A Role Model: The First African-American Female President Of A Medical School

Starting at a very young age, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice became passionate about math and science, oblivious to the fact that the passion she was developing for science would help her make history.

Rice has served as the Dean and Executive Vice President for the Morehouse School of Medicine since 2011. When she assumes the role of Morehouse School of Medicine president next summer, she will become the first African-American female president of a medical school.

Although she has always been interested in science, Rice considers herself a “late bloomer” to medicine. As a junior in high school, Rice’s science teacher encouraged her to feed her passion for math and science by applying to Georgia Tech to major in chemical engineering.

As Rice progressed through her college career, she realized that she didn’t enjoy chemical engineering because it lacked interpersonal engagement. So she decided to pursue medicine because it allowed her to engage people.

Rice has practiced medicine as an OB-GYN and conducted research on women’s health, particularly infertility. She has collaborated with Dr. James Hildreth, Dean of Biological Sciences at University of California-Davis, for her current research on microbicides and the prevention of HIV.

When asked what made her want to become president of Morehouse School of Medicine, Rice explained that she wanted to be at a community-focused academic health center that specialized in primary health care and health disparities.

As the new president, Rice’s ultimate goal for Morehouse School of Medicine is for it to adopt and adapt to the changing environment and to be agile in its ability to improve the health of this nation.

Rice said that good mentors have facilitated her success.

“ I have always believed in having good mentors,” Rice said. “I have had my own personal board of advisers for a long time. The first one being my mother, a very strong force who always said ‘all things are possible.’ ”

Rice believes her success also has been enabled by her strong passion for her work.

“Every day I get up I am excited because I know I will be doing something I enjoy,” Rice said.

Rice is particularly passionate about increasing the number of black youth who want to explore STEM fields.

It is unacceptable to Rice that high school graduation rates are under 60 percent for black youth.

“This shows that they do not have enough people in their pipeline to help them get to medical school,” Rice said.

To ensure students are proficient enough to attend college, Rice hopes to create milestone opportunities for students in kindergarten through 12^th grade.

“It is not that these students aren’t smart enough,” Rice said. “We need to be flexible enough to meet the students where they are. We need an education model that says education, any time, any place, and any opportunity.”

As Rice works on accomplishing her goals, one of her biggest obstacles has been managing her time between being a wife, mother, and professional. To overcome this challenge, one of Rice’s mentors would remind her to integrate her children into her career and life so that they would learn to appreciate what is important to her.

Another challenge for Rice has been ensuring that the impact she has on people is in line with her intent.

Rice often practices patience to overcome challenges. She explained that an aspect of patience is to not feel pressured to always provide the answer.

“If you are always the person to provide the answer, you often miss the richness of the solution,” Rice said. “The solution is formed by lots of different ideas.”

Instead of only considering her own ideas, Rice acknowledges that suggestions from other people can often help her solve complex problems.

The leadership qualities that Rice admires are resilience, commitment, and humbleness. She believes that in being humble, a leader must work his or her hardest without focusing on who will get the credit.

Rice aims for her leadership to be engaging and transparent and she hopes that she will influence others to help Morehouse School of Medicine reach its pinnacle of success.

Ayanna Runcie is a junior International Studies major at Spelman College with a Professional Writing minor. She also takes classes in the Morehouse College Journalism and Sports Program.