Fatima Cody Stanford MPA '15 MD MPH MBA
I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, which is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and home of the late Congressman John Lewis — growing up there, then, had huge implications for how I weave together my focus on disparities with equity and justice today.
My undergraduate degree from Emory University is in anthropology and human biology, and I was a dance minor. Going into college, I, like most others, assumed that I would pursue a biology or chemistry degree as a premed, but when I took my first anthropology course, I recognized that it brought together so many of my interests and covered so much of what I wanted to learn about — on culture, evolution, and more. I’ve also danced my whole life, and I’m trained in ballet, jazz, hip hop, and pointe, so that’s always been my outlet. I unfortunately don’t have the chance to dance as much as I would like in my current life, and I don’t choreograph like I did back in those days. Regardless, it definitely is a huge part of me and channels from the artistic side of my brain!
Immediately after finishing my undergraduate degree, I completed my masters of public health and health policy and management at Emory. I was also working at the American Cancer Society as a behavioral sciences intern, and then subsequently the CDC in the Office of Women’s Health. My research at that time was all surrounding obesity, with one of the major projects I worked on being called “Healthy Body, Healthy Spirit.” It was focused on looking at health and obesity in the black church community in Atlanta. The man in charge of the study, who is now at the University of Michigan, Ken Resnicow, gave me a lot of latitude in regards to recruiting churches. Recognizing his limitations — it would be challenging to recruit black churches in a black city as a white man — and the strengths I brought to the work, I joined the team. That being said, I am not published as a co-author for this work — I am only in the acknowledgements. Looking back on this, I do wish that I had asked to receive more credit for the work that I had done, especially considering that it is so heavily cited to this day. Acknowledgement and credit, in fact, is one of the key things I talk about with my mentees, regardless of their level, to make sure they are getting the credit they deserve for putting in the work.
After the CDC and graduating from Emory, then, 9/11 struck just a month after I finished. It was challenging, then, to find a job in public health at that time, until finally, in December of that year I found a job working at a rape and sexual assault crisis center in DeKalb County, Georgia, which is the county where Emory is based. I was the Director of Prevention for the Rape Crisis Center, and it was definitely a shift to addressing rape and sexual assault — these are not easy topics and are very challenging for people to hear. I went into schools, faith-based communities, senior homes, and more speaking about these challenging topics. When people ask me now whether I’m nervous about giving lectures, I just remember how hard it was to give those lectures then… in prisons in Georgia. I’m usually not a speechless person at all, but I always take a great pause in reflecting on these talks. I was in my early twenties, as a young woman, and talking to people while being flanked by guards on a topic that I knew would happen the moment I left. If I could do that in my twenties, I can do anything in my forties now. I was also teaching MCAT, GMAT, and other classes for the Princeton Review at the time, and ultimately I went to medical school at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.
I was thankful to be one of their scholarship recipients, but it was indeed a challenging time in medical school. I was still in Georgia, but it was a huge culture shock moving from Atlanta to Augusta, Georgia. I recall that one of the neighbors I had went to a Chick-fil-a one time and heard the name Fatima (my name) called in the back, and she then asked me the question, “Well, Fatima, did you leave medical school to go work at Chick-fil-a?” When I heard that, I just didn’t know how to respond. This is what I heard, day in and day out, these ‘microaggressions.’ As an aside, I strongly dislike that term because I see them as ‘macroaggressions.’ The fact that I can still remember this moment twenty-five years later speaks to the fact that it is not little. If it were ‘micro,’ I would not remember what day it happened or other details.
Then, I did a year of orthopedic surgery fellowship in New York City before pursuing a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of South Carolina. Throughout my education, the thread of obesity kept returning again and again in my work, and while I was in residency, I came across the fellowship in obesity medicine here at Mass General. Then, there was no specialty for obesity, so this was really at the forefront — and I absolutely fell in love with the field. I recognized how much I didn’t know and how much I could learn, so I spent my fellowship here and later completed a mid-career degree at the Harvard Kennedy School. I realized that everything I had done in public health and in medicine would mean nothing if I could not push the government to move as well. I then also did my MBA at the Quantic School of Business and Technology.
My interest in obesity has proliferated into all the work I do, especially in recognizing disparities and justice, which are part of my lived experience, in recognizing the biases that my patients face.
Throughout your illustrious career, who are some mentors that have really stood out?
It’s interesting — there are many times that I don’t necessarily feel those who may consider themselves as my mentor to be my mentor myself, even if it was a helpful relationship. Sometimes, those who were my senior would say discouraging things, even among those who do look like me. I believe one factor that may be causing this disillusionment is that those who are charged as mentors or become mentors are usually the people who happen to be successful themselves — but just because they are successful, it does not mean they are good mentors and helping those who come after. I pride myself on being someone my mentees can trust, and I don’t do it for the awards, I do it because I try to give them something I didn’t necessarily have.
That being said, there are definitely mentors I have to thank. Dr. Bonnie Simpson Mason is a mentor of mine working in orthopedics. I recall meeting someone at the Student National Health Association (SNMA) Fair earlier in my career, and when I shared I was interested in orthopedics, he suggested I meet his friend Bonnie and gave me a few numbers to just cold call.
At first, I was a bit skeptical — to just call her without an introduction? But after taking the first step and calling, we later connected in DC at a Starbucks and found out that our families live relatively close to each other, and her uncle was my mom’s pediatrician. She was definitely someone who saw me through her, and I felt understood. She is a huge champion for me today for my work in obesity, and there definitely is still some overlap with orthopedics.
As for sponsors, I would say Anne Klibanski, the current President and CEO of Mass General Brigham, has been incredible. When I first came onto faculty here, I was having a very challenging time getting promoted, even as I was doing everything I could to get promoted. My division chief kept moving the finish line of the number of publications I would need further and further, so year after year I remained an instructor even as I had more and more publications. I’m fast, but if the finish line keeps moving, I’ll never meet it.
Anne Klibanski, then, came up to me at an event and asked why I was still an instructor. When I explained to her the story, she said it was absolutely bizarre — that she would bring me into the neuroendocrine department instead, which I did end up doing. It shows you that much of what happens in life is also about direct sponsorship.
My division chief now, Karen Miller, is also an incredible sponsor and mentor. She always shares different points that would be important to consider as well and makes sure I am introduced appropriately — just one example of someone who has helped so much to guide me towards success.
Now, as a mentor to college students, I want to give back. I remember getting papers back when I was in college with feedback that it was ‘highly publishable,’ but knowing at all how to start publishing and actually have them published. It would have been great to have these papers published, but without guidance I was not able to do so. When I work with students today, I help them publish, I help them be that first author.
That’s a great philosophy for mentoring students and giving back to the community. Following that line of thought, what advice would you give students today who are just starting out on their healthcare careers?
If I look back on my career now, it seems very clear-cut and straightforward — but in reality, when I was going through it all, it was very much not the case. I felt like one of those robot vacuums that bumps into brick walls and redirects afterwards — those Roombas. The older you get, the more you realize that sometimes there are roadblocks that redirect you — for the good. Sometimes, we don’t understand why we have to change course, but in due time — although sometimes never — we will figure it out.
For example, when I was a resident, I ran for a position on the Council on Public Health for the American Medical Association (AMA). I believed that, with my MPH and other extensive experiences in public health, I would be the clear choice, especially as the other person running against me had no public health background, degree, or experience. Yet, in the end, he won the role. I was perplexed, feeling that I had not been picked for something I was so qualified for.
Fast forward now to 2013, and I am called as a fellow to give a talk on obesity as a chronic illness. I flew in, did the talk, and within a day they declared, as an organization, that obesity was a chronic disease — and I had been the pivotal figure to convince members to vote for it (though I did not know this at all going in). Interestingly enough, when I looked at who voted against declaring this, it was the very Council that I had wanted to be elected to, but did not get! In retrospect then, looking back, I’m very glad I did not end up on that Council, especially as it would go against all of my beliefs about obesity.
Up to this point for many students, you often get what you work for — but, soon, you’ll start wondering why you did not get certain things you believed you were qualified for. Instead of taking those moments as failures, I would take them as redirections — maybe this is the path you are supposed to take — and you don’t find out until many months later, usually.
One of my Harvard College mentees did not receive a whole slew of internships and opportunities last summer, but he just won one of the top writing awards in the world out of work he did last summer. Sometimes, it’s not about checking those boxes step by step, but realizing that you can be redirected and be okay with that.
Don’t compare your journey to anyone else, too, because you never really know what you will end up working on in the future. Finally, if you are in a mentor-mentee relationship and are not finding that it is working, you don’t have to stay in it. It’s not a marriage, there are no legal binding agreements, and you can switch. Just because someone looks great on paper does not mean they are a great mentor, too.
Fatima Cody Stanford MPA ‘15 MD MPH MBA
Mid-career MPA 2015
Obesity Medicine Physician, Scientist, Educator, Entrepreneur, Thought Leader, and Policy Maker
Compiled and interviewed by Felicia Ho