Three Yale Psychiatry faculty and one resident have been selected for the Public Voices Fellowship at Yale’s 2021-22 cohort.
Christy L. Olezeski, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Carmen Black, MD, and Andrea Mendiola, MD, both assistant professors of psychiatry; and Amanda Calhoun, Third-Year Resident in the Albert J. Solnit Integrated Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry Program are among this year’s group of 23 fellows. Calhoun is the only resident.
Yale’s Women Faculty Forum has partnered with The OpEd Project to host the Public Voices Fellowship at Yale. The Public Voice Fellowship was created by The OpEd Project “to dramatically increase the public impact of our nation’s top underrepresented thinkers and to ensure our ideas help shape the important conversations of our age.”
The program has been overwhelmingly popular and counts among its alums 142 Yale fellows, who have produced over 526 publications and media successes while participating in the program, and many more since.
“While I might not change as many minds and hearts as I would like to, this fellowship has helped me to use my voice in a new way and has led to increased connections with other faculty at Yale. For that, I am very grateful,” Olezeski said.
Black said: “I instantly appreciated that the OpEd project was willing to explicitly acknowledge how the media is controlled by people who often negate the expertise of women in the media, especially Black women like myself. These same barriers against recognizing my voices of Black women exist in academic medicine. As I progress through this fellowship, it’s been phenomenally liberating to be recognized for my lived experiences of antiracism that still have no home in academia.”
Mendiola shared: “As a Latina woman, the Public Voices Fellowship has been crucial. It has given me a space to have my voice heard and learn how to communicate my ideas, experiences, or comments - even if they counter the popular opinion. And, by interacting with other fellows, reading their drafts, working as a team, and learning from their experiences, I have created a solid network that empowers us all as a thriving community.”
Calhoun said she was nervous about joining a cohort of faculty as the only resident in the 2021-22 fellowship. “I was pleasantly surprised,” she said. “The supportive energy of the program is infectious, and the leaders of the cohort are phenomenal. The Yale OpEd Project not only gives you the tools and the guidance to write and submit op-eds, but they inspire and encourage you to use your voice.”