Matrix Mentorship Program provides an experience ‘intangible of currency value’
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When the founders of Scrubs & Heels created the Matrix Mentorship Program in 2022, they wanted to elevate the careers of female gastroenterologists by going beyond traditional mentorship and focusing on a broader definition of success.
“This program aligns with our vision of providing 360-degree support and resources to women in GI, so they can achieve their full potential and a successful and rewarding career, well-integrated with their personal life and values,” Aline Charabaty, MD, AGAF, FACG, co-founder of Scrubs & Heels and clinical director of the IBD Center at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine at Sibley Memorial Hospital, told Healio.
In its inaugural year, the program supported six mentees, who received sponsorship opportunities and professional coaching, and developed lifelong skills for negotiating contracts, addressing imposter phenomenon, standing up to microaggressions and setting healthy work boundaries.
Charabaty and Scrubs & Heels co-founder Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, MHCM, have expanded enrollment in 2023 to 12 mentees, and the program now includes mentors and mentees from private practice, academia and government institutions, pediatric gastroenterologists, early and mid-career professionals, and gastroenterologists with varied areas of focus, from IBD to therapeutic endoscopy. Charabaty and Afzali eventually aim to include advanced practice providers, GI fellows and residents in the program.
“Our uniquely designed mentorship program is a top strategy of our Scrubs & Heels mission to address the gender gap and ‘leaky pipeline’ of women in medicine and within the field of gastroenterology,” Afzali, executive vice chair of internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati and associate chief medical officer at UC Health, told Healio.
According to Aasma Shaukat, MD, MPH, Matrix mentor and professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, this program — and mentorship in general — highlights “the difference between making the connection with what you’re trying to achieve vs. actually achieving it.”
To learn more about the value and importance of mentorship, Healio spoke with mentors and mentees about the program’s impact on participants’ careers and beyond.
A roadmap for success
It is no secret that mentorship adds distinct value to a young professional’s path — this is even truer among women in gastroenterology who have historically experienced limited access to opportunities for career advancement.
“During my career, I have been conscious of instances when my female colleagues’ career progression was held back, either by their own feeling of ‘imposter syndrome’ or by implicit bias at a leadership level on what their goals should be,” Alan Moss, MD, Matrix mentor and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, said. “Having the privilege of holding leadership roles in academic medicine, I felt I could provide insights and strategies to assist the mentees in navigating these obstacles.”
He added, “Mentors can open doors, support innovation and encourage mentees to explore career pathways that they otherwise may not have the means to.”
While many young professionals are aware of a keen desire to do more in their careers and reach a higher potential, some question where to begin and what their next steps should be.
“In medical school, residency and fellowship, the end goal is becoming a competent doctor. But once you start and establish yourself, you look around and realize you have a lot of questions regarding what’s next and whether you’re moving forward on the right path,” Corlan O. Eboh, MD, Matrix mentee and gastroenterologist at Atrium Health in North Carolina, said.
“I didn’t know who to go to until a colleague brought this program to my attention,” she continued. “The Matrix Mentorship Program provided a versatile solution to help me with my career development, professional development and leadership skills. The program provided the education and encouragement to advocate for myself and what I want in my career.”
Maysaa El Zoghbi, MD, Matrix mentee and gastroenterology specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts, added, “I learned about opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. It helped me grow in my career and create my identity as a gastroenterologist.”
“This is the kind of thing that my generation of gastroenterologists needed at that early career stage to help find our way,” Shaukat said. “It really resonated with a lot of the weaknesses or deficiencies I felt in those early, vulnerable years.”
Not a balance but a ‘work-life dance’
At its core, the Matrix Mentorship Program helps women define their career path, but an in-depth look reveals that it is much more than just career goals that shape a woman’s experience.
“I have taken away that much of [the program’s] values are based on the premise of authenticity, vulnerability and community of women supporting women with male allies,” Leybelis Padilla, MD, Matrix mentee and gastroenterologist at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, told Healio. “It is an ecosystem of women empowerment, mentorship and support with a focus on helping each other grow and learn from the other’s experiences. It is also an opportunity to be vulnerable.”
A unique aspect of this program is rather than being paired with one specific mentor, mentees can collaborate and form connections with more than one mentor, male or female.
“This program goes beyond providing a mentor, an ally and a career coach,” Eboh said. “It unites you with a group of females peers, who in meeting with and in discussion, you realize that you’re not alone in the challenges you’re facing.”
In addition to helping mentees tackle challenges ranging from identifying new possibilities to accessing professional opportunities, the program also addresses how to thrive both professionally and personally.
“The program celebrates work-life integration,” El Zoghbi said. “It helped in setting boundaries between work and personal life and finding ways to achieve a healthy balance of both.”
Padilla added that mentor coaching sessions helped her to gain the confidence to make this kind of integration. “I feel more capable asking what I want and taking the risk and leaps to do so,” she said.
Eboh shared how one of her mentors shifted her perspective and shed light on unrealistic pressures people often place on themselves to achieve the “perfect balance.”
“She helped me view it not as a work-life balance, but rather a work-life dance,” Eboh said. “Viewing it as a dance, where some days work life will lead and other days personal life will lead, really helps me put things back into perspective. That has helped me maintain control with less guilt.”
The value of mentorship
This program encourages mentors and mentees alike to grow their “tribe” of likeminded individuals, gain insight into others’ experiences, challenge perspectives and acquire new knowledge, regardless of career stage.
“I have learned much about some of the weaknesses of our training and education system from my colleagues that need to be addressed,” Moss said. “I have also learned about some of the hidden obstacles my peers have experienced in reaching their professional and personal goals.”
Shaukat added that mentorship is “one of the most fulfilling things you can do,” with the reward of increasing a professional’s career longevity and reigniting a passion for their work.
“I agreed wholeheartedly to be a part of this program and one of the joys of being in my position is the ability to work with and mentor junior faculty and help them make that next leap or that next connection that fulfills their career and their life,” she said.
According to Afzali, many female health care professionals, including gastroenterologists, have left their current positions in search of greater work flexibility, leadership and career advancement opportunities — or environments that provide more joy, value and purpose. “Our Matrix Mentorship Program cultivates relationships, empowers our tribe of women, encourages new ways of thinking and challenges assumptions to help our mentees increase their confidence through improved skills and leadership competencies for both personal and professional development,” she said. “This is a pay-it-forward mentorship program.”
For Padilla, the relationships and community she gained through the program are “intangible of currency value.”
“Women are capable, confident and fierce beings,” she said. “Only we as women are capable of limiting our vision of our lives. But in community, we are unstoppable and that’s what this mentorship program gives.”
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