DR . WHO Destiny Etheridge , MD by KATHRYN VANCE
As a young Black girl growing up in a small , predominantly white Southern Illinois town , Dr . Destiny Etheridge was set on changing the narrative for those that would come after her and soon realized her future would include some form of political work due to the racism she and her family faced . She was her high school valedictorian , and was also gifted outside the classroom , receiving a scholarship to play basketball at Norfolk State University , an HBCU ( historically Black college or university ) in Virginia . After her freshman year , she transitioned to an academic scholarship to focus on her studies .
After entering college as a political science major , the science department soon recognized her talent as well and recruited her to join their department . She graduated with a double major in chemistry and political science and a minor in biomedical engineering . In her senior year , she took a full-time position at NASA working 40 hours a week . She insisted she “ didn ’ t do any cool space stuff ,” and instead her time in the lab focused on patents for aircraft surfactants . While most students took the semester off school to make time for the program , she was determined to finish school on time . Throughout college , she was exposed to new people from diverse backgrounds , showing her future career options she ’ d never considered before .
“ Honestly , I didn ’ t even know I could be a doctor because I ’ d never seen a Black doctor until I went to college . I ’ d never known a
34 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Black engineer , either . It wasn ’ t until then that I even knew I could be a scientist . That ’ s why representation matters .”
While her sights were set on getting a PhD in engineering with a straight path to a career at NASA , seeing that representation made her reconsider .
“ It costs a lot of money to go to medical school , and on the other hand , I could get my PhD for free . I knew if I went with engineering , I ’ d have all these opportunities and would get to work at probably the best place you could work as an engineer , but it just didn ’ t feel right . I decided I needed something with the social justice piece as well as human interaction .”
In 2014 , she started at Eastern Virginia Medical School . As any M1 can attest , medical school was challenging , but she also faced the added pressure of changing how she learned .
“ I had an engineering brain and med school is completely different than anything I ’ d done before . It was so much memorization ,” she said . “ But once we got to clinical rotations , it really felt like problem solving again , which was good for that engineering side of me .”
Once in her family medicine rotation , she found her fit – the variety hooked her first . Being able to do a pap smear , a newborn check and a knee injection back-to-back excited her and the puzzle of differential diagnoses challenged her . Further , family medicine drew her in because she wanted to be a mom . She had her first son , Khi , in medical school , and he was her top priority .
“ At one point , I considered surgery , and there are of course a ton