When Alpha A. “Berry” Fowler, M.D., arrived on the MCV Campus in the mid-70s, Ed Ray, M.D., was just stepping down from his more than 20-year tenure as the founding chair of the Division of Pulmonary Disease. Ray, a specialist in tuberculosis, stayed on faculty and became a mentor to the younger Fowler, who had just earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and had come up to Richmond for internal medicine residency training.

Today, Fowler sits in the Pulmonary Disease Division’s chairman seat that Ray once held. “He was the first pulmonologist here and was a legend,” says Fowler. “He was an inspiration and one of the reasons I chose pulmonary medicine as a specialty.”

Ray was one of MCV’s first bronchoscopists. He was known across Virginia for his use of the Jackson rigid bronchoscope to examine patients’ airways for foreign objects, bleeding or inflammation. Over the years, Ray assembled an unusual collection of objects retrieved from patients’ airways, including a peach pit and a compass, coins from the late 1940s, buttons and even a belt buckle.

The use of the rigid bronchoscope which Ray pioneered at MCV fell out of favor for the most part in the 1960s when the flexible fiberoptic bronchoscope was introduced into clinical medicine.

“What is old is new again,” says Fowler. “Dr. Ed Ray was one of the first physicians in Virginia to use the rigid endoscope. However, today, decades later, the rigid bronchoscope is being used once again. Pulmonologists at MCV employ rigid bronchoscopy, performing at least two or three procedures each week.” Importantly, if Ray were practicing today, he’d be referred to as an interventional pulmonologist, based upon the tools he used and the techniques he pioneered at MCV.

Ray’s contributions were recently remembered when his son, Gaylord Ray, of the School of Medicine’s Class of 1976, returned to the MCV Campus. He met with Fowler and other Pulmonary Division faculty when he toured the division facilities, the operating room, the Medical Respiratory Intensive Care Unit and the simulation center where medical students and pulmonary trainees gain procedural experience. He says he was impressed with what he saw of the strides the division has made under Fowler’s direction. “The department is in good hands, and my father would be quite proud to see the training, but, in particular, the quality of the division.”

He learned from the director of interventional pulmonology, Ray “Wes” Shepherd, M.D., H’03, that the division’s interventional pulmonology program marked a milestone when it accepted its first fellow in July 2011. There are only 12 interventional pulmonology fellowship programs in the United States, each taking just one fellow per year. And, just this past year, the Interventional Pulmonology Service reached another milestone, performing over 1,000 interventional procedures.

Over lunch, Gaylord Ray shared stories about his father with division faculty members and with his son Chris, who was also on hand. Chris followed in his family’s footsteps onto the MCV Campus and is now president of the medical school’s Class of 2015. “It was important to me to have my son Chris attend the lunch. I see many of my father’s qualities coming out in him, particularly the compassion and thoughtfulness.”

Now retired from his practice as an emergency medicine physician, Gaylord Ray has chosen to honor his father’s contributions by establishing an endowed fund that will benefit the Interventional Pulmonology Service. Fowler hopes former trainees of Ed Ray may increase the fund through their own gifts honoring the influence he had on their careers.

“The Interventional Pulmonology Service greatly appreciates Dr. Ray’s desire to honor the legacy of his father,” said Shepherd. “I hope that the attributes that Dr. Ray admired in his father live on today in our interventional pulmonology program.”

Shepherd also appreciated hearing Ray’s stories from the 1950s and 60s. “I have already told several of my rigid bronchoscopy partners about Dr. Gaylord Ray’s childhood experience assisting our first pulmonary chair!”

Each fall, the MCV Foundation’s Scholarship Brunch proves to be a popular meeting place. It’s the venue for dozens of introductions, as students have the chance to meet and thank the donors who made their scholarships possible. This year’s event drew 330 guests to celebrate the more than $1.4 million in scholarship support that was awarded to nearly 400 MCV Campus students.

This year, the MCV Campus saw more than 25 new scholarships established, bringing the total number of scholarships to 244 campus-wide. That includes more than 70 privately-funded scholarships in the medical school.

The school’s privately endowed scholarships are a combination of need-based and merit-based awards. When each fund was established, donors outlined the criteria used to select the student recipients. Some scholarships support students considering a certain specialty or from a particular geographic region. Others reward those who have distinguished themselves through community service or academic merit.

See photos from the MCV Foundation’s Scholarship Brunch.

Five physicians in the medical school have been recognized for their contributions to MedEdPORTAL, a free online database that allows educators and administrators in health science schools to share peer-reviewed educational approaches and material.

• Steven Bishop, M.D., resident physician, internal medicine
• Stephanie Call, M.D., MSPH, associate professor, internal medicine
• Jeffrey Kushinka, M.D., assistant professor, internal medicine
• Michael Sean Ryan, M.D., FAAP, assistant professor, pediatrics
• Rita M. Willett, M.D., associate professor, internal medicine

In 10 publications, the physicians shared a range of experiences, from team-based training modules on chest pain and anemia to a simulation designed to teach medical students how to handle respiratory distress in children. Because many of the training experiences were interdisciplinary, the physicians collaborated with four professors from other VCU schools:

• Ericka L. Breden, Pharm.D., BCPP, CGP, FASCP, clinical assistant professor, inpatient pharmacy
• Angela H. Flack, M.Div., assistant professor, patient counseling program
• Bruce D. Rybarczyk, Ph.D., associate professor, psychology
• Brigitte Luong Sicat, Pharm.D., BCPS, CDE, associate professor, pharmacotherapy and outcomes science

MedEdPORTAL is accessed in over 195 countries and by over 10,000 health education institutions including medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, nursing, pharmacy and public health. The database is a program of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which is an association representing all 138 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems; and 90 academic and scientific societies.

In the United States, educators have made only slow gains in recruiting minorities into the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In 2010, the National Science Board reported that not only are underrepresented minorities disproportionately absent in these so-called STEM fields, there’s little short-term hope for improvement. Data shows even promising students from lower-income families are losing ground as they move through the educational system.

It’s a challenge for educators who would like to increase the number of minorities in health and science disciplines.

“Given the incidence of chronic disease in underrepresented populations, there is a need for more underrepresented people in research and in positions of leadership, so that they can ensure that those health problems are adequately addressed,” said Suzanne Barbour, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Over the past few years, she has seen VCU move to the forefront in tackling the national problem. The university currently boasts $1.3 million in grants supporting six different programs that are opening opportunities for underrepresented minorities.

Four of those programs are funded through grants from the NIH’s Division of Training, Workforce Development and Diversity. That makes VCU one of only two institutions in the country to reach that level of support, an achievement that Barbour called “a huge vote of confidence from the NIH.”

Today’s portfolio of programs got its start in 2007 when Barbour together with staff in the VCU Center on Health Disparities ran a summer program that accepted undergraduates from colleges around the U.S. and placed them in a nationwide network of labs. When that program proved successful, she and colleagues began securing funding for additional opportunities, including year-round programs that would keep trainees on VCU’s campuses. These programs have benefitted from the leadership of a committed cadre of VCU faculty who serve as principal investigators, including Drs. Paul Fisher (Human and Molecular Genetics), Rakesh Kukreja (Internal Medicine), Joyce Lloyd (Human and Molecular Genetics), John Ryan (Biology) and Barbour.

“Summer programs serve an important purpose, but we wanted to provide students more continuous exposure and immersion in research,” Barbour said. Organizers also wanted to deepen the pool of prospective students interested in pursuing science degrees at VCU.

A case in point

One of those students was Allen Owens, a North Carolina native with an undergraduate biology degree. He parlayed his training into a first job as a lab technician at a chemical company that produced raw materials for soaps and other hygiene products. But he was intrigued by the product development work undertaken by the company’s chemists as they tested and improved the company’s products. He wondered if that might be the direction he’d like to see his career head.

To gain research experience, he applied to the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program. Known as PREP, the year-round research training program for recent college graduates is run by Joyce Lloyd, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics.

Lloyd guided Owens in choosing the lab where he would work in over the course of his PREP year. Because of his interest in how drugs interact with the body – and a desire to learn about something completely different from anything he’d already studied – he was drawn to the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology where he found a mentor in professor Aron Lichtman, Ph.D.

Owens described the program as challenging, pushing him beyond his comfort level. “As an undergraduate, you learn about science,” he explains. “But to be someone who develops science is a different process.” The program gave him the research experience he wanted, along with opportunities to present his work. It confirmed that he liked the world of research and served as a launching pad into graduate school.

Owens is now pursuing a Ph.D. on the MCV Campus, this time with the support of Barbour’s IMSD program – short for the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity. The year-round research training program assists junior Ph.D. students by supplying funding for the first two years of graduate school along with Barbour’s advice for navigating the choices and challenges of an advanced degree.

Now a few months into the program, Owens soon will be faced with choosing his field of study. To prepare, he is rotating through three labs in different departments. He’s finding that not only do the areas of study differ, so do the labs’ size, atmosphere and even the techniques that are routinely used. He’ll take all of that into consideration when he chooses his home lab.

A critical mass

As home to six different programs that are opening opportunities for underrepresented minorities, VCU offers an unusual concentration of students who share similar goals and challenges. Because the programs support different stages of a student’s training, it is possible for a student to advance from one program and enter another, much as Owens did. The programs reside under a single umbrella, VCU’s Center on Health Disparities, providing opportunities to build a sense of community and camaraderie. That’s what happened last fall when more than 20 students from different programs traveled to St. Louis for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students – the largest professional conference for students studying biomedical and behavioral sciences.

Barbour and Lloyd are also on the lookout for opportunities for the more advanced students to mentor their junior colleagues. Barbour says that there’s a real sense of momentum building, as the programs bring a critical mass of students onto campus.

Barbour and her colleagues highlight these programs as instruments of institutional change. According to Barbour, “Our programs have come along at just the right time to be a cornerstone of VCU’s Quest for Distinction. As a result of our programs, we’ve seen the emergence of a Student Research Organization, a new position in the Department of Biology for an undergraduate research coordinator and the Laboratory Skills Bootcamp, a hands-on workshop to develop research skills. Thus, the programs will leave a legacy that impacts more than just the students who receive direct support.”

Barbour measures the programs’ success by the nearly 200 students, who’ve hailed from 19 states, including Virginia, North Carolina, California, Alaska and Hawaii. Some of the earliest participants are starting to secure positions in their chosen fields. A graduate from the year-round training program for postdocs known as IRACDA has gone on to a faculty position at Howard University’s medical school. This May, the first two MARC Scholars will earn their undergraduate degrees with plans to enter Ph.D. programs. Another measure of success is the continued involvement of research mentors, more than 50 at VCU and nationwide – many of whom have trained students year after year.

“At present, one out of two undergraduates in China is majoring in a discipline that could lead to a career in biomedical research. In the U.S., the number is less than one in five,” says Barbour. “Given the changing demographics of our country, with nearly a third described as minority, any response we make has to include increasing the numbers of African American, Hispanic and other minority undergraduate students in STEM disciplines. VCU has positioned itself to meet this challenge, and I’m honored to work with some of the talented trend busters who represent the first wave of our country’s response.”

Summer Programs
HERO Health Educational Research Opportunities	Summer research program for underrepresented undergraduates and professional students from any institution
STEP-UP Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons	Summer research program for undergraduates from any institution

Year-Round Programs
IMSD Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity	Year-round research training program for undergraduate freshman and sophomores and first and second year Ph.D. students from VCU
IRACDA Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award	Year-round research training program for postdoctorals in training at VCU
MARC Minority Access to Research Careers	Year-round research training program for undergraduate junior and senior honors students from VCU
PREP Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program	Year-round research training program for recent college graduates from any institution, but training at VCU

U.S. News has spotlighted the MCV Campus’ approach to interdisciplinary training that has been made possible through grants from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

“At VCU and a growing number of medical schools, the push is on to ensure true collaboration,” reports U.S. News.

The story describes a daylong, hands-on workshop in the simulation center through which students from the MCV Campus’ different schools learn what skills the different professionals bring to the table. A recent training scenario teamed up six medical, nursing and pharmacy students who worked together to respond to a simulation situation in which a patient suddenly goes into cardiac arrest.

Read more of the U.S. News story, Medical Schools Push Teamwork.

Joan Barrett, the long-time right hand of medical school deans, has announced her retirement.

Through her 44-year career in the School of Medicine, she worked with a succession of leaders, including a 26-year stint in the Dean’s Office that spanned the school’s four most recent leaders: Drs. Steve Ayers, Hermes Kontos, Dickie Newsome and Jerry Strauss.

“We all relied on Joan extensively,” said Strauss. “Her wealth of knowledge about the workings of the school as well as those who work in the school combined with her judgment and genuine love for the MCV Campus made her invaluable.”

To show their gratitude for Barrett, and to ensure her service to the school is remembered far into the future, Strauss and his wife Cathy have made a gift in Barrett’s honor to the medical school’s ongoing campaign. To recognize their generosity on her behalf, the Assistant to the Dean’s Office will be named in Barrett’s honor.

“You’ve been a constant at a time when there’s been a great deal of change,” Dean Strauss said to Barrett when he announced the gift at a March 9 celebration that was attended by more than 100 guests. “I wanted to ensure a lasting tribute to you in our new medical education building.”

Barrett’s career on the MCV Campus began in 1967 as assistant to the chair of nuclear medicine. She also served as assistant to the chair of diagnostic radiology before being named Assistant to the Dean in 1986.

With Barrett’s departure, Debbie Weir, who joined the Dean’s Office over five years ago, has been promoted to the position of Assistant to the Dean.