class of USA Health surgery residents is making history. For the first time in the program’s history, the majority of the incoming residents - three out of five - are female. Two of those female residents are Black, which is the largest number of Black females in a single surgery class.

All five of the new residents were highly sought after by the top surgery training programs in the country. One of the surgery residents is also an Olympic athlete who holds the current NCAA record in the hammer throw.

“Our ability to recruit a residency class this diverse and at this level from across the United States is a testament to the quality of both our current faculty and the training program, as well as our current residents,” said Lee Grimm Jr., M.D., FACS, FASCRS, associate professor of surgery at the USA College of Medicine and director of USA Health’s general surgery residency program.

The residents are also diverse geographically, coming to the Mobile area from Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, and Colorado. One resident is from the USA College of Medicine. Many were members of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the top academic honor society in medical school, as well as members of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

Dorothy Dickinson, senior GME program coordinator for the general surgery residency and the national president-elect for the Association of Residency Administrators in Surgery, has also played a large role in expanding the national footprint and diversity of the program. She said she is delighted to see the 2020 surgery residency class showcasing those who are traditionally underrepresented in surgery.

“Diversity within a residency program increases medical education quality, increases the research agenda in minorities, and improves the quality of care that USA Health delivers to our surrounding communities,” she said. “True diversity and inclusion is not simply a goal, it is an academic necessity for training.”

The residents, called interns during their first year, will be at USA Health for five years of surgery training. The first year, which began July 1, lays the groundwork for the resident’s future career in surgery, giving them broad-based experience while rotating through multiple surgical specialties. The new physicians are also focused on learning the technical skills required to become a surgeon. Residency gives the recent medical school graduates a chance to apply what they’ve learned in the practice of general surgery.

“Any one of these applicants could have gone to any program in the country and they chose to come here,” Grimm said. “They’ll be a part of continuing the upward trajectory of South Alabama as one of the premiere general surgery training programs in the country. We expect them to become leaders of whatever their surgical field is in the region that they practice.”

Members of the new class are Drs. Hayden Alford, Victoria Bouillon, Tyler Kaelin, Megan McCaul, and Loree Thornton.