Newly formed ASCO Young Investigator Award designed to advance Latinas in academia
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Narjust Duma, MD, and Gladys I. Rodriguez, MD, brought to formation ASCO’s first Young Investigators Award for Latinas, an effort driven by their passion to retain and elevate Latin/Hispanic women in academic oncology.
Rebecca Shulman, MD, a radiation oncology resident at Fox Chase Cancer Center, received the first award, presented at this year’s ASCO Annual Meeting. Her work focuses on genotyping BRCA1 mutations as predictors of radiosensitivity in breast cancers and cultured breast cancer cells.
In an interview with Healio, Duma — a thoracic oncologist who serves as the associate director of the Cancer Care Equity Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — explained that although there is a lack of Latin/Hispanic women in medicine, there are even fewer in academic oncology.
“I can count on my hands the number who are senior or at my level,” she said. “We are recruiting more Latinas into oncology, but many go to private practice after they finish training due to financial responsibilities and the hostile environment that they may encounter in academic oncology.”
Duma said that many Latinas also move on to primary care through a mix of bias and messages of guilt from attendings and senior staff, such as suggestions that they should do so to “care for your people.”
Forming the award
Considering these obstacles, Duma and Rodriguez, medical oncologist at The START Center for Cancer Care in San Antonio, Texas, approached ASCO with their idea for the new award. Duma noted that although the association has worked toward enhancing diversity in medicine and encouraging individuals from historically underrepresented groups to pursue careers in health care, the work is not finished after recruitment.
She said that one of the biggest challenges they faced was funding. While having been involved in fundraising efforts in the past, Duma said that this effort was unique in its scope and doubly so in the face of the pandemic.
“We didn’t have a live event. We didn’t have an in-person ASCO meeting. I honestly was scared at the beginning, thinking, ‘What if we don’t achieve the goal?’” she said. “So, Dr. Rodriguez and I put together a list of friends and began emailing and texting people, and it was a lot of volunteer work. We didn’t have to do this by ourselves, but if you want to find a solution, you have to go out and do it.”
She added that they were able to raise more than the goal of approximately $50,000 for the first award and are continuing to fundraise for an award in 2022.
Importance of being seen
Duma said that, in medicine, Latinas far too often face reminders that “they do not belong.” She said that Latinas feel this simply by walking the halls of an institution and finding no one looks like them, even among the photos on the wall.
“You’re often confused with janitorial services, because Latina women are most likely to work in that very important job,” she said. “It is important, but it’s not your job. You are a doctor. When you introduce yourself, people think you’re anything but a doctor. All those messages get to you.”
Duma recounted having “grown up in hospitals” with her surgeon parents, often waiting on her mother to finish up with her last patient.
“Despite coming from that background, those comments and reactions made me think that maybe I didn’t belong in medicine,” she said. “When you feel underappreciated as a minority in medicine and when you don’t see anyone at the top and otherwise see an exodus of minorities around you, you won’t feel like you belong in academia.”
How allies can help
As Duma spoke about her work with Dr. Rodriguez to form the new award, she added how important allyship can be for those underrepresented in medicine.
“The first thing to do is become an advocate for equity,” Duma said. “What this means is that actions need to happen. Bring that person, that Latina, to the table.”
As an example, Duma advised that little things can go a long way, such as inviting a Latina colleague to a meeting or asking what they would like to add during a conversation.
“Also, just check in,” she said. “During COVID-19, Black and Hispanic communities were heavily hit by the virus. Many of us have friends and family members we lost. Just check in and ask, ‘How are you doing? How is your family?’
“Reaching out means a lot to that trainee who looks around and sees no one looks like them or has the same shared experiences,” she added.
For more information:
Narjust Duma, MD, can be reached on Twitter at @NarjustDumaMD.
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