Nientara Anderson, MD, MHS, second-year resident in the Department of Psychiatry, was interviewed on a recent podcast discussing institutional portraiture, diversity, and inclusion in medicine.
Anderson was interviewed alongside Elizabeth Fitzsousa, MD, a 2021 graduate of Yale School of Medicine, and Anna Reisman, MD, professor of general internal medicine and director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine at Yale, on the third episode of the “Lost Women of Science” podcast. The podcast aims to tell the stories of groundbreaking women scientists who have been largely unrecognized. Each season is dedicated to exploring the life and work of a female scientist, and this season focuses on Dr. Dorothy Andersen, the pathologist who first identified cystic fibrosis in 1938 at the former Babies Hospital at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center but whose landmark contribution has not been widely acknowledged or celebrated.
In Episode 3, titled “The Case of the Missing Portrait,” Anderson, Fitzsousa, and Reisman spoke with host Katie Hafner (author and journalist for the New York Times) about the lost portrait of Dr. Dorothy Andersen and how racism and sexism affects whose achievements are celebrated and remembered in medicine. Anderson, Fitzsousa and Reisman also discussed their 2019 study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine: “’This institution was never meant for me’: the Impact of Institutional Historical Portraiture on Medical Students”. In this study, they found that the lack of racial and gender diversity in institutional portraiture had a negative effect on Yale medical students’ sense of belonging in medicine.
Listen to the full episode online, on Apple podcasts, or on Spotify and learn more about the Lost Women of Science podcast at LostWomenOfScience.org.