EPISODE 7: dr. mill etienne

Vice Chancellor of Diversity & Inclusion

April 22, 2021

I was born in Haiti but grew up in Spring Valley, out in Rockland County. It’s right across the Tappan Zee (Cuomo) Bridge, so I’ve been around the area a while. I went to Ramapo Senior high school, and was a pretty active student there. I founded and ran the African-American club, called Uhuru, which means “freedom” in Swahili. Back in those days, Swahili was becoming popular in the Black community here in the United States. I  also hosted a local television show and got to interview positive role models in the Black and Latinx communities. But you know what? I never interviewed a doctor. At that time, I had never even seen a black medical doctor in person. 

I ended up going to Yale for undergrad. I wanted to major in behavioral neuroscience, but they did not have it, so I majored in psychology and biology. I worked with the Afro-American cultural center and organized events for black students on campus. I continued my advocacy at NYMC through the Student National Medical Association, SNMA. I was active at the regional, then national level. By my senior year, I was the National Speaker of the House. 

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The question all of us get asked is “why do you want to be a doctor?” I see caring for patients as one of the greatest honors you can have. You are taking an active role in making people’s lives better. You can directly save lives as a clinician, or you can impact communities through advocacy and education. Plus for me, I have always been interested at a primal level: “what drives people’s behavior?” What makes people do what they do? This drove my interest in neurology and psychology. I chose neurology because I realized it could give me the best of both worlds. Many of our patients in the neurology office have psychiatric problems that we will manage on our own without having to refer them out. They stay on as my patient and we work through it together. 

I remember being hit with a huge wave of patriotism during my last couple years of medical school. As that level of patriotism was rising, right before I graduated from NYMC, the World Trade Center was attacked, followed by the Pentagon in Washington D.C. I was ready to join the front lines in the fight against terror, and tried to enlist in the marines. Unfortunately, the marines did not really have a place for physicians, and I was told to apply to the Navy instead because the Navy supports the marines when they go to battle.
 
I joined the navy during my neurology residency at Columbia, where I also did my fellowship in epilepsy. As I went through my training, I often saw media outlets explaining how traumatic brain injury is the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Knowing that this would also lead to increased rates of epilepsy, I decided to go on active duty after completing my training. While on active duty in Bethesda, Maryland, I founded the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This remains the largest such center on any military base in the US military. I would say this is one of my proudest accomplishments. To this day, the center is thriving, with several epilepsy physicians and staff actively treating patients. 
 
In 2010, disaster struck once again, this time in the form of an earthquake in my birthplace, Haiti. I immediately deployed on the USNS Comfort. I was the only physician on the ship fluent in Haitian-Creole. I was appointed as the Chief Ethicist onboard, which was pretty out of the blue, but also something I had long been interested in going back to my days as a neurology trainee dealing with many medical ethics dilemmas. I designed a team of lawyers, nurses, and other professionals to anticipate potential ethical challenges during the crisis. This was really my foray into medical ethics. 
 
I got married and moved to New York, where I rejoined my alma mater, NYMC, and became in charge of Good Samaritan Hospital’s epilepsy department. Initially I wanted to see as many patients as possible, but I also had a strong desire to be more than a clinical physician. I wanted to impact populations, not just individuals. And what better way to do that than by shaping the education and perspectives of the next generation of doctors? So when the advisory dean program at NYMC began, I quickly signed on to be an advisory dean. I had to give up that role this year when I became the Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Inclusion, but I loved every minute of advising and learned so much from my students. 
 
As an advisor I quickly learned just how different medical school is today than it was during my time. There’s so much more students need to know, just because of the advancement of medicine and science over the last couple decades. But coupled with that, there is also just so much more access. Students have so much more input on their own education now than they ever have before. Virtual education is now possible and there are now structures in place to support students, like the Office of Academic Support, which was non-existent during my time at NYMC.

 
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Throughout my life, starting with my local TV show in high school, I’ve always been interested in advocacy, and in general, leveling the playing field. People in our society are judged in so many ways: the color of their skin, their gender identity, their religion, you name it. I just want to make it so that those barriers are removed. So many people have potential, but are never given the opportunity to succeed. Being an advocate is akin to being a doctor; our shared goal is to stop people from suffering. 

I teach a fourth year course called Multiculturalism in Medicine which equips people with the tools to stop suffering from a humanistic perspective. Many of my students, especially in the wake of the social justice movement of last summer, emailed me telling me how they’re able to be leaders of social equity and multiculturalism in their residency programs. Everyone can help, even those not part of the group being oppressed. If you can be a cardiologist without high blood pressure or an endocrinologist without diabetes, you can be an active leader in advancing equity without having faced all types of discrimination yourself.

Now as Vice Chancellor, my goals remain largely the same. The main difference is that I have greater access to all the schools of Touro, not just New York Medical College. I have been speaking to students and faculty across all our schools to see what I can do to bring our community together. It is a lot of work, but I am learning so much about the women, POC, and other groups on campus who I may not have as readily interacted with before. I am excited to bring it all together to create a lasting transformational culture change across this community.

Tell us about your music taste!
I am a huge fan of hip hop. Some of my favorite artists are Drake, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, Tupac.

What are your hobbies?
Hmm, I would say exercise and travel. I love running, and I also enjoy riding the Peloton bike. I also love traveling to new places. I’ve been to Israel, Egypt, Colombia, Italy, and more, and I cannot wait to get back to that after the pandemic is over.

Oh, and I love reading. Everyone should read You Are Worth It by Kyle Carpenter. It is not strictly about medicine, but it’s such an inspiring story, and reminds me why I’m a doctor.

Do you have any advice for the aspiring doctors of our class?
Caring for patients is such a great honor. Of course you have to know the basic sciences, but you really need to know how to treat people. You need to study as if someone’s life depends on it, because it does. But you cannot help people without treating them as a human being, rather than a disease or a statistic. Treat them as your family. Treat them how THEY want to be treated, listen to them. Your future patients are worth it, and are the reason you’re working hard right now. You aren’t studying for points on an exam, you’re studying to learn how to improve patients lives.

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
The students as a whole. I don’t mean it just as a cliche, but I learn so much from the students and I have always found that students tend to have that fresh burning desire to make the world a better place. I definitely feed off of that energy. The leadership of the SNMA gets an extra shout-out. Ebtisam and Josh have worked so hard and I’m proud to see everything they’ve done with social justice on campus. The office of student affairs. We have a great team of deans and staff who work extremely hard to advocate for our students. It is great to work with a team so committed and passionate about supporting our students. Lastly, Dean Nadler, who’s been phenomenal in championing change on our campus. Under his leadership, research is going to new heights at NYMC and he has strongly embraced diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging here at NYMC. Beyond just checking off boxes, his support helps make NYMC a better place.

If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with:
Anyone can just come talk to me and lead with whatever it is that interests them. I’m so interested in behavior and human beings in general, so I love getting to know people. Just reach out and say let’s talk about…, and that piques my interest. I want to know what is unique and different about you.