Morehouse medical leader’s talk addresses health care equity
By Deborah Wormser
Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, President and Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in Atlanta and an influential advocate for health care equity, addressed a standing-room only audience at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration on Jan. 14.
In introducing the speaker, Dr. Daniel Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern, said, “This is a very special day in the life of UT Southwestern as we celebrate the life and lessons of Dr. King and, sadly, reflecting on this year and events in Ferguson (Mo.), New York, and elsewhere, his inspiration remains as essential today as it ever was.”
Dr. Montgomery Rice, who made history in 2014 when she became the first woman president of MSM, is a renowned infertility specialist and researcher who attended Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Montgomery Rice said that she attends the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Dr. King was raised and where she still sees his relatives every Sunday. She noted how moving it was to see the audience at Eugene McDermott Plaza Lecture Hall showing “your appreciation for what Dr. Martin Luther King did – not just for African-Americans, not just for minorities but for our country.
“Believe me, I didn’t start out my life knowing that I was going to be an advocate for health equity. I didn’t know what health equity was. I didn’t know what health inequity was,” she said, adding that she quickly figured out what it was.
Dr. Montgomery Rice stressed that equity and equality are different. As an example, she used a visual of three children of varied heights trying to watch an athletic event from behind a tall fence. “Equal” meant giving each child a box of the same size on which to stand. The problem was that the tallest child needed no box to see, while the shortest child’s view remained obstructed despite standing on a box.
Dr. Montgomery Rice then demonstrated that equity – and justice – means giving an extra box to the shortest child, lifting all the children up high enough to see the game.
On the issue of poverty, she noted studies showing that 36 percent of black children live in poverty and 35 percent live in households with food insecurity, adding that the problems begin early and they are connected to education, particularly reading and communication skills. She referred to a study showing a vocabulary gap apparent by preschool in which children from families receiving welfare have about half as many words in their vocabulary as do the offspring of professionals.
Dr. Montgomery Rice then shared her own story: born to a single mother in rural Georgia and admitted to Georgia Institute of Technology, where an academic counselor noted her talent for math and science and suggested she become an engineer. She agreed, but later decided on medical school.
“My socioeconomic status increased and I was able to make different decisions because I had different opportunities. Education was the equalizer,” she said.
Quoting Dr. King’s statement that “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane,” Dr. Montgomery Rice stressed that health care professionals and educators have the opportunity to help end health care inequity.
In addition to her undergraduate degree in chemistry and M.D. from Harvard Medical School, she completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University School of Medicine and her fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit. She also completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Dr. Montgomery Rice is the founder and former Director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., where she also served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Health Affairs. The Center for Women’s Health Research is one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color. Prior to joining Meharry Medical College, Dr. Montgomery Rice held numerous administrative and faculty appointments at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
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