Downstate Represented at the ACGME Educational Conference

By Office of the President | Mar 6, 2023

This year’s Annual ACGME Educational Conference, themed, Meaning in Medicine: Making a Difference, featured a cadre of influential women leaders, including Teresa Y. Smith, M.D., MSEd, FACEP, SUNY Downstate associate dean for GME and Affiliations; Elka Jacobson-Dickman, M.D., associate dean of Clinical Medicine, Jodi-Ann Edwards, M.D., PGY3 surgery resident, and Melanie Cheng, M.D., FAAP, pediatric hospitalist and the assistant chief Academic Officer for GME at Kings County Hospital Center. 

This formidable team jointly presented “Representation in Leadership: 360 Degree Reflections Among Women Mentors and Mentees,” focused on making the clinical learning environment safe and comfortable for women and underrepresented-in-medicine learners.

Dr. Smith reconnected with Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O., to accept Downstate’s ACGME Barbara Ross-Lee DO DEI Award for 2022. Dr. Ross-Lee, the first African American woman to be dean of a medical school, was a keynote speaker at Downstate’s 2022 GME/UME Faculty Development and Resident-as-Teacher Symposium. A transcript of Dr. Smith’s 2022 conversation with Dr. Ross-Lee can be found here.

Downstate Graduate Medical Education representatives were prominent in attendance, with several program coordinators and program directors representing the institution well. Congratulations to Juliet Arthur, MHA, C-TAGME, residency administrator, who received the Debra L. Dooley GME program coordinator Award for 2023.