Since you were named an ASCP Forty Under 40, how does your career look different now vs then? What new opportunities have come your way? What additional credentials or new hard or soft skills have you gained? 

Back in 2021, I was working as a busy Medical Examiner in Chicago. Since then, I have transitioned into an equally busy academic career as the Director of Autopsy and After Death Services for UW Medicine in Seattle, where instead of performing autopsies myself, I focus on resident education in autopsy pathology, research, and workforce development. To the best of my ability, I try to use this new space to recruit more learners into pathology, including teaching first-year medical students cardiovascular pathology and histology, inviting medical students to observe an autopsy, creating summer research projects for medical students throughout the WWAMI region centered on fatal health disparities, and creating Summer Autopsy and Laboratory Medicine Research Fellowships in partnership with Meharry Medical College. It has been an unexpected and incredibly rewarding career shift where I am building and honing my leadership and managerial skills, particularly in strategic planning and curriculum development. I was recently named the inaugural holder of the Dorothy Ward Stansbury Endowed Professorship to support the further development of initiatives related to diversity and equal opportunity. During this time, I also had the privilege of serving as the President of the Society for Black Pathology, joined the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology and Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Forensic Science, and the American Board of Pathology’s Continuing Certification Advisory Committee.

I received an Iceberg Award later in 2021 from the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) for special service to the organization, which included helping to create the still-running Medical Student Virtual Forensic Pathology Lecture Series and being a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Multispecialty Hyperactive Delirium Review Panel member alongside the then President of NAME, Dr. James Gill. I was named on The Pathologist’s Power List in 2023 as an influential laboratory medicine professional and then again in 2024 as a “Champion for Change.” This past year, I was selected by UW Medicine to attend two leadership development seminars by the AAMC — one for minority faculty development and the other for early career women faculty —pivotal opportunities I do not think I would have had if not for the 40 Under Forty recognition which helped my application stand out amongst a sea of phenomenal and inspiring young physicians.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the years since being named 40/40?

“It’s your story. Feel free to hit them with a plot twist at any moment’” is an inspirational quote I came across during one of my career transitions. My current job is my third since 2020, and every move was met with doubt, hesitation, and feeling like I was abandoning others. Yet, I find myself in an incredibly rewarding, unique, and fulfilling position that melds my interests and fills my cup. It was worth the risk of jumping into something new and unknown.