Speaker 1
Well, my path to medicine actually started around the sixth grade. My dad always wanted to be a doctor. He was an EMT in the Army and ended up being a pharmacologist at Hyman Hospital in Philadelphia. But he never really was able to get to that time where he could actually go to medical school and become a physician. So around sixth grade, I said, "It might be a good idea to be a physician. I might like to be a doctor."
As I went through medical school, I really enjoyed little bits and pieces of all the different things that I did. So in internal medicine, I like the thought-provoking questions, "How do we help these patients?" the physical findings that we use to try to diagnose weird things that were occurring. I like the surgical parts of things.
Speaker 2
I think what's most exemplary about Dr. McMichael is her ability to empathize with patients who have certainly been through a lot.
Speaker 1
I found my way to academic medicine through my residency. I never really thought that I would go into an academic position. I always thought about going back home to Philadelphia and just hanging up my shingle and being a dermatologist there. But I think one day when I had to substitute for one of my faculty members in a lecture, that sort of gave me the bug.
Speaker 3
Amy was a resident at the University of Michigan. We had a creative new idea for position with the Department of Public Health Science where someone would come and see patients part-time and do training in public health science part-time. Amy was by far the most outstanding candidate for that position. She had done her undergraduate work at Swarthmore, was a medical student, a distinguished one by the way, at the University of Pennsylvania, and a resident at what was then one of the best dermatology departments in the country at the University of Michigan.
Speaker 1
The other thing that I think really got me here is the fact that as I went through medical school, I did feel like there were times when some of the students of color were not treated in the same way. They were not taught the same way. I thought, "There needs to be more people there who are also skin of color to teach."
Speaker 4
She's just such an infectious personality. I think she's been able to make relations with so many different people, and she's always willing to learn. She's like a sponge, so she's constantly learning new information from those around her. And then as a mentor, she is dynamic.
Speaker 1
I think I teach mostly by showing folks how I do it. I try to ask probing questions and give the residents particularly opportunities to advance their thinking and pick things that they may not have ever thought about picking in a differential diagnosis of cases.
Speaker 2
Her teaching, her influence has certainly been instrumental in my career to date. From a didactic standpoint and also a clinical standpoint, she not only sort of shepherded me in the right direction for dermatologic training, not just how to be a good physician and a good dermatologist, but also how to be a good leader.
Speaker 1
Each one of them needs something different. Some of them come from families who are all doctors. I even have had two residents that were the son and daughter of a dermatologist. Some of them come from a family where they were a child of nine siblings. Each of those learners need something just a little different from me, and so what I try to do is try to look at what they're doing, where they are in their stage of learning, and try to get them just a little bit to the next phase.
Speaker 4
I think her work over the last few years of just recruiting students and having so many students that are interested in working with her, whether it is on the research side or the clinical side of dermatology, speaks for itself. So many of them have an interest in dermatology, merely an interest, and I think most of them by the time they leave are very passionate about the field.
Speaker 1
So if I'm standing in a room and I see that moment where somebody just gets it, I think my heart just blossoms. I actually incorporate it in my stories. When I give lectures, I incorporate those moments because I think that people who are learners want to hear about that.
Speaker 2
Dr. McMichael is so unique in incorporating bench medicine and all of her research, specifically with hair loss, scarring and non scarring forms of hair loss, but also being able to incorporate that into her provision of patient care. That's the teaching that's maybe been the most influential for me, taking what we learned and how to incorporate that for each specific patient.
Speaker 1
My parents were always home for me, so they supported me no matter what. As a adult, having my own family, that's what I wanted to be for my kids.
Speaker 5
I always felt that she was able to somehow balance a lot of things because she was a leader within the department, being the program director and then the department chair, and then she was also a mother. I'm now a mother, so now I understand a lot better what that's like to be working and to be a mother. She was full-time doing that, program director, also participating in research projects and traveling, giving talks, and so it was really inspiring to see her do that.
Speaker 1
When I'm talking to my patients, when I'm talking to my students, I share anecdotes about my crazy kids all the time. They and my husband have been quite a big support of my career. I couldn't do this if my husband hadn't pitched in and done a lot of work in our house, with our kids.
Speaker 5
The award from the Alumni Association for Outstanding Faculty Member is one of the greatest honors that someone on our faculty can receive.
Speaker 1
I think what's so nice about this distinguished faculty award is that it really does put into practice this idea of recognizing people for working hard and doing their best.
Speaker 4
I Hope that you understand during your time at Wake Forest that you have left a legacy and an imprint on the institution that will last a lifetime.
Amy J. McMichael, MD, FAAD, is a Philadelphia native who received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed an internship at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and her dermatology residency training at the University of Michigan School of Medicine.