Thank you for considering the Brown University Surgical Residency Program for your residency training. The program has a long history of fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for all residents. We understand that diversity gives all healthcare providers the opportunity to explore different cultures, which enriches the educational experience and, and more importantly, provides a framework for each resident physician to better understand their patients and provide excellent patient care.

The Department of Surgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School is committed to building a diverse and inclusive Residency Program.  Our primary goal is to increase the number of residents with diverse backgrounds in our program. As you research residency programs, we invite you to research the cities and states in which you will be working. It may surprise you how much diversity you will find here in Rhode Island. Although we may be best known for our excellent universities and beaches, Rhode Island is also racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and spiritually diverse.

The Brown Surgery Residency Program is proud to partner with the Brown Minority Housestaff Association (BMHA) and The Warren Alpert Medical School's Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to create an inclusive and diverse environment for all. Please see the links below for more details. Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about our residency program and the communities we serve.

Carla Moreira, MD, RPVI
Diversity Officer for the Department of Surgery
Email

The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital/Miriam Hospitals are committed to serving a community that includes a diverse cultural and socioeconomic mix. Our institutions are committed to advancing diversity and inclusion within the healthcare field by supporting our faculty and housestaff and training them to provide care for the specific needs of these community groups. The Brown Minority Housestaff Association and the The Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are devoted to providing a supportive space to all housestaff and learning opportunities to improve culturally competent patient care.

• Carla Moreira, MD, Diversity Officer & Associate Residency Program Director
• Thomas Miner, MD, Residency Program Director
• Rachel Beard, MD, Associate Residency Program Director
• Ashlie Haas-Rodriguez, C-TAGME, Residency Program Administrator
• Kenneth Lynch, Phd, Director of Surgical Education
• Brent Emigh, MD
• Daithi Heffernan, MD
• Francois Luks, MD
• Katherine MacCallum, MD
• Sean Monaghan, MD
• Alger Fredericks, PhD
• Lindsey Moran, NP
• Angela Togba, NP
• Sherry Walters, DNP
• Debolina Banerjee, MD
• Audrea Bose, MD
• Daniel Beltre, MD
• Abigail Case, MD
• Lauren Cournoyer, MD
• Errol Hunte, MD
• William Law, MD
• Ilan Layman, MD
• Yao Liu, MD
• Kwesi Lillard, MD
• Evan Mitchell, MD
• Chibueze Nwaiwu, MD
• Sara Saymuah Stone, MD
• Anirudh Udutha, MD
• Ruben Valera, MD

The Department of Surgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University is proud to sponsor the Diversity in Medicine Visiting Student Scholarship for rising fourth year medical students of underrepresented backgrounds. Every year, qualified underrepresented students (URM) are selected from a competitive applicant pool to receive a $2000 stipend to help pay for costs associated with doing away rotations at Brown. Students will be paired with a resident and faculty member of the Surgical Department as well as the Brown Minority Housestaff Association (BMHA) as part of an extended mentorship experience. 

There are a variety of elective/sub-internship rotations to choose from including:

• Surgery 1 (Complex General and Thoracic Surgery)
• Surgery 3 (Surgical Oncology)
• Trauma Service
• Surgical Intensive Care (SICU)
• Vascular Surgery
• Acute Care Surgery 
• Pediatric Surgery

Participating students will have opportunities to take part in all departmental educational activities including Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality conference, Trauma morning report, and service conferences. In addition, students will have scheduled meetings with the Chair of Surgery, the residency Program Director, the Diversity Officer, and be given the opportunity to interview for a position in our General Surgery residency program during the elective.

If you are interested in being a part of our program, please visit the scholarship webpage to review the elective calendar and rotation descriptions. To request an application or if you have any questions about the program, please email the Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship or email Ashlie Haas-Rodriguez.

Diversity Visiting Student Scholarship

The Brown Minority Housestaff Association is a resident/fellow run organization that helps promote diversity and inclusion within the hospital and graduate medical education communities. Every year, the organization sponsors lectureships and community outreach opportunities that housestaff can participate in. BMHA also works closely with the Brown University Office of Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Furthermore, residents can serve as mentors to rising medical students as they navigate choosing a specialty and applying for the match.

Medical Education through Diversity (MED) Talks is a speaker series started in 2015 to create a dialogue between patients and the medical community that cares for them. People representing minority patient populations are invited as speakers on a panel sharing their cultural values and views and how this may sometimes make it difficult to make medical decisions. Audience members are encouraged to ask difficult to ask ethical questions to better understand the best way to provide care in a culturally competent manner. This project is supported through grants from the Gold Foundation and funds from the Brown Minority Housestaff Association. Panel topics in the past have included members of the refugee, transgender, and Jehovah’s Witness communities.

MEDSTEP grew out of an identified need for additional community and structured mentorship across The Warren Alpert Medical School and the affiliated hospitals for individuals who self-identify as underrepresented in medicine. 

The program uses a group and peer mentorship model that includes students, residents, housestaff, and attendings to build community and create a safe space for discussion, education and professional growth.