April's JEDI Champion is Dr. Dana Silver! Dr. Silver has been an active part of the General Medical Education Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Awareness committee (IDEA: GME), chaired by Dr. Laura Green. Through this committee Dr. Silver has been instrumental in resident & faculty DEI education, including through efforts such as her recent "Sexism and Racism in Medicine" talk, which proved to be informative and thought-provoking. About Dr. Silver's invaluable work, Dr. Green has this to say:
"Ever since we started IDEA: GME I know I can count on Dr. Silver to be ready to learn, teach and serve in this space. She is fully committed to equity in our learning and patient care environment."
Q1. How long have you been with LifeBridge Health and what is your current role?
A: I have been with LBH in Sinai’s Department of Pediatrics for 22 years! My current role is academic director for the Division of General Pediatrics and Greenspring Pediatric Associates (GPA). GPA provides excellent pediatric care by attendings and residents. We mainly serve the community of Northwest Baltimore, including the Park Heights, Pimlico and Arlington neighborhoods. We have loyal families who have moved across the city and/or into the surrounding counties and still come to us.
Q2. You bring so much passion to the work you do…what motivates you?
A: : I love the challenges and rewards of providing primary care for children and families with complex medical and psychosocial needs. And I love training our residents and medical students to do the same. I hope for them to develop a respect and understanding of the impacts social determinants of health, such as chronic stress due to racism, or substandard housing and food insecurity can have on our patients and their families. Every year we take our new interns on a walking tour of the Park Heights community as an introduction. We also continually build this into teaching and discussions.
Pediatrics is really multi-generational. Children need to be nurtured. If a parent or caregiver is stressed it is hard for them to nurture the child. We strive to support and strengthen the family as a whole.
Q3. As an active member of the GME Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Awareness Committee, what are some of your aspirations for the committee's future?
A: I want the conversations and dialogues we start in our lectures with the residents to foster further discussion and change within their respective departments. I hope that we are helping them develop tools and confidence to speak up if they witness or experience inequities. We have strong leadership from committee lead Dr. Laura Green, and her predecessor, our Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Sybil Pentsil. I am proud of the work we are doing. We know that we need to keep the discussions going and will be branching out further to include faculty development.
Q4. Since starting at LifeBridge Health, what have you found most rewarding?
A: I have had the opportunity to reinvent myself over the years – new projects, new programming for patients and residents, community outreach, and the like. This helps a lot to prevent burnout. The Department of Pediatrics and my GPA colleagues have always supported me in these endeavors.