Lynne Holden, M.D., associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, has been named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader (CHL) for her work with Mentoring in Medicine. Dr. Holden is co-founder and president of the organization, which encourages disadvantaged students to enter the health professions. Dr. Holden is one of 10 honorees who received the CHL Award at a ceremony held in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Einstein partners with Mentoring in Medicine in offering the Emergency Department Clinical Exposure and Mentoring Program. Taking place at Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein, the program is an internship for minority undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students that provides opportunities to volunteer, shadow health care professionals, and gain exposure to research environments. Dr. Holden is an attending physician in emergency medicine at Montefiore.
The idea of Mentoring in Medicine germinated from a chance conversation Dr. Holden had with a woman she met on the subway. Dr. Holden was reading “Gifted Hands,” a book by African-American neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
“A woman noticed the book and told me her son wanted to be a brain surgeon,” Dr. Holden said. “She was a single mother with five children and didn’t know how to guide her son. She knew he had the will and the academic ability, but she didn’t have a way to help him. I realized we should be able to bring this child and others like him together with people in health care professions.
Our program now has students in health professional schools across the country who are training to be doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and physician assistants, including three medical students at Einstein.”
