What Changes When DEI Enters Healthcare and Classrooms?
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In this week's episode of the 'All Inclusive Podcast,' Natasha speaks with Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, and the Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah stands out in the medical field with her unique combination of expertise as a pediatrician, pediatric emergency medicine physician, and emergency medical services physician, making her one of the few doctors in the United States with such a diverse skill set. Her impressive career includes teaching CPR to the Pitt football team and advocating for pediatric emergency care to legislators on Capitol Hill.
Currently, Dr. Owusu-Ansah holds significant roles at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She serves as the Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Pediatrics, in addition to her responsibilities as an assistant professor in pediatrics and emergency medicine. Additionally, she is the EMS Medical Director at UPMC Children’s Hospital and the Medical Director for Pennsylvania’s Emergency Medicine Services for Children Program.
One of her most notable contributions is co-founding the Career Help Advancement and Achievement Mentorship Program (CHAMP) in May 2020. This innovative program bridges her expertise in medicine, education, and DEI by collaborating with local schools like Arsenal Middle School to enrich STEM and health education. CHAMP leverages Pittsburgh's network of medical professionals and students to bring guest speakers and health-related programming to the school's curriculum, covering a range of topics from mental health and CPR to financial wellness and Black history.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah's commitment extends beyond school children, as CHAMP also supports underrepresented medical students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with mentorship and classes on financial wellness, reflecting her dedication to nurturing future generations in both healthcare and society.
Episode Highlights:
The Meaning of DEI in Today's World (04:56)
The Role of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Enhancing Healthcare (08:29)
Making a Difference: The Power of Advocating for Marginalized Groups (10:21)
Effective Strategies for Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Healthcare (18:19)
How to Empower Young Minds through Community Involvement and Youth Engagement (22:58)
Lessons Learned: Unforeseen Outcomes of Engaging with School Students (29:03)
Parting piece of advice for DEI leaders (34:44)
Connect with Sylvia Owusu-Ansahon LinkedIn
Transcript
Natasha: Hi Sylvia
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Hi Natasha, how are you?
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: I'm great, thank you. Thanks so much for joining me today.
Natasha: Well, thanks for having me. I'm so looking forward to this opportunity, so I'm really excited to be here today.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Yeah, totally. So, tell us a little bit more about yourself and where you are in your journey today.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Yes, so I'm going to try to streamline this. I was born in the US, in Boston, Massachusetts, but kind of grew up all over the place, including several states like Kentucky. And then in the early '90s, my father worked for the World Health Organization and was the adviser to the health Minister in Namibia, Southwest Africa, which became its own democratic country in the early '90s. And so, in the height of my adolescence, I moved to Southern Africa. Namibia is just north of South Africa, for those who aren't familiar, and just south of Angola, and to the west of Botswana. It's mostly made of desert. So, I had a wonderful experience there at the international school, but I was also made very aware of what apartheid was and what it looked like. I got to experience it firsthand. I also got to experience the joy of Nelson Mandela becoming the first black head of state for South Africa because I was in Cape Town during that time and during that celebration. So, looking back, very appreciative for that. Came back to the United States, to Boston, to finish out high school, and then started my journey towards medical school. So, did college in Upstate New York and did my medical school at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, and then spent most of my training time in the Washington, D.C., area, where I learned to become a pediatrician, a pediatric emergency medicine physician, as well as an emergency medical services physician. So, that is a mouthful. Um, but in essence, what I learned to do was take care of kids at their sickest moments, both inside and outside of the hospital. Um, and then I got my "big girl job" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I am currently now, where I work as a pediatric attending in the emergency department, and I'm also the EMS medical director for the children's hospital, as well as the associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which is probably part of the reason why I'm on this podcast and excited to talk about what I do.
Natasha: Yes, yes, I'm so excited for that. So, it sounds like a very extraordinary and colorful journey that you've been on, and I'm really excited to hear how your personal experiences and your life experiences have impacted the current work that you're doing now. Because we do know that with diversity, equity, inclusion, it's so important that we bring our lived experiences into the work that we currently do because I do think it impacts how well we are going to succeed in this. Because it's important that we kind of tell our stories, especially if we're sitting in a position of really, that we've lived them, right? So, the everything that we're fighting for, like many of us, and probably yourself as well, has been through it in some way, shape, or form. We have been subjected to microaggressions, we have felt excluded, we have felt like passed over because of what we look like, not necessarily because of our skills and how we can contribute.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Well, so, interestingly enough, what you're talking about, we had a pediatric roundtable, and I presented at that my life experience, and we have added another word to the DEI, which is J for justice. So, Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, which ends up being a Jedi. So, for those of you Star Wars fans, pretty cool title, yes. Um, but what does it mean to me, you know, when I think about diversity, when we think about diversity, or I think about diversity, it's not just the black and white, right? Because we are more than our color and more than our race. Um, and we can get into, I don't want to get into nuances of race and the fact that those are made-up social constructs and things of that nature. Um, but I think diversity is everything of what makes us who we are, meaning where we come from, the fact that you know, Natasha's in England and I'm in the United States, and our experience may be different in that way.
It may be that my parents were West African immigrants. It may be that I lived in a rural environment or urban environment, or my education experiences, or my friendships or relationships. I think experiencing all those things and enjoying the experiences of others, and being open to those experiences of others and what makes them who they are, I think that is truly diversity in the way of gender, in the way of age, in the way of what your ancestry is.
And inclusion is something I think we take lightly, but what I recognize is that in circles, diverse circles, some people think that inclusion means tolerance, right? And tolerance is to say that I'm okay with you being here, it's all right that you're being here, but I'm not going to go out of my way to make you feel like one of us. And I think a lot of times we talk about inclusion, but what we're dealing with is tolerance. And inclusion is really saying, come into the fold, you know, come join us at this get-together, come listen in on what we're saying, come find out about this. For instance, African-Americans or blacks throughout the globe, financial awareness and education for us, we have less access to those things. You know, come meet with me at the golf course and let's talk about investments, bringing folks truly into the fold, not just checking the box and saying it's okay that you're here, I tolerate that you're here. It's, you know, it's good that you're here because you're the black person representing the diversity in our space, but no, I want you to be here, and I want you to be a part of what we're being, and I want to be a part of what you're a part of as well. I think that's true inclusion.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: And then Equity, we've all seen those depictions of the people standing on the uneven boxes watching a game. And then, you know, making sure it's not that all the boxes are the same size because, depending on your height, if the boxes are the same size, you still may not be able to watch the game per se, but that the boxes are to the level that you need to be your best self. And that is truly equity. And Justice is making that happen. It is bringing all those things and putting it into action.
Natasha: Why do you feel that it's essential that we have Jedi, and we're focusing on it in terms of healthcare?
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: There's so much evidence to show that, you know, if we want to just talk about race and ethnicity, there's so much to racial concordance, meaning that if you have a physician or healthcare provider that's of a similar background as you, particularly of the same race, you're more likely to have better healthcare outcomes. You're more likely to be open, there's more likely to be inclusion there, a relationship. We could say the same for language. You could say the same for religion. And so, I think it's so critical that we don't build our healthcare system off of diversity to check off some box but because it actually benefits our patients. There's actually data to show that our patients do better when there's racial concordance, meaning when they have physicians that look like them. And that comes to gender as well. Now there's data to show that women surgeons have better overall outcomes than male surgeons when it comes to gender relations. So, I think diversity improves healthcare outcomes, and data has shown that over and over and over again in numerous spaces.
I will start by saying, you know, I'm a person of faith. I have a strong belief in Jesus Christ. I look to my faith to strengthen me because in many circles, I am alone. I mean, I am the only one that looks like me. And in recognizing that and fighting those battles, I recognize that in the children that I serve, I almost see my little self in them. And so, just come to the aid in whatever way I can.
I'll give you an example, you know, stories are powerful. We had this young sickle cell, black female come into our emergency department. She does have a history of mental illness. It still shouldn't matter in that way, but she has a history of mental illness and may, in some ways, have had previous histories of aggression towards healthcare providers. She comes in, and she's in pain crisis. I mean, she's, meaning that her blood is kind of getting stuck within the bones, causing severe bone pain. As physicians, we've been noted or told that bone pain is some of the worst pain a human being can experience, on various levels of pain, just to give people an idea.
And when I walked into the room, and this young lady was probably not even close to, you know, 100 lbs or probably less than about 40 kilos or so, she was very, she wasn't very heavy, or, you know, seemed to have a lot of strength. And when I walked into the room, she had four-point restraints on her. And I was told that she was kicking and biting the EMS providers and kicking and biting security guards, but what I saw was a scared little girl. And what was starkly remarkable was that she and I were the only person of color in the room. And you know, and we know the history when it comes to violence and black folks globally when it comes to police interactions or authority interactions. And when we focus less on de-escalation processes and more on more aggressive processes, and that's what I thought was happening. I thought this girl wasn't given a chance or an opportunity, and she didn't have an advocate in the room.
And so, yeah, I went to full mom mode, and I told everybody to get out, including the police officers, to get her off of the restraints and leave the room. But before then, though, I got down on my knees, and I told her she was, you know, she was visibly upset, and, you know, raising her voice in the room and at everybody that was around her. And we had this moment where I said, "Just look at me, just look at Dr. O. It's just me and you in the room right now, okay? I told her I'm your advocate. I am here for you. With all the other people in the room, all the 20 people in the room, I said it's just me and you.
I got down on my knees I got to her level at the bed got into eye contact with her I said but what I need you to do is I need you just to relax and I need you to trust me and then I turned to the rest of the room and I said you need to take her out of restraints, of course there was the reverb of well she did this and she did that. I said I don't care she's not doing that right now you're going to take her out of restraints right now um and then we took her out of restraints I kicked everybody out of the room I did my doctor thing to find out what brought her in she was in pain crisis and here she is in for point restraints, in pain crisis, I get that there may have been a history before it doesn't account for what happened in that room I actually had a nurse tell me because one of the things that really set me off as a security guard had his hand around her neck like this and I had the nurse tell me had the nerve to tell me that she was checking his pulse her she was he was checking her pulse excuse me and I'm like that's so wrong in so many levels first of all you don't check your pulse like right like we all know the only person know check if she's aggressive how you why are you checking a pulse right like she's actively flailing around
Natasha: yeah we know that she's alive she's okay right
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Right she's okay so you know I got her settled in and I walked out of the room and I work in a pretty homogeneous environment when it comes to race and ethnicity and I was in tears yeah and I had nobody to talk to to relieve the stress I was in tears for her mostly I was in tears for myself and then I even almost found myself apologetic and I'm like this is so backwards like the imposter syndrome just flooded in of like like somehow what I did was wrong knowing what I did was right. But how dare you show you know to your point like how dare you show your emotions here in this place you know like all that stuff was rattling through my mind and you know I had a whole shift left to do like I had to get on with it I couldn't you know I couldn't you know go in the corner and but I literally came out of the room and tears were streaming down my face and I need to quickly do this thing and go to the nursing station
Natasha: I'm so glad that you were there um and that she had you there to help and advocate for her um and I think it just it it's it's such a powerful story um and it goes to show the importance that on the of diversity in in healthcare having somebody that can relate to where you're coming from and give you that opportunity, give you that benefit of the doubt in your most vulnerable most scared moments that you probably will ever come across in your life um and yeah I commend you and I think it's absolutely 100%, 150% okay that you cried because that's real emotion and it shows that actually this was a lot um and I think we say about leaders all the time that they need to not be scared to be able to show their vulnerabilities and it's not something that should be seen as um as a pitfall as a negative upon them. I mean credit to you, that's fantastic.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Thank you. In doing the grand rounds I did yesterday, part of my frustration is I do have all these stories, right? We all have all these stories, but how, you know, thanks to people like you and thanks to the media, we're able to get these stories out to the masses, right? And so, that was my talk yesterday, basically. And so, I do have a short film, that's just here, it's local, called "In Good Hands," and I showed a rough cut of that. And basically, what that film shows is multiple interactions that I've had over the years that we were able to put together in one shift, made it seem like one shift worth of incidences with overt racism, yeah, and microaggression, and you know, trying to stand up for, you know, advocating for your patient all rolled into one. And so, I decided to kind of use that. I started writing a book but during COVID but wasn't able to finish because of my full-time job as a physician but was able to translate some of that with a brilliant screenwriter by the name of Yasmine Crowley, who's now with CBS and Paramount doing great work. And thanks to Carl Kurlander, who was kind of the producer who led on that, it was through the Pitt Film School, University of Pittsburgh Film School, were able to put together a short film that told that story, and we shared that yesterday. And, you know, it was overwhelming to see how many people were like, "I didn't realize that this stuff happens." Yeah. And so, this, you know, to credit to you, this is the power of media because, you know, we live these lives each and every day, but without being able to tell the story, we can't change, we can't change our environment either. Like if we can't share the stories, then we can't change the environment.
Natasha: No, you can't. And I'm so glad, and thank you so much for sharing that story with our listeners and with myself. What are some of the key actions, key steps that need to be taken in order to try and avoid those sorts of situations ever happening again?
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Yeah, so I think that the key thing is, you know, well, I'll rewind a bit. You know, what I, as Associate Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, one of the things we focus on is first of all, our numbers are low, right? Like there's not enough in the way of diversity to have more advocates, as we spoke about. And so, you want to be able to bring those people in. We've been pretty successful over the past couple of years during the pandemic of convincing folks of, "Hey, you need to come." I led in, again, financial wellness is a big thing of mine. I led in securing $25 million towards loan repayment for those of our faculty who either work in the area of Jedi — Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion — or are of that group themselves. And so, each person gets $75,000 towards loan repayment, and I was able to lead in that. So those are some of the things to kind of curve off so that will attract people to come, right? And some of those measures may bring people in. You know, also, we have underrepresented minority or, you know, people of color brunches for trainees that are coming. And so, we have safe spaces for folks of, or folks of various backgrounds to meet on a regular basis. So again, that's all good to bring people in, but then how do you keep people? And I think that's the bigger issue and the bigger question. The hardest thing to do is to change the environment. Yeah. You know, it's really about changing that environment. It's really about, you know, you want it to be a place that if I wasn't in the room, there would still be an advocate, you know? That's where you want your institution to be. You want allies, true allies that can stand up, no matter what the color, or let's say there's a language barrier, you want somebody who's going to take the time to find the right interpreter to make the family feel comfortable, to be able to express their healthcare needs in the best way that they know how, right?
So, changing the environment is a little bit tricky, but it starts with bringing the people in. And once you bring the people in, creating an inclusive environment, like I said before, one of the things I do is very small, but just, I just throw together these little get-togethers at my house away from work where, you know, everybody that I can think of that I met, especially trainees of color, faculty members of color, you know, we make up reasons to get together. And I know that that has helped a lot of our training that have come through, and as they have left, they've been very grateful, and they've left my number behind of like, "Yeah, this is the lady to talk to," you know? Letting them know, you know, simple things like for African, you know, for black women like us, like where do you get your hair done? These are vital things for us. It seems benign. Yeah. I mean, especially when, when you move into a new state, or if you moved to a new area, which some of your trainings may well have done, and are now living somewhere new surrounded by new people,
Natasha: yeah, as a black woman, I know we recently moved house, and that was literally one of the first things that I was thinking about was, "I needed to relax my hair, and I was like, where's the hair shop here?" Because we'd moved from South London to Kent, which is basically very much of a suburb area, and there isn't there. And from London, it's very multicultural, so I had options, I had a lot to choose from. But now, yeah, like, it is definitely top of mine. So, it seems quite a simple thing, but it means so much to be able to build, have a friendship, or a network of people that have like-minded, and people that you can relate to in a new place. Yeah. And I think that's key in bringing, bringing people in, bringing people in right away, you know? And making, helping to make networking connections for them, like you said, you know, either the hair, the food, or things to do within the city, you know, if they're Afro-Caribbean festivals, or, you know, different types of performances like we had Hamilton come, you know, Pittsburgh, it's quite small, but a lot of things come through here, uh, concert venues. I mean, things like that, just letting people know, so they can take that load off of their shoulders, and just be able to be themselves. And I know you do a lot of community work and community engagement, and a lot to with the younger generation as well. So, I'm interested to hear from you how that work, if you could just explain a little bit more to our listeners what you're up to there because it's really important, I think.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Yeah, so we, at the height of COVID, and it's interesting because I started what's a middle school pathway program, so I guess, you know, secondary school pathway program you could call it, for underserved children in a school in our neighborhood. So, it started by my boss, the chair of the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Terence Dermody, and at the time, the head of adolescent medicine at my Children's Hospital, Dr. Elizabeth Miller, picked a few of us to lead in doing more for our community. And they didn't say what; they were just like, "We want to be more than just the Children's Hospital. We don't want the children to come to us sick. We know you guys do this community work, and you do it well. Find us something that we could do where we bring the hospital to the community. We bring our wealth, our resources, our talents to the community." And so, we found out that the middle school, which is sixth to eighth grade in the US, so that's about from, you know, 11 to 14-year-olds, about that age, that the school that was in our neighborhood had the most underserved students, was one of the most diverse schools in even the state. It's considered an English as a second language school, so the school has a lot of immigrant students, refugee students, who speak multiple languages, come from anywhere from Somalia to Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, to Guatemala. And so, we thought this is perfect. So then, we made a connection with the school leadership, and they were all about it, and we reassured them that we wanted this to be a holistic program. The idea, the program is called Career Health Advancement and Achievement Mentorship Program, and we made it broad because we wanted, we wanted to be able to eventually establish it throughout the entire school system or the school district, if possible. And the idea is to create this holistic environment of not just, "Okay, we, the doctors, and we'll expose you to a diversity of doctors and introduce you to healthcare," but what we recognize is the hospital is a model of every single career. You have every single career represented in the hospital except for a firefighter. So, you have a police officer, you have a cook, you have an accountant, you have media people, in addition to having a doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist, physician's assistant. So, every type of career that you could think of is represented in the hospital. And initially, we came in thinking, "Okay, we want to make many pediatricians because we need more diverse pediatricians in our pipeline." But then recognizing, for instance, my 15-year-old doesn't want anything to do with blood, you know, recognizing, she doesn't want me to tell any of my hospital stories. So, recognizing that we might leave some kids out, and we don't want to do, we didn't want to do that. And so, what we decided to do is, we, you know, what we do well is programs related to science.
During the height of the pandemic, lots of kids were home, and the problem there is that when you're doing science projects, a lot of these underserved children, or underprivileged children, did not have their science materials with them. So, what we did is we created a box, we called it a STEM box, science, technology, engineering, and math, and we sent their materials to them so they could participate in class, to every single student. We also noted that from a wellness standpoint, that they would have masks that they've had for an entire year that weren't washed, or, you know, hygiene with this age group was already a problem, but it was even more so a problem during COVID, as parents were struggling to keep up. So, we put together wellness packages, and we sent them home with soaps and detergents, but not only that, we taught around that. So, as middle school students, we taught around hygiene, how do you take care of yourself on a low budget if you were to go to Walmart with $5, for your skin type and your type of hair, what should you buy? You know, Vaseline versus Eucerin, or, you know, if you have tight curls versus straight hair, what's the best type of shampoo for you at a budget? So, we built a curriculum around that, the wellness packages that they sent them. Then we've kind of built upon that since. Yeah. And so, we have a human body curriculum class, where we have a diverse, we have a, we have a black cardiologist come and talk to them about cardiology. We have a black female orthopedic surgeon come talk to them about their bones and their muscles. We've engaged with the Latino community, and our strong, powerful doctors in the Latino community, and they have come to talk to the Latino students in Spanish and English, and it's beautiful. And we've done T-CPR and stop the bleed, and use interpreters anywhere from Spanish to Russian to French. So, it went from kind of an exposed to healthcare kind of program and increase the healthcare pipeline to a holistic, "We just want to take care of the kids in our neighborhood, and where do kids spend most of their time? School." So, what better way to provide preventive healthcare measures, what better way to enhance their science, enhance their STEM, and what better ways to bridge the gap? Like, I tell them, "I don't want to see you in the emergency room. I want you to know, 'Oh, here at your school, and let's have a good time.' I don't want to have that interaction with you in the waiting room or in the emergency department. I want to build this relationship outside of that, and so that you can know me and get to trust me and know that we're here for you," because a lot of these kids don't have people that are there for them at home.
Natasha: Oh, so lovely. And what have you learned throughout this so far that surprised you?
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Um, I think that the kids, they really do care. You know, a lot of times with youth, we kind of put them off, and even myself, even as a pediatrician, and teenagers as, "There, you know, they're not, they don't care, it's not worth going to these schools, you know, they're into their phones and TikTok, yeah, and they could care less," or "the potential is not there." Like, we had a black history trivia, and these kids worked so hard. They were so competitive during the trivia game. We made it like a Jeopardy game, and we had different teams, different grades versus each other, and the amount of work that they put in, I was blown, I myself was blown away by the amount of work they put in. And just recognizing that if they have people there to just, just to be there, and to encourage them, you know, the potential is there for everybody.
I mean, I have that belief in my life, in my heart, that everybody has the potential. That nobody's here by mistake. That everybody has the potential to do great things and be the best person that they can be. But I feel like kids really show that, you know? It's such a fresh and blank blueprint that you could make it the nicest house with the best foundation, or they could just crumble apart on sand, you know? And so, but when you are able to do that, it just means the world. I mean, we took them for graduation, we took them to a baseball game. Many of them had never been there. I thought they'd be bored and on their phones. They were engaged and they were asking questions, and they were grateful that we took them, you know? So, just even if you're able to impact one life, you know, because as a child, hopefully, there's decades more to go, and then that impact, you know, build upon that impact over those decades of their life, right? And so, I think it was, in summary, more rewarding than I thought it was going to be in the way of the kids. And we do a lot of CPR with them. We do CPR once a year, so every time we come into the room, they kind of put their hands up like, "Oh, here come the CPR people," which is great because, no, that's, they can save a life.
Natasha: Yeah, no, definitely, 100%, that's so true. So, are there any books or resources, or even organizations that have helped you along your journey to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion?
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Yes, I pull a lot from the American Academy of Pediatrics. And I have a wealth of physicians who've been doing the work, like, for instance, Dr. Tiffany Johnson, who's out at UC Davis, has been doing this research forever. And Dr. Joseph Wright. So, you know, a lot of the literature that they put out, a lot of the expertise that they have, that's kind of what I look to. You know, myriads of things like Ibram X. Kendi and his work. But I think collectively, I'm just one of those people that just go out and do the work, you know? And then I learn from doing the work, really. To be honest with you, I learn from the community. I learn from the people. They make me better, and they help us to figure out what's best for them, really. Because you can read a lot of the books and read a lot of the evidence, but for your particular community or your particular area, that might not be the best for them.
Natasha: Yeah, I mean, I think you can only read so much before you need to start taking some action, right? And then learning from those actions that you've taken. And some may work out really well, and others may not. But actually, if it doesn't, that's still also a learning opportunity for you as well. So, I love that you answered that question in that way because I think it is important to highlight that education is great and keeping yourself updated on what's happening and broadening your own knowledge in this space is important. And that shouldn't stop. I think continuous learning is important. But actually making sure that you're not stuck in the book the whole time, right? And you're kind of, I think you don't actually end up taking any action. I feel like you end up reading so much that you then go down the rabbit hole, and you forget, actually, hold on a second, like, actually now need to do something.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: No, I mean, and that's what I live by. We, right now, one of my biggest community initiatives is teaching CPR. We've taught CPR, and teaching over, I mean, close to 300 people throughout the community, from, you know, five-year-olds to 90-year-olds, CPR. And that's one of the things, is we know the American Heart Association states that community communities of color are the least likely to receive bystander CPR. Like, so we know the data. So then we go out to the community, and we teach our people how to do CPR, you know? Like, at some point, you got to do the work. And so, that's what I say over and over again. Of like, okay, we know the outcomes are abysmal in this regard, so let's just go out and change those outcomes.
Natasha: Sylvia, I've so much enjoyed our conversation today. It's been fantastic. Before you do part ways, and you leave us, I'd love to hear one piece of parting advice that you have for all those leaders out there that are trying to advance DEI where they are.
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: You know, it may sound cliche, but you got to believe in who you are. You know, we've heard these things before, but it's so true. Recognize the quality, the potential, the excellence of who you are, and then just go out and do the work, and block out the noise. Because there's always going to be noise, and there's always going to be barriers, and there's always going to be people that tell you no. But if you know what you're about and you know your passion and you go for it, we'll get the job done together.
Natasha: Oh lovely well see thanks again and for those that are listening if they want to reach out to you and connect how can they do that
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: So my Instagram handle is M as in Mary d as in dog auu o wuu um they can also email me at AUM md7 Gmail
Natasha: I will be linking um all those details below the episode so if anyone wants to reach out to you they definitely can do that following those links below um once again thank you so much for for tuning in and thank you so much for listening and sharing your insights
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: Well Natasha thank you so much for reaching out to me I'm so excited about this I hope this is not the last time that we connect I always appreciate I always apprciate the opportunity
Natasha: I think the work that you're doing is absolutely fantastic and it's it's so important it's it's literally life or death right so um I think it's it's amazing and I appreciate you so much and um yeah we're definitely going to stay in touch 100% yeah
Dr. Owusu-Ansah: and thank you because like I said without the media allowing us in various uh forms to tell our story we can't change lives so thank you for allowing me to share my story uh with your podcast