Felisha Gonzalez, MD, wasn’t just interested in studying problems—she wanted to offer solutions.
A fourth-year emergency medicine resident in Boston, Dr. Gonzalez has researched racial disparities in how restraints are used in the emergency department and bias in medical student evaluations. Her findings pointed to deep-rooted inequities in the system. To push her work beyond data and into impact, Dr. Gonzalez—an AMA member—applied for the AMA Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship.
“Finding the answer to a question doesn't necessarily change the system and it doesn't affect the populations that you've studied in the way that you hoped that it would, unless you take it a step further and lead those changes in some way, shape or form,” she said in an interview.
Dr. Gonzalez is in the third cohort of physicians to take part in the fellowship. Run by the AMA and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, the program is a collaborative educational initiative to empower physician-led advocacy that advances equity and removes barriers to optimal health for marginalized people and communities.
Understanding inequity
Dr. Gonzalez knew that she wanted health equity to be part of her career path.
Dr. Gonzalez has conducted research projects that examined systemic inequities in care. A study she led on restraint use in the emergency department, analyzing disparities based on race, insurance status and social identity found that patients who were Black and had a mental health or substance-use diagnosis were twice as likely to be restrained as white patients meeting the same criteria.
“That disparity is very discordant with what we actually see as the perpetrators of violence in our workplace,” she said.
Another project examined racial bias in the standardized letters used to evaluate medical students. Her linguistic analysis found that medical students from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups were more frequently described using communal language—words tied to empathy or likability—rather than those linked to skill or leadership.
Turn to the AMA Thriving in Residency series for timely guidance on making the most of your residency training. Get resources and tips about navigating the fast-paced demands of training, getting scientific research published, maintaining health and well-being, and handling medical student-loan debt.
Dive deeper:
- These courses create health equity champions in your residency program
- How this PGY-2 balances residency, advocacy training
- 3 ways to save time on personal tasks during residency training
- Maximize the power of your naps during medical residency shifts
- 5 tips to help resident physicians shift from intern to PGY-2
Subscribe and thrive in residency
Get tips and insider advice from the AMA on navigating and making the most of medical residency—delivered to your inbox.
Taking action
Pondering how to spend her fourth and final year of residency—one that allows for more flexibility—Dr. Gonzalez considered running for chief resident, but that role did not feel like an ideal fit.
“When this opportunity came up, I recognized that this was much more in line with my future career goals,” Dr. Gonzalez said.
Through the fellowship, Dr. Gonzalez has expanded her skill set beyond data collection and the subsequent number crunching. She’s learning how to engage with policymakers, shift public narratives, and transform her research into tools for structural change.
“Coming into this, I didn't even know what congressional committees were,” she said. “I had no concept of how things happened on Capitol Hill.”
The fellowship’s training sessions and direct advocacy work, including a visit to Washington, D.C., have given her a deep understanding of how health care policy is shaped—and how physicians can play a role in that process.
It starts with learning “how to find the key stakeholders and get into their front door,” she said.
Dive deeper:
- These courses create health equity champions in your residency program
- 3 ways to save time on personal tasks during residency training
- Maximize the power of your naps during medical residency shifts
- 5 tips to help resident physicians shift from intern to PGY-2
An opportunity to lead change
Dr. Gonzalez encourages other residents to consider the fellowship, even if they don’t have a detailed plan for how they want to lead in the health equity space.
“Part of the reason I'm doing this fellowship is because there are many drivers of change, but I haven’t quite found my niche yet,” she said. ”I’m still exploring what I want my future career to look like by engaging in spaces where people are doing different kinds of work that actually makes change for our patients.”
That openness to exploration is an asset in the fellowship program. Monthly sessions expose fellows to topics ranging from health policy and community organizing to media advocacy and federal legislative processes. Participants meet with experts across the health equity spectrum, and each fellow develops a project that puts their advocacy into practice.
“One of the huge benefits I didn’t fully appreciate going in is the cohort of co-fellows,” she said. “They’re such incredible people doing work that’s so different from my own—and also so important. Some are neurosurgeons, ob-gyns, family medicine doctors. It’s inspiring to see the impact they’re having and to learn from how they’re creating change in their own fields.”
For residents pondering how they can make an equity impact, Dr. Gonzalez had this advice: apply.
“It’s really eye-opening understanding the ways you can make an impact,” she said.
Learn more about the AMA Center for Health Equity and the AMA’s 2024–2025 strategic plan to advance health equity
