Models and Mentors
In Conversation with Khaliah Johnson
Combining her interests in African studies, international health and women’s health, third-year medical student Khaliah Johnson has worked to address childbirth complications in Eritrea as well as other health issues impacting women locally and abroad.
Can you talk a little bit about your undergraduate program at Cornell and any community health work you did as an undergraduate student?
I very much wanted to go to Africa as an undergraduate. So in my junior year, I went to Kenya . That was a wonderful experience for me, and it helped me to realize that I really wanted to continue incorporating my interests in women’s health and Africana studies into my future career as a physician. I did a project while I was in Africa where I was looking at several factors affecting this community of women within a famine stricken region within Kenya. I was looking at how the famine affected the women’s health, their social status, their educational opportunities and what kind of initiatives these women were starting in their community to address the famine. I decided to go back to do my honors thesis research in that same community the following summer. This time, I was examining the breastfeeding and weaning practices of these women and how those practices were shaped by the famine. These experiences were really when my interest in doing international work came about.
Can you describe the research project that you are working on now?
I am working on a research project that was started by the woman who chairs the OB/GYN department at Stanford, Dr. Mary Lake Polan. It’s a project related to obstetric fistula in Eritrea. Dr. Polan started working in Eritrea about three years ago when she organized a team of OB/GYNs, upon the request of the Eritrean Ministry of Health, to go to Eritrea to repair fistula in women who had suffered from obstructed labor. A fistula is a type of damage that a woman gets when she is laboring for an excessively long amount of time. What happens is that the pressure from the fetus’s head against the pelvic tissue causes the tissue to die and the mother ends up developing a non-anatomical hole in between the vagina and the urethra or the vagina and the rectum. Ultimately, the woman becomes incontinent. There are a number of other devastating complications that occur in association with the fistula, including death of the fetus, and social isolation of the affected mothers. I started working with Dr. Polan on the fistula project in Eritrea my first year here at Stanford. In the years that I’ve worked on the project, my contribution to it has grown. Since last year, I have been working with Dr. Janet Turan, an epidemiologist who has done a great deal of work on safe motherhood practices, particularly in Turkey and some parts of Africa . We have been working on creating a community-based intervention for the prevention of fistula. We are now looking at starting a project on pre-operative and post-operative counseling for fistula patients, which will hopefully include a plan to help the fistula patients become reintegrated back into their communities once they have their fistulas repaired.
Have you done any other community based health work?
I worked as a Spanish interpreter for a midwife at Ravenswood Family Health Center last quarter. My first and second year I worked on a project in San Jose with an organization called Ethiopian Community Services (ECS), which works to provide services for Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in this area. I was working with ECS to help them create more health education materials for their female clients. I also helped them to create an information source on free and affordable health services in the San Jose area.
Where did your interest in health on an international level come from?
My interests definitely started with my experience in Kenya as an undergraduate. It has been fascinating to see how my interests are growing and evolving. I think I will always feel very connected to and invested in Africa . But being here in California has really made me realize what a need there is for health-care professionals who can effectively serve Latino populations. I grew up in school learning Spanish and was motivated to pick it up again when I got here. I spent my past summer in Mexico and Cuba . In Mexico I was doing an experiential learning program that combines community service, health outreach and various shadowing opportunities. In Cuba , I was learning about the country’s successful health care system. So it’s been an experience watching my interests in international health grow and to think about how these interests relate to practicing here in the U.S. and serving immigrant and indigent populations.
How have you been able to balance your community involvement with the rigorous academic load of medical school?
It’s been very hard, but the only way that I was able to do it was to take pre-clinical years. That was the only way I could do all that I wanted to do and take care of my academics the way I needed to. I think I’ve been very lucky to have a school like this where I could do those things and still focus on my school work.
Do you have any advice for students who are interested in community health?
I think it’s really important to follow your heart. If there is something that you’re really interested in, pursue it with all of your heart. That pursuit and that passion is what will allow you to contribute to an area on a significant level and hopefully allow you to make changes in the world for the better. But, while pursuing your interests, do not forget about your academics. You have to learn how to put both of those things first at the same time. What would be the point of me doing outreach and research if I wasn’t properly preparing to practice medicine? First and foremost, I came here for medical school, so I need to make sure that I am learning what I need to in order to be a good physician. The same concept applies to when you are preparing to apply to medical school, and getting through your pre-med courses. Everything is a stepping stone. You are preparing a foundation for yourself today, and if that foundation isn’t strong, it will fall later when you are trying to climb to the next level.
Interview by Maria Harsha
Posted 3/23/05
