{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/m03xs5m63k/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Yulanda Harrison"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["family physician","Black family physicians","family medicine"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Yulanda Harrison (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/260/247/small/YulandaHarrisoanM..D.DVD.mp4_1736959450.jpg?1736959454","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Yulanda_Harrisoan_M..D._DVD.mp4"]},"duration":4588.37546,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/260/247/small/YulandaHarrisoanM..D.DVD.mp4_1736959450.jpg?1736959454","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/260/247/original/Yulanda_Harrisoan_M..D._DVD.mp4?1736959424","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":4588.37546,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247/transcript/74389","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Yulanda Harrison transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247/transcript/74389/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interview with Dr. Yolanda Harrison      \n\nGood evening; my name is Sam Taggart.  We are in the home of Dr. Yolanda Harrison who practices in Osceola, Arkansas.  We are actually in Jonesboro, Arkansas tonight.  Thank you for inviting us into your home.\n\n“No problem, thanks for coming.”\n\nOne thing to remember about this interview, Dr. Harrison, is that this is your interview.  If we start off in a direction and you want to talk about that direction more and despite what the questions are, you just go off and talk and we will catch up.  Again, we want to focus a lot of our attention on what makes you unique and how you ended up in medicine.  The best starting place for us to start is the very beginning.  \n\nTell us when and where you were born, tell us something about your family, the circumstances of your birth, and if you know who delivered you.   \n\n“I was born June 30, 1983 in Blytheville, Arkansas.  Dr. Mary Bell delivered me.  I am the baby of my family, so there are many, many, brothers before me; 9 actually before me total.”\n\nWow, so you are one of ten.\n\n“I am the last of ten; if you include both of my parent’s children.  Also, I was born late in my mother’s life; she was in her mid forties when she had me.  She’s always told me that I wasn’t a mistake, she wanted me; but I always called myself her “oops baby” because I figured she probably thought she was done having kids and then “oops.”    \n\nTalk a little bit about your mom and dad; tell us their names, how old they were, where they were born, and all that that you know.  \n\n“My father’s name was Winston C. Harrison and he was born in Kilmicheal, Mississippi.  He is the last of; I want to say, 13.  He and his last few brothers, I believe, were all born at the same time; so he is either the last or next to the last.  He was in the Navy for 23 or 25 years, I can’t remember.  He worked for Burlington Northern Railroad Company and he did that for 20-25 years as well.”\n\nWhat did he do for the railroad?\n\n“From what I understand, he kind of laid tracks; that‘s what he always talked about doing.  He always talked about laying track and laying tire irons.”\n\nIs that right?\n\n\n\n“He worked all down south, out west some; but he never went up north.  He was never in the north east, but that involved a lot of traveling to work on Sundays and working through the week.  Some weekends, he would be able to come home.  I probably saw him every other weekend coming home, but I talked to him every day.  My parents were married until my mother’s death.  I talked to him every day, saw him every other weekend, or sometimes if we got lucky, we saw him multiple weekends in a row.  He still lives in Blytheville now.  He moved up here when he met my mother.  My mother is where my Arkansas roots are from.  She was born in Bluff City, Arkansas.”\n\nWhere is that?\n\n“Bluff City; I want to say is kind of south central Arkansas; its super small.  She is the; I believe that she has six sisters, all girls and she is number five.  She has one younger sister and four older.  Of them, she is the only one who transitioned over.  She did not go to school.  She stopped going to school in 3rd grade because she had an abusive father.  Her mother died when she was three, so she started cleaning houses and she ran away from home when she was 14 years old.  She made her way up to Mississippi County and started working for a family in Mississippi County; the Fleeman’s.  Basically, they just kind of took her in and adopted her.  She was their maid and their cook and that is what she did until both, Mr. and Mrs. Fleeman passed away.”       \n\nSo, your mother has passed away?  What was your mother’s name?\n\n“Yes; Beulah Harrison, sorry.”\n\nWhen did she pass away?\n\n“She passed away July 25, 2009.” \n\nYou had nine brothers and your mother and father both had quite a few brothers and sisters; did you grow up with a big extended family?\n\n“On my father’s side, I did.  On my mother’s side, I knew a couple of Aunts; but not too much more outside of that.  Of course the brother’s, I didn’t have the same father as.  My father’s side; that family is big, extended, and loving and they were always kind of around.  They were the family reunion every summer, or come over for the picnic type of thing, let’s spend the holidays type of thing going on.”\n\nDo you have a lot of memories of your young childhood?\n\n“Um, quite a few of them; most of them revolve around my family.  I was a good kid, so most of the things I did that involved fun involved playing with my brothers.  Being the only girl and being the baby, my mother was really protective.  So, I could go out and play as long as my \n\n\nbrother was there.  A lot of times, I ended up going out and just being a tomboy; you know, climbing trees, frog gigging, catching crawl-dads, and just out playing with them a lot.”    \n\nDid you guys live n town?\n\n“We lived in Blytheville.  We lived really close to what used to be the “Chickasaw Courts Projects”.  We didn’t live in the projects; we lived right next to it.  So, I called it “project adjacent.”\n\nWhat were the Chickasaw Projects?\n\n“Chickasaw Projects were…..I’m trying to remember the name of the street.  If you go on 11th Street to where 11th Street and Chickasaw cross in Blytheville and you go down 11th Street; not towards Cherry Tree, but down 11th Street away from the high school about maybe a quarter a mile, you will start seeing these brick buildings with a fence around them; those were Chickasaw Court Projects.”    \n\nSo tell us a little bit about starting school in Blytheville. \n\n“You know, I was just a nerdy kid and I didn’t really kind of come out and interact with other kids until I got on up in grade school.  I went to school and I had a really vivid imagination; played a lot by myself.  I learned how to read early, so I read a lot by myself and I was the kid who was content to have a book and would sit and entertain myself for the most part.”\n\nDo you have a lot of good memories of the early years?\n\n“Um; with my family, I do.  Being kind of that odd smart kid, you know, you get picked on a lot.  So, school was not all that enjoyable for me until I hit a growth spurt.  I used to be short and fat; then, I hit a growth spurt and people kind of left me alone.   I was good playing basketball, so they kind of left me alone.  They were like, “Ok, she’s smart and she can play basketball, so leave her alone and let her be.”\n\nWere there any people in your family, people in your life not just your family; business people, people at church, teachers; anyone who had a particular affect on you or had a  real impact on you as to what you did; playing basketball, studying, or whatever? \n\n“Um, a couple of teachers come to mind.  The first one, Sandra King, was my first grade teacher at Robinson.  Robinson is no more; it’s a primary, Robinson Primary School.  She was the first person to tell my mom, “Hey, she is real smart” and I mean my mom knew I was intelligent, but she was like, “She needs to be in the gifted and talented program.”  She was the first teacher that kind of told me, “Hey, you realize that you’re intelligent?”\n\nWhat grade was that?\n\n“First.”\n\nOh that was very early.\n\n“That was first grade.”\n\nYeah.\n\n“That was her and then, I had a teacher named Ms. Bennett in third grade, which was still that awkward phase for me as kids didn’t like me very much; she knew that during recess I didn’t want to go outside and play and would rather stay inside and read.  So, she’d let me and she would give me books to read.  I like that that was where I developed my big love of reading.  I’d say after that I had a lot of great teachers, but the two that really, really stuck out to me; actually there is three now, because I would have to include my coach.  Three really stuck out to me; Coach Young, who is still the coach for Blytheville’s female basketball team.  She, I think, inspired my work ethics as she was not an easy person to play basketball for.  She does not care if you are tired, she wants what she wants and it’s going to happen whether you like it or not; so, that’s Coach Young.  By the way, you cannot ever call Coach Young by her first name; I know what her first name is, but to this day, I am not going to call her by her first name.  It starts with an “M” and ends with “elissa”; so, we are going to leave it at that and I didn’t say your name Coach.  The other two teachers would be my English teacher in school, Jan Sinclair who passed away about a month ago suddenly in her home.  Jan Sinclair was the first person who told me, “Ok, you’re smart; now what?”  I knew I was going to go to college and she was….she told me basically, “You don’t want to just go to college, you want to go and excel somewhere.  You need to do something more than just get a degree.  So, what are you going to do?”  She is also someone who kind of expanded my book reading.  You know, she was the first person who gave me a book that actually offended me.”\n\nWhich book was that?\n\n“I believe the book that she gave me was “Of Mice and Men” and I’m trying to think if that one was the one that had the “N” word in it.  When I read that; Oh, I got all up in arms and I’m in the advance glasses by now and there were no other black people in sight; there were almost no other minorities in sight by this.  I’m reading and thinking, “Oh this is a good book; what?” You should have seen me raise hell and she was like, “Ok, so is that book talking about you?  So, what is the problem?”  I thought, “Let me step out of myself for a second.”  She was the one who gave me “Weathering Heights” and “The Great Gatsby” and introduced me to Stewart Woods.  I don’t know how many times I’ve read Shakespeare with her and she was the person who taught me how to write.  You know, how to compose a paper; she was the person who taught me really how to put “this” on paper.”\n\nSo you love to write? \n\n“I love to write.  I still love to write.  I got away from it for a while, but I love to write.”                        \n\n\nThat’s wonderful.\n\n“Then there is Eggensberger; I don’t know if you guys have heard of Martin Eggensberger?  He is also a part of this world.  Martin Eggensberger taught calculus, physics, and trigonometry; that’s it.  His classroom was in the shop class, so you had to walk from the main building to there.  Dr Eggensberger was the first teacher who came to class and told everybody, “Look, I know you don’t want to be here.  I don’t want to be here, neither; but if you want to learn, I want to teach.  If not, I can give all y’all “C’s” right now.”   This was in high school and I was like, “Well, alright.”  Believe it or not, some people took those “C’s” and skipped his class; never went back, and got the lowest “C” possible.  But, he made you work for it.  His tests….Oh, I think him and Satan got together and made those tests, those tests were terrible.   Getting a “B” from him was like, “Oh, I am so smart!!!”  I got one “A” from him.”     \n\nWere there any other members of your family who were smart and worked hard like you; your brothers, were any of them gifted?\n\n“They were all gifted, but none of them excelled academically.  I had a couple of brothers who did the military thing, I had a couple of brothers who went straight into the work force, and I had a couple of brothers who went to jail.” \n\nOK.\n\n“I was the smart one out of my brothers; I mean, they are all intelligent, but I just chose to excel in school.”\n\nSo when we walked in, you were telling about the candles and your mom’s ashes in the ern; was your family religious or spiritual?\n\n“Growing up, my father is still religious; my father is Baptist.  We were raised in a Baptist Church until one day the pastor and my mother got into some tiffs in the middle of service and we never knocked on the doors of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church again; we didn’t, but my father still went.  We are more so of a spiritual family; you know.  My father again, he is religious; but my brothers and I tend to be more of the spiritual type of line.”\n\nDid that have an impact on you?  You were talking about your teachers; did that have an impact on you in terms of what you were going to end up doing with your life?\n\n“As far as like the spirituality thing; I think so.  I think that someone gives you the talent that you are given, no matter what it is.  If you can draw, cook, dance, read a book, whatever it is someone gave it to you and it is your job to share it and do good with it as long as you are here on earth.  So, I think it did.”           \n\nYou brought up the fact that in your AP classes, you were the only African American; did that have an impact on what you did in those classes?\n\n“Um, I was always competitive.  My best friend ended up being the valedictorian of my class; so in the classes that we had together, I always competed with her.  It had nothing to do with race, she was just my best friend and we had that friendly competition going on.  “I got a 96.”  “Well, I got a 97” type of thing going on.”\n\nTalk about basketball a little bit.  You mentioned your coach who will go unnamed.\n\n“She shall not be named. Un, basketball or sports in general started; I mean you can’t grow up a girl with a whole bunch of brothers and not at least try to throw a ball.  So playing basketball started; well, my family didn’t have a lot of money, but at some point we crowded together enough money to get a basketball goal.  My brothers would be out there playing and well, I wanted to play too.  I was bad, so I would get out there and practice.  I would practice and I would practice and I got really good at being a shooting guard or a front guard; I got really good at it.  I played in like YMCA teams.  My 7th grade year, I played point guard and everything was great.  Then the summer came and I came back to school and I was 5’8.  They were like, “Yeah, you can’t be point guard no more; go stand in the back.”  So, I had to learn how to play basketball all over again and give up control.  I was good enough to go to college and play basketball for a little bit.”\n\nDid you?  Where?\n\n“Xavier.  I didn’t play but one semester thanks to my granny ankles; but then I picked up another sport, which I hadn’t mentioned because I didn’t do it at all in high school.  I throw javelin very well; well enough that I lettered GCAC, Gulf Coast Atlanta Coast; the conference that Xavier had.”\n\nWhere is Xavier?\n\n“New Orleans.  But yes, good enough to letter and to actually get some money to pay for school off of it.”\n\nLets back up; I want to talk about that subject.  Let’s talk some more about elementary school and high school and people who had an impact on you.   Were there any ministers who had an impact on you?\n\n“You know, after that incident with our church family, I really didn’t have a religious leader again until I went to college.  When I got to Xavier, I did start attending a church, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church; Pastor Luter, Fred Lutor who is still the pastor there, was great.  A lot of college kids went there and not just from Xavier, but U of O, University of New Orleans, Southern University; people would come from Baton Rouge to come and hear him; he was a great pastor.  I still watch his stuff on line even though I am more….I consider myself more spiritual than religious; but he was great.  There is no way that he could have known everybody’s name, but he remembered your situation.  He remembered, “Oh you go to Xavier,” “You go to Dillard,” or “You had a test coming up, how did the MCAT go?” things like that; he \n\n\nremembered those types of things about you and it was good having that down there especially with my parents being up here.”    \n\nI get the idea that at least after you started basketball that you had a lot of spunk.\n\n“Yeah, I did.”\n\nIs that correct?\n\n“I kind of came into my own self or coming out of that shell maybe about 8th grade; but by the time I was in 10th grade, I was full on in my own “I’m comfortable as me and if you are not comfortable with me, well that just sucks for you, So…”\n\nOK.  So by the time you get into high school, I assume you are taking all the hardest courses that you can possibly take in your school.  When did you start thinking about where you wanted to go to college? Obviously, you were going to college; what informed those decisions?\n\n“It is almost an unfair question because at the age of 10, I learned about Xavier.  The significant thing about Xavier University is that they are #1 at putting African Americans into medical school.”\n\nReally?\n\n“Yes and they have been for decades.  So when I found that out, that was where I was going to college; the end.  I’m not interested in staying in Arkansas, I don’t want to  go to Memphis,  I’m going to Xavier.”\n\nIs Xavier an interracial school? \n\n“It is a historical black college.”\n\nIn your junior high school or high school from your experience, when did you start saying; you already said that you were going to do something special, but when did it become medicine?  When did you start consciously thinking about medicine?\n\n“It happened right before I found out about Xavier.  Something that you should know is that for whatever reason cancer likes my family; it took all my grandparents and my mother.  So, I really got sick of losing people like that.  With grandparents that didn’t live close by, you would see them and they are ok; but then the next time you see them, “Gosh, they’re real sick; what’s going on?”  “Oh, so and so has cancer.”  “Well, why did they get cancer?”  It wasn’t like that preventable cancer, it wasn’t lung cancer or anything like that; it was pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, gastric cancer; it just came, saw, and took.  I was like, “Well, what can I do to help out with this?”  I remember being with my grandma before she passed away, my father’s mother, \n\n\nand I remember her doctor being there as she lived in rural Mississippi, Kilmichael’s rural.  I remember the doctor looking at me scoffing and saying, “Well, you can be a doctor if you want” and I remember him leaving after that.  So, I was like, “You know what, I think I’ll try that.”\n\nSo what were the issues that you looked at in going to Xavier?  You were making good grades and I assume that you ended up getting scholarships?\n\n“Uh huh, I did.”\n\nDid you work when you were in high school?\n\n“Yes, I did; it is now closed, but I worked at Shoney’s and I worked at that book store in Blytheville.  Basically all the money I got, I gave to my mom and then she would give me back some as an allowance and sometimes, she just said, ”Here, it’s your check; you keep it.  All the bills are paid.”  But that was the work I did in high school.  In college, my family told me, “Look, your job is to keep your scholarship.”  At Xavier, if you get a scholarship, “Yay, good; go you;” but every semester they check your GPA.  If it falls below…. your freshman year, you have a 3.0, which isn’t bad; sophomore year, you got a 3.3, junior year, you got a 3.5 and if you are going to med school, by the time you are in your junior year, you are taking bio-chem, organic, physics, and this is all the same semester.  You have to keep a 3.5 or else your scholarship is gone.  So they were like, “You job, your payment is to go to school and if you need money for something, we will pay for it.”\n\nSo how did y’all fund college?\n\n“Fund college was my scholarships, which covered books and my actually tuition.  The money that was left over as I mentioned before the people that my mother worked for passed away right before I went to college and they actually left my mother some money for me.  So, that was how I went to college.  I was very lucky; I didn’t have to take out any loans for college.  Med school was different; even though I got the rural medicine scholarship, I still had to have some loans for that.  But college was for me free.”\n\nWhat year did you graduate from high school?\n\n“I graduated high school in 2001.”\n\nTalk about college a little bit.  Was that an introduction; you moved from essentially rural Arkansas to a fairly sophisticated city.  Was that different?  \n\n“Oh yeah, it was very, very different.  I participated in a program called “Howard Hughes.”  The Howard Hughes program; what they do is look at the entire freshman class, which is about 500-700 students and they pick out, I believe 55 or 60 and they give them summer scholarships.  They pay for your room and board and they pay for you to take your first semester of chemistry and chemistry lab.  They make it a diverse thing.  You know, I put my hat in and said, “Ok, I don’t \n\n\nhave a big chance, but let’s go ahead and do this.”  Well, there weren’t that many people from Arkansas who went to Xavier that year; there were four and only two of us showed up for class that first day in the fall.  I don’t know what happened to the other two, I hope they did well.  So, myself and the other person from Arkansas, Sonja Hampton, got picked and we became good friends.  We did our first semester there in the summer and had about two weeks in between the end of the summer semester and beginning of fall semester.  Going to New Orleans in the summer time from rural Arkansas; first off, I thought I knew what hot was; I didn’t know what hot was.  Hot down there is a different kind of hot that just kind of chokes you.  I was in shape; I mean this was after basketball, volleyball, and track.  I got down there and tried to exercise and felt like I was about to die.  It was a real big culture shock.  My friends would say “hey, lets go out” and I was 17 at this time and I was like, “I can’t go anywhere, I’m 17” and they say, “Let’s get you a fake ID.”  “No, I don’t want a fake ID” and they kind of wore me down and I finally did go out.  Going out was going across the canal to the little club that was across the street from the school, so it wasn’t a long venture; I never told my mom about it, but know she knows.  You know, it was just doing things like that and getting out of your comfort zone and doing things that you feel like your parents are watching you, but they are not there; those type of things you just can’t do in rural Arkansas because there are no options.”\n\nDid you play basketball in New Orleans?\n\n“Just for a year, a semester actually; I turned my ankle really bad to the point where that was the end of that story.”                    \n\nSo talk about the javelin throwing; that sounds interesting.\n\n“So, what happened was Xavier came up with the money somehow to get a track team.  They already had a cross country team when I got there.  They had cross country, golf, tennis, and basketball; that was it.  There was no football team.  It was mostly a female school; I think it was 90% female and 10%male.  The males that come to Xavier, they don’t play football.  These are the guys who stayed in and studied.  They are not athletic types.”    \n\nHow many students were at Xavier?\n\n“Back when I was there about 3,000; it is more now because they have built some dormitories for kids to have actually live there.”\n\nDon’t they have basketball?\n\n“Uh huh, they have basketball, golf, tennis, and cross country.  My junior year, they came up with the money for a track team.  I thought, “Oh, I can do field events.” I did field events in high school, throwing the discus and the shock put.  Well as a first year team, we are coming in and we have trained and we are thinking we are doing good.  We are going against teams that have had track teams for years and these people that we are going against they have been \n\n\nlifting weights and they just blew us out the water as far as shot put goes.  My coach was like, “have you thought about throwing javelin before?”  and I was like, “No, why would I do that?” and he said, “Just give it a try and see if you can do it.”  He taught me my technique.  His name was Julius Green and he was the guy who if you looked at him, you wouldn’t think that he had an athletic day a day in his life ever.  He was a really morbidly obese guy who I still don’t know how he walked around.  But he taught me how to throw a javelin and I got really good at it.  It actually helped my discus throwing and I ended up getting some medals in discus and got all GCAC javelin throwing; that was just an interesting ride.”\n\nThis was your third year in college?\n\n“Uh hum; third year in college was the first time I threw javelin ever.”\n\nYou did that your third and fourth year?\n\n“Third and fourth year; yes, sir.”        \n\nTalk a little bit about some of your teachers you had in college. You talked about the coach, talk a little bit about some of the teachers you had in college and the impact they had on you.\n\n“In addition to being HBCU, Xavier is also a catholic school; so, there is the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.  They have their convent on campus and a lot of the sisters teach classes; so your PE class was taught by Sister Craig, biology was always Sister Grace Mary, histology was; oh what is that Sister’s name, I think is still there, maybe Henry is her last name.  At any rate, you know, you could be” wowed” and speaking the way that young adults speak, but when one of the sisters came in the room boy you straightened up.  You sit up straighter, you paid attention, there was no note passing as this was back in 2000 and there was no text messaging.  Text messaging was not popular then, but there was no note passing.  No nobody was not paying attention.  You did not fall asleep; you could be asleep before she walked in class, but when she walked in class and that door closed, you woke up but that was just respect.  Sister Grace Mary was also the biggest Xavier fan of all athletics.  She was at every game; every track meet, every…I don’t know how she did it and still slept, prayed, and taught.  Sister Grace Mary was absolutely amazing; I loved her to death.  I’d say the biggest influence that I had was our pre-med advisor, J.W. Carmichael who was actually from Arkansas and graduated from University of Fayetteville.  I believe he had Polio as a child, so he walked around with crutches and was kind of deformed in his lower extremities; but he was so foul mouthed and so honest that it was funny.  But, he knew what it took for you to get into medical school.  He knew you need to take these classes at these times and you need to get this on the MCAT; you need to take this course and if you follow all this and you follow this formula, you will get into medical school.  I mean, he mentored hundred of kids and was kind of like the pastor; I mean there was no way he knew who we were, but he knew I was the only student from Blytheville Arkansas.  He didn’t know my \n\n\nname; I have no doubt that he didn’t know my name, but to this day if he sees me he calls me Blytheville.  He don’t know my name, but he calls me Blytheville.”                \n\nIs he one of the reasons that Xavier has such a big acceptance rate into medical school?\n\n“Absolutely; absolutely, J.W. Carmichael.  If you got a letter from him, you were getting at least an interview into whatever medical school you wanted to go to.”\n\n At what point did you start thinking about the process of taking the MCAT test, making applications, and what informed your decision about where you were going to go?\n\n“Um, you know, if you go to Xavier and you say, “I want to go to pre-med” there is a list of classes; they have already got your every semester basically picked out for you except for your electives and you don’t even see an elective until your second semester your junior year.  So the first two and half years, you are following this formula of taking all these science classes, math classes, chemistry class; you are done with your minor when you take your MCAT.  All your minors; if you are biology pre-med, your automatically chemistry and vice versa.  All of those things were automatically set out for you if you want to be pre-med.  So from the very beginning, I knew that I was taking the MCAT second semester my junior year and l worked, went to a Kapelin prep-course with some of my friends, and studied real hard; the MCAT whooped my booty the first time, it was not a pleasant experience at all.  You know they tell you, I forgot what’s the cut off score to actually get into any interviews, but I did not get that.  So, I studied over the summer, took it again, and did really good.  I was happy with my decision and happy that I had a good study group.  I’m really happy that I didn’t get discouraged, because it is really easy to see that horrible score and be like, “Ok, I think I’ll go and take up basket weaving.”           \n\nWhat made you want to be a physician in health care? \n\n“Um, the first thing was seeing a lot of my family members get so sick and pass away when things could have maybe been caught earlier; the pancreatic cancer, defiantly not.  But, I think that seeing even the family members who didn’t have cancer, the ones with high blood pressure or obesity and those types of things, I think that they didn’t have as good access to primary care as they needed to.  I felt like maybe it was because doctors talk at people and not with people and that is one of the things that I hated.  I thought if I ever do this doctor thing, I want to be someone that people can talk “with” and not just “at” and that was one of my main reasons for wanting to be a doctor.”      \n\nDid going to school in Blytheville, Arkansas prepare you for Xavier?\n\n“No, not at all; I think that certain classes did.  I think my calculus class did and my English class did, but I was not ready for World History.  I feel like the ball got dropped there.  This was in \n\n\n2001 and there were certain parts of the Blytheville education system that were stronger than others at that time.  Jan Sinclair had the English department and it was great. Agnes Barger had the math department and it was great.  The science department at the time had Robert Robinson and Judy Hardin and it was great.  I think in those strong areas you need to get into medical school, biology, chemistry, physics, and math; I was fine with that, it was just everything else.” \n\nWere there any crises, either personal or family, along the way that might have pushed you in direction or another?\n\n“Um, my crises seemed to come right before an achievement.  The lady that my mother worked for who we called “Nana” loved me and my brother liked we were her grandkids; she fell and broke her hip in February of my senior year in high school and then died in April.  So, I was like, “Oh, perfect.”\n\nHow old was she?\n\n“She was 93; I want to say 93 or 94.  She lived a good long life.  Her husband passed when I was a baby and I don’t remember him, but I remember Nana.  Her name was Ruth Fleming, but we called her Nana.”\n\nThis is the lady that gave your mother money for you?\n\n“Yes.  Then in college, one of my brothers found out that he got infected with HIV and committed suicide; that happened after my medical school acceptance, but before my graduation.  I told you my mother passed away in 2009; well, I was a senior in 2009. I had just started my senior year of medical school.  You know, she found out she had cancer in January 2008 and you know tried to do chemo and decided, “You know what, that this was not going to work.”  When they found it, it was Stage 4 and she had the surgery and tried to do chemo but decided that she couldn’t do it.”    \n\nWhat kind of cancer did she have?\n\n“Colon cancer; she had colon cancer.  She lost her battle right after my senior year started.  I did about half of my OBGYN rotation and she passed away on a Saturday.  Conveniently, she said, “I don’t want you to miss any school” and she passed away on a Saturday when I didn’t have class.”\n\nSo what kind of factors went into you deciding where you would go to medical school; kinds of like what you did going to Xavier?\n\n“Um, you know, a lot of it was my parents getting older and me wanting to be within a day’s drive of them and I’m not going to lie scholarship was a lot of it.  Going to a historically black school like Xavier, they make the options of the historically black medical schools; I mean they \n\n\nadvertised them all the time and there was three; Howard, Morehouse, and Maharry. Of course, you apply to those schools and you go and interview.  I think that those are great schools.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with anyone of those schools and I would have been proud to go to those schools.  Just scholarship-wise, they weren’t as appealing to me as the things that I received from Arkansas.  I interviewed in Iowa and what was that…..”\n\nWhy Iowa?\n\n“Grinnell College of Medicine; they have a really good diversity department; so, that’s’ what drew me into Grinnell University of Iowa; Carver College of Medicine, that’s what it was.  So that is what drew me there, their diversity department.  You wouldn’t think of Iowa, but I’m from Arkansas, so.” \n\nAt what point did you start thinking about what you wanted to do with your life besides just becoming an MD?\n\n“As far as…..like?”\n\nWhere you wanted to live and what kind of practice you wanted to do?\n\n“Well, you know, I had it set out in my head.  In my head, I was going to go to college and I was going to meet a nice young man and we were going to go to med school together.  We were going to get married somewhere in there and have like 2.5 kids and we were going to live somewhere in between our parents.  I met a nice guy from South Caroline and we almost got to the end of college and then he cheated on me.  So that was gone and I decided, “You know what?  I’m just not going to fall in love again.  I’m going to just be close to my parents; that’s what I want to do.”  So coming to Arkansas made good sense and I said, “Well you know, there is nothing wrong with being single and if I don’t have any kids that will be ok.”   Being close to my parents helped me make the bulk of my decisions up until my mother got sick and then subsequently passed away.  My father is still very active and he spends a lot of his time in Mississippi, so I’m essentially here by myself.  But going back to your question, being closer to my aging parents was the main reason I chose to be back here.”   \n\nSo when did you graduate from college and when did you start medical school? \n\n“I graduated from college May 2005 and started medical school in August 2005.” \n\nTalk a little bit about that first year.\n\n“Oh, so…..so the upper classmen were very nice, but there is a tradition.  I don’t know if it was still there when you guys were at UAMS, but no one talks about that first bio-chem quiz.  It happens on the first Wednesday; you know, you go to class and you have Monday and Tuesday and then you walk in the door on Wednesday and there is a piece of paper already on your desk \n\n\nand it’s 5% of your grade.  I was like, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” and I know why; because it is so fun to watch the next class.”   \n\nI don’t think they did that to us.\n\n“I don’t know if they still do it or not; but oh God, it was great.”\n\nWas that first year hard?\n\n“That first year was extremely, extremely hard.”\n\nWas that first test hard?\n\n“That first test wasn’t hard for me, because I like chemistry.  So, bio-chemistry wasn’t my issue; Gross anatomy was my issue.  I think it was because I still had a College New Orleans state of mind in medical school and that didn’t work out for me very well.”\n\nWhat state of mind is that?\n\n“You know, “Oh, I can study it later” and “Oh, I’m going to go out and do this” or “I can just come back and cram.”  I was the queen of cram towards the end of college because my senior year; you follow that plan and basically the only class you have to take is your advanced bio-chem class and lab and then you have three electives, which can be basket weaving or what have you; something that doesn’t involve a whole lot of brain matter.”\n\nDid Xavier prepare you for medical school?\n\n“I believe it did; I believe it did.  I think that that first year, I allowed myself to get too laxed and coming to Arkansas and being in Little Rock;  some of the things that I didn’t have down there, I had here.  You know football season, which I love football by the way; football season was in and you know, you are close to the other HCUs; you got Lander-Smith and you got, USC I think it is and UAPB. You know you got Monticello and all those places with football teams.  I think I got so caught up in the college life that I didn’t have in Louisiana and that messed with me really, really bad my first year; really bad, to the point where I got some academic issues going on to the point where they said, “Hey, we are going to give you another year to do this; so you better straighten up and fly right.”  I don’t know if you guys ever had the pleasure of being on academic probation, but basically how it goes is you make a “C” in every course or you are out the door; no excepts, no questions, we don’t care what happens.”\n\nIt wasn’t because you couldn’t do it?\n\n“It wasn’t because I couldn’t do it; I just mentally for whatever reason…..”\n\n I bet that was hard.\n\n\n“You know what? It was a big wake-up call and I mean that subsequently made me ask a lot of questions about myself and you know, “Where could I have been had I had that extra year back?”  One of the things that bothered me and kind of still bothers me now is that my mother didn’t get to see me graduate.  Had I passed that first year, she would have died right after, but she would have seen it and that is one of the things that messed with me really, really, bad for years; years after I graduated.”             \n\nSo the first year and second year, you make it through the trial and then you’re into, “Here’s what we are going to do with the rest of my life.”  Was there any of that part that you went, “Wow, I love this; this is what I really, really want to do”?\n\n“You know when I got to third year; I thought I was going to be an OBGYN.  You know, I liked Women’s Medicine and I liked delivering babies; but then I found out women are crazy.  Pregnant women are very crazy.  Pregnant woman who thinks they are in labor are insane and when they actually are in labor, hold onto your horses!  GYN didn’t fulfill the fantasy of medicine that I put in my head; surgery did.  I loved surgery.  I liked actually being able to tangibly going in and fix something.  I really, really, liked surgery and thought I was going to be a surgeon.  Then I rotated at AHEC in Jonesboro, which was at that time was an unopposed smaller family medicine program of six residents in a class, and I noticed that yes these residents were family medicine….”\n\nThis was during your senior year?\n\n“This was during my junior year.” \n\nWhat is unopposed?\n\n“Unopposed means that there was no other residency in that program at that hospital; so, the residents that were there for family medicine, they were the residents.  Luckily at St. Bernard’s, a lot of the physicians in different specialties took us under their wing; so yeah you are doing family medicine and you are doing clinic and stuff, but you are doing serks, scrubbing in on all these C-sections, you’re doing stuff with urology, and doing stuff in ICU.  You are putting in chest tubes, running codes, and learning how to intabate.  I was like, “This is a little bit of everything” and “This is kind of awesome too.”  So I was real torn between family medicine and general surgery all junior year.   The rest of the things, which I did great in, I was like, “Yeah this is great” but family medicine, “Oh yeah, this is fine” but surgery….so that is what I was between.  When my senior year began, I was between general surgery and family medicine.”\n\nDid you meet Papa Joe during your six weeks?\n\n“I met Papa Joe Stallings during my third year.  He was still the program director at that time; I think that that was his last year of being a program director and he was a character.  He was the first down to earth white male doctor that I met.  I mean, you know I have to say that there \n\n\nis an stigma when an old white man comes in and he’s your doctor.  It’s like, “Ok, how dry is his personality going to be?” and Papa Joe is not like that.  He wanted to talk to you and see what is going on with you; he actually cares about you.  I don’t see how his heat is that big as he does that with everybody.  There is nobody who dislikes Papa Joe; everyone likes him.  People come back and come to AHEC to visit and they say, “Hey is Papa Joe here?” “No, alright I’ll come back.”  You know, there is plenty of other physicians that are still there; but if Papa Joe is not there, “Well come back.”          \n\nSo you kind of made your decision that you kind of liked not only family practice, but liked this program in specific.\n\n“Uh huh, I did.”\n\nNow your mom was still alive at that point?\n\n“Uh huh.”\n\nDid that inform your decision of coming to Jonesboro?\n\n“It did; you know, my family medicine rotation was early in my junior year, so this was like maybe fall of 2008.  Mom had quit chemo and she had that surge of heath; her weight was coming back and her hair was coming back and she was super happy as she wasn’t grey anymore.  You know, she wasn’t declining as quickly as the doctors had said she would.  She had masses everywhere; I saw her pet scan and her CT scan and it looked terrible.  They kept telling her, “Oh, three month,” “three months,” “three months” and I needed to be close to my mom.  I needed to be closer to here in case something happens and she lived 18 months.  Coming to Jonesboro really was influenced by wanting to be closer to her and every rotation that I could do in Jonesboro, I did it.” \n\nShe had colon cancer?\n\n“Uh huh.”\n\nWere you close or have been close to any of your brothers?\n\n“My oldest brother, John Holiman; he and I don’t have the same father.  John is 23 years older than me and he is my best friend.  To this day, he is my best friend.  He is; he will kill me for saying this, he is the sister that I never had.  He is the person in whom…..oh, he was also my roommate when I was in med school; I left that out.  So, he is the person whom if I am cramping because it is that wonder time of the month, he is the person who goes and gets me soup, hot water bottle, my products, and he comes and pats my head; that is my brother John.”\n\nSo, he lived in Little Rock at the time?\n\n\n“He lived in Little Rock at the time; yes.”  \n\nDid you end up with a lot of debt after medical school?\n\n“Oh my gosh, I don’t know who didn’t end up with a lot of debt in medical school.  Even with the scholarship I was fortunate enough to get, it only covered tuition and you had to live.  Even living meagerly, you end up with about $18,000 a year tacked on to your debt and you know, interest builds up on that until you can pay it back.  In addition to that and to add insult to injury, the interest rates on my loan went up between 2005 and 2006.  My interest rate on my loans I received my first year of medical school was 2.75 and the ones after were 6.25.”\n\nEww….thats pretty sharp; what happened?\n\n“You know what, that is a really good question.  I haven’t really gotten a straight answer, but I think it was something about some inflation particularly on education loans that led to this.”\n\nTalk a little bit about your applying to the residency here and the process; did you know that you were going to get accepted or did you think you were going to get accepted?\n\n“So I don’t know how it is now, but back then there was the Arras program, which you go in online and put in all of your stats and scores and then get passed steps one, two, five, six, seven…put in your recommendation letters and send them off to wherever it is on earth that you would like to go to.  This program up here; I told them when I came up for my rotations my senior year that I really, really, liked this place.  Again at the time, there were only six residents and I knew that there were 30-40 people who had applied and wanted and I mean really, really wanted to come to our program.  It wasn’t just people from Arkansas, but people from all over and I knew that I didn’t look great on paper.  What I mean by that is you know I had that first abysmal year and then you know, I spoke about my mother having cancer and stopping chemo; well my mother had told me about her decision about stopping chemo and the next day I took step one.  It didn’t turn out very good for me.  The second time I took step one, she had started to decline and I didn’t do good them.  Step one has three strikes and you’re out of medical school, so I actually went to my advisor’s office and he told me maybe you should stop while you’re ahead; very encouraging guy.  The third time was a charm and so, I knew that that looked bad and then when step two came along, my mom died right before I took step two.  As you can guess, I dismally failed that.  I took it again and passed it; so on paper, I didn’t look great at all.  I knew I didn’t look great, but I also knew that they knew my work ethic, they had my grades from the rest of my years, and they had my clinical years.  I just really wanted to get into this program because I was just thinking about how much I could learn if I got into this program because of it being unopposed and you know, I can turn blood out of a turnip; that’s one of the things I think I picked up from my oldest brother and my mother after I got over my shy phase.  But, I didn’t know that I was going to get into the program; I knew that people liked \n\n\nme.  I knew all the attending liked me, Papa Joe liked me, and I knew the nurses liked me because that matters.  But I didn’t know for sure that I was going to get in.”\n\nWhich year did you graduate from medical school?\n\n“2010.”\n\nWhen did you find out that you had been accepted up here?  Match Day 2010, yeah.\n\n“Match Day 2010; I think it was March 15th or 16th 2010 and we had the big Match Day party.  My dad and brothers came.  The Arkansas Democrat Gazette did a story on me that year because I’m from Arkansas, but my family is from New Orleans.  In their life, they moved there and we had things there and when Katrina hit, everything was destroyed.  So, getting out of touch with people and while I’m in medical school, it was terrible and they did a story on me kind of centered around that.  I was the 2nd person to read where I was going and you get this envelope and it is the thickest envelope I had ever seen.  You try to read through it with the light and you can’t.  So, I opened it and found out where I was going and I think I more-so screamed where I was going more than saying where I was going because when I got over, my dad was crying and happy and he was like, “Where you going?”  I interviewed everywhere; I mean o wanted to go here, but I was like, “I’ve got to keep my options open.”  I interviewed at Bang Ramat, Burlington, other AHECS in the state, over at Memphis, and back in New Orleans.  So, my dad knew there was a chance that I could go elsewhere even though I ranked Jonesboro first.”                \n\nWhen was the article in the Democrat Gazette?  Do you remember about?\n\n“Oh, I have a little piece of it and I want to say maybe it was done maybe in April.”\n\nSo, how long did it take for you to get comfortable with somebody calling you doctor?\n\n“Ohhhhh……I think it took maybe; it wasn’t so much the patients calling me doctor that I had to get used to, it was people who were older than me calling me doctor and I had to get used to that.  It’s kind of funny now because I have the opposite problem; I have patients calling me either Ms. Harrison or some get really comfortable and call me by my first name, which I have never invited a patient to do.  But, it took me about a month or so for me to get used to being called doctor.” \n\nLet’s talk now about the residency program.  You had experience already of being up here as a junior and being up here as a senior; was the residency program what you expected it to be? \n\n“It was everything that I expected it to be and more.  I can say that my class and I’m sure that there were more other classes like that; but my class of six, we all went to UAMS.  So, we all already knew each other.  Two of the guys in my class and myself, we were study buddies and \n\n\nwe hung out all through med school. The way my class worked is that the six residents that AHEC initially picked, only four of us actually matched in the program; so we had two scramble spots.  Two of the people scrambled into positions and both of them happened to be from UAMS.”\n\nYou said earlier that there was another distinction for your class.\n\n“My class of six was the class from 2010-2013 and was the first to my knowledge to be the only AHEC class where half of the residents were not white; myself and the first two Asian residents at AHEC Jonesboro history, Vincent Lee and Bal Chun.  We were in that class along with John Grey, Andrea Bounds, and Aaron Mitchell.”\n\nWhere did your two Asian friends end up going?\n\n“Vincent lives around the corner and he has just opened up his own practice in Paragould, I believe.  Bal got married; he married a girl from California and somewhere in there, they flipped a coin and said they were either going to move to Fort Smith where he is from or move to LA where she was from.  I don’t think that was the coin; I think he just decided to move to LA.”\n\nI think you said this neighborhood that we are in right now was kind of the resident’s neighborhood.\n\n“This is resident central; this neighborhood.  When I was in residency; within here the back area that is in construction now, fully constructed now, was not there.  it was just this little circle of houses.  During my residency, there were maybe 7 or 8 doctors that lived in this neighborhood.  So, if there happened to be a night where all of us were off call at the same time, we would go to each other’s house and have a bite or have a drink and complain about our upper levels that we couldn’t stand or complain about the interns that we couldn’t stand.  But this neighborhood was really comfortable; it was easy to be resident in this neighborhood.”  \n\n Now my understanding is that a lot of the teaching in the program here is done with private physicians in the city.  Was there ever any question of acceptance with OBGYNs, since you are a family practice resident, in doing OB?\n\n“No; not at all.  They knew you were a family medicine resident and if you are willing to learn, they will open their door up to you.  I think we had good relationships; have good relationships…the AHEC programs have good relationships with all sorts of specialties.  But I do think that the OBGYN physicians and the ICU physicians focus a lot of us because they know that AHEC has a history of sending docs to rural areas.  So, if you are going to be out there kind of managing an ICU patient of managing that obstetrics patient, they want you to have the best training that you can and I couldn’t have asked for a better program.” \n\n\n\nYou said you started out really interested in surgery and really interested in OB; did you get a healthy dose of all that while you were in your program?  \n\n“So in order to finish your family medicine program, you have to do 40 deliveries; 30 vaginal deliveries and in on 10 C-sections.  You know, some of my classmates did the bare minimum.  My work-husband, Bal Chun, did the bare minimum; he got to I think 43 and said, “I’m out. That’s it; that’s all I have to do.”  But people like Andrea Bounds, who I believe still practices, did well over 200 to maybe 300 deliveries and assisted.  Because it’s just not ours; the AHEC program would also get those people who roll in from out of town who has no obstetric care and roll in upstairs; “There’s a baby coming, come get it.”  We got quite a few of that and also in the middle of the night calls with the private physicians.  If they had someone that is either delivering or C-sections in particular, they would call us in to help out.  We got to do as much as they would allow us to; I have done a full C-section and I’ve closed C-sections helping out with obstetrics.  My best obstetric experience had Papa Joe involved; it was Christmas Eve and I was the lucky intern on call.  A woman rolls in with no prenatal care and she is pregnant with twins; “Really?  Ok, let’s do this.”  So, I’m all ready for a c-section, but then they said, “Oh, she is vertex-vertex.  We can try to pull this off.”  By then, Papa Joe is all in and Dr. Sam is up; so he comes in and says, “Ok, how about we deliver in the C-section room in case we need to convert her and we can go ahead and do that.”  So, they both kind of stood way back where that light is, about that far away from me and the patient who is now screaming her head off, and they left me deliver these vertex-vertex twins vaginally.  I mean it couldn’t have gone more perfectly; it was the best Christmas present ever.”\n\nSo at some point during your residency program, you had to start thinking, “OK, where am I going to go?  What am I going to do?”  Your mom had passed away by this time and your father had moved to Alabama.\n\n“He commutes a lot to Mississippi.”\n\nWhat was it that informed your decision about where you were going into practice?\n\n“You know, my dad is a lot more mobile now than he was when I was looking from my practice.  He was still kind of getting used to being alone when I finished in 2013, so staying close to him again was more priority as all my brothers had moved off.  They still come home, but they’re more than an hour drive away from my father.  So, I was just looking from programs that would fit my rural medicine commitment which was basically you practice in a town with less than 15,000 people for more than four years and they will eliminate your tuition debt and all the interest associated with it.  My first go-to was actually just to go back to Blytheville where my dad was at.  I wouldn’t have to worry about a place to live and at this time, I was single and still didn’t have kids.  I just had these guys and my dad loved his grand-cats; so, I was already to go \n\n\n\nto Blytheville.  But, Blytheville’s population was just over 15,000; so, it doesn’t count as rural.  But Osceola, which is right next door, was 7,000; “Perfect; let’s do that and actually, I can try and find a house there”; but I couldn’t.  All the houses that were there were nice, but they were big huge houses with 4-5 bedrooms and I don’t need that for me and the cats.  But, my dad’s location was the main thing that helped out with me getting over to Osceola.”           \n\n Did you just go into a one person practice or did you tie in with some other organization?\n\n“I am a part of a hospital owned practice.  At the time, the practice only had an APN.  They bad a doctor that came there once a week, every Tuesday; but they did not have an in-house doctor there.  So because of that, they didn’t have a pediatric population. My APN sees 16 and up; so when I came there, they hadn’t had a full time doctor there in I want to say about 6-7 years.  The last doctor there, I believe, was Dr. Deal; who I think has moved over to north or northwest Arkansas.”\n\nHow big a town in Osceola?\n\n“About 7,000 people.”\n\nWhat is the primary industry there?\n\n“Osceola is more-so a factory town.  They are building a steel mill there now.  There are food companies.  There is Dinso.  Another, I believe, steel company and manufacturing company.  Then of course agriculture; there is a lot of farm land around there and a lot of farmers around there.”\n\nIt is right on the river isn’t it?\n\n“Yes it is.”\n\n Big River Steel Company; that’s the one in Osceola?\n\n“Big River Steel; yes it is.” \n\nYou’ve been there how long?\n\n“3 ½ years.”      \n\nDid you have to do much setting up or was the office pretty well set up and ready to function when you got there?\n\n“The office was ready to go when I got there. They were just waiting for me to come on it and start building practice.”\n\nAny scary things?\n\n\n“Oh yeah, scary things….a couple come to mind.  One was the frantic call from an ER doctor who says, “Hey, I see some feet.”  That’s not something you want to hear during your clinic hours.  So, you know, “Hold on patients. I’ll be back.”  I see feet hanging out and did what I always do when I feel like I’m overwhelmed, I called Papa Joe.  “Hey, I need some help.”  You hear about you learn how to do breach deliveries; I did not see not one in my residency, not one.  I get to Osceola and within I want to say the first three months, as it was winter and Christmas hadn’t passed yet; maybe it was between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I was like ”Are you serious?  This can’t be my life right now.”  He is telling me what to do on speaker phone while I’m trying to calm down this non-English speaking patient with sprantic Spanish.  Meanwhile the ER doctor is in the background with this thing that he thinks he is about to an episiotomy with and I’m like, “No, go away Sir.”  But the baby came out fine and that was scary.  Also, very interesting skin cancers gets seen over there as they think they’re just going to go away.  Papa Joe will tell you about a story about a young man who I sent over there whose entire foot was encapsulated with Melanoma.”\n\nReally?\n\n“Uh huh.” \n\nPoor socio-economic folks generally?\n\n“Osceola in general is a food dessert with poor socio-economic area.  I think average income; I looked it up not too long ago and I think the average yearly income for a family there is around $20,000, not more but around $20,000.”            \n\nSo, you have been there for three years?\n\n“3 ½ years.”\n\nHow long are you going to stay there?\n\n“I’m not sure yet.  When I moved to Osceola, I was single and not really thinking about doing much besides practicing medicine and over the years, I have met a very nice young man.  I have actually known him; I met him when I was in residency and we were just friends.  But, he and I have begun to date.  We have been together about 2 ½ years.  He is from the city and he does not fancy country life.  I have tried to pull him over to the light, but he is not fancying it.  So, I’m thinking we may possibly look for a middle ground, but I don’t have any plans of immediate departure right now.”   \n\nSo what do you do for fun?\n\n“I am a cook.  My mother was a cook and I was a cook and that was one of the ways we bonded.  My mother actually could not read or do math, but she could cook.  She would tell me different things and cooking was our thing.  So, cooking is still my thing and I also like to garden.  \n\n\nGoing back to my childhood, I still like to read.  I love to read a lot; anything…nonfiction or fiction.  My favorite book is “Of Mice and Men” and “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and “All the King’s Men.”  Those are my favorite books.”\n\nGuns, Germs, and Steel?\n\n“yes, it was a difficult read the first time, but the second time I was like, “Ok; alright, let’s do this.”\n\nYou mentioned earlier when asked if you wrote?\n\n“Yes.”\n\nDo you still write?\n\n“I do still write, yes.  I do still write.  I blog every now and then.  I don’t really write down a lot of my personal feelings anymore, but there is a certain amount of creativity; I like to play around with words.  I’ll write short stories; none of which have to do with medicine.  They are probably as far away moved from me; the character is very far removed from me as possible as I’ll write the main character as being an Asian male or something that I don’t have any personal point of view from, but something that I play around with in my head.  It’s my escape.”\n\nHave you need in medicine long enough to see major changes occur?  Where you on EMRs when you started?\n\n“When we started, yes sir.  We were on EMR systems and we have changed even a lot since med school.  CPRS is the VA system, I don’t think that it is ever going to change.  There was the system at Arkansas Children’s, the system at UAMS, and then you move over here and there is a different system with the hospital and with the clinic.  Then I moved to Osceola and there is another one and that system has changed a couple of times.  It has always been EMR as long as I have known it, but I will say that the NEA hospital that I worked for used to have hard patient charts are there was no computer charting; everything was hard patient charts and now everything is on computer.”\n\nWhat do you prefer?\n\n“I actually prefer the paper charts.  I am a kinetic learner and I feel like if I write down something about a patient, I’m going to recall it easier later on.  Typing just doesn’t do it.”        \n\nWhat has been the most gratifying thing for you in the practice of medicine?\n\n“I think the most gratifying thing for me in medicine is telling a patient about their disease who may have had their disease for a very long time.  I feel like it goes back to doctors talking at patient and not with patients.  Explaining to a diabetic that carbohydrates isn’t just bread; its \n\n\npotatoes, rice, and things like that.  I think seeing that “Ah hah” moment in a patient and then seeing the patient come back and you can see there’s changes; weight changes and A1-C change.  Those types of things to let me know that I have actually gotten through, that is the most gratifying thing.”\n\nIf you hadn’t gone into medicine or you hadn’t gone into family practice, what would you have done?\n\n“if I hadn’t gone into family practice, I would have definitely done general surgery.  Had I not gone into family medicine or medicine period, I would have done something in some kind of thespian art.  I sung opera in high school.  I was a meso-soprano.”\n\nYou sampled a lot.\n\n“I did a lot, I did a lot, I did a lot.  I was one of those kids that I didn’t do a lot outside of school, but you know when I got to the age where I didn’t always want to be cooped up at home, I just started joining after school clubs.  I could do choir, play that sport, be in this club, and “Yeah, I can tutor.”  I could be out up until 8:00pm, but I was at school.”\n\nDo you still sing?\n\n“I don’t sing as much as I used to.”\n\nDo you not sing at church at all?\n\n“No; no, I don’t sing as much as I used to….unless you count the shower.  But, I miss singing opera; I really do.  I love the arts.  I love going to operas and going to plays.  My boyfriend has suffered though many of those with me. ”        \n\nSo, have you ever thought about teaching?\n\n“Yes.”\n\nTeaching medicine?\n\n“Yes, I have thought about teaching medicine.  I think my journey through medicine was unique with a lot of stumbles and pit falls.  There were several times during my medical education timeline where I could have said, “Well, I’m not going to repeat my first year” or “I’m going to quit trying to pass step one” or “My mom died, I’m just going to quit.”  There were many times where I could have just been like, “You know what, I’m done” and talking myself out of that because I have a great family, but they didn’t understand how hard medical school was.  Up until medical school, school was easy; so they didn’t understand how hard medical school was.  So, talking with them was not an option; it was just, “Well don’t quit.”  I think having somebody \n\n\n\nas a student looking at somebody who is where they want to be who had to struggle, I think that would make the whole process of getting an education to be a physician real to them and not just the process A,B,C, D to know that you can go from A to L to C and still end up at Z would be good.  So, yeah; I have thought about it.”     \n\nTalk a little bit, as I know you think about this as I can hear it in your voice, think about the impact  of being a female in medicine and the impact of being an African-American female who practices medicine; what impact does that have on you and your patients?\n\n“You oftentimes; you are never mistaken for the doctor; never.  You are never mistaken for the doctor.  You’re the other nurse that came in the room or if you are in the hospital you’re the CNA that came in the room or you’re the person that is here to take out the trash despite the fact that you have on the white coat, stethoscope, and name badge.  You can’t be the doctor.  You can have full on conversations with patients and tell them everything that is going on with them and at the end of your session for 30 minutes, “When is the doctor going to be in here?”  You know what, “One second” and I have gone out and grabbed a PT guy who was a white male and told him, “Come here for a second and tell them everything I said was right.”  He said, “Yes, you have to listen to her she knows what she’s talking about.”  I have done that; I have done that before.  Ask Papa Joe, I have done it.  He just was standing in the hallway and said, “Did you just do what I think you did?” and I said, “Yeah, I did.”\n\nIn medical school or in your residency, were there any times that you felt like you were limited by being a female?\n\n“If anything I felt like it was strength.  You know, I feel like the only thing people didn’t really want to talk to me about when I was a resident physician was that men were not all that keen on talking to me about more personal issues.  For the most part, I felt like being a female was an advantage.”\n\nWhat about other health care professionals?\n\n“They also never mistake you for the doctor.  I feel like once they know who you are that stops them from saying stupid things and if they said stupid things, it is always fun to watch them apologize.  It is always a blast to watch them apologize.  For the first two years, I was the only black female physician in the hospital period and when people would mistake me for someone else, I would always tell them with a smile on my face, “You know, there are so many of us, you’ve got to keep track of all of us.  I can understand why you’d forget me.”   The redness that would happen, oh it was great.”         \n\nI have one last question.  One of these days a couple of generations from now, you are going to be a picture on the wall; someone’s momma, grandmother or great grandmother who \n\n\n\npracticed medicine.  if you could talk to your great, great, grandchildren what do you want to say to them about you and how you lived your life and what you want for them in their life?\n\n“I would want whoever is going to come after me; the things I want them to know about grandma, mom, Great-granny is that I’m a fighter.  Not literally, I didn’t do UFC; but I would like for them to know that it takes an awful lot to keep a person like me down.  Women in general are strong; black women are strong.  You have to have very thick skin and thick skin does not come lightly; you know.   You fight for what you want and you will have scars afterwards, but that’s ok scars can be beautiful.  I would also want you to know that you will see some really horrible things in life, no matter what you do.  You can be a ditch digger your whole life, but you will see some horrible things; don’t let it harden you or change who you are.  Because your heart is precious, but don’t turn it into an ice box; you need to let some people inside.  The last thing I want you to know is that if you ever find love, don’t let it go for any reason; whether it is a person or something that you want to do.  Find something or someone that you love and don’t let it go.”     \n\nThank you Dr. Harrison.  That completes our interview.  I appreciate it very much.  What a wonderful way to end it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3162/collection_resources/140818/file/260247#t=0.0,4588.37546"}]}]}]}