Dr. Laura Espy-Bell Follows Mother’s Footsteps with YWCA Award
Being honored with a YWCA Women of Achievement Award was no small accomplishment to Dr. Laura Espy-Bell.
Dr. Espy-Bell receiving the YWCA Women of Achievement Award
“It’s probably one of the greatest honors of my life,” she said.
Dr. Espy-Bell, a member of the Columbus Medical Association (CMA) board of directors and the founder of the Made for Medicine program, felt a special connection to the award. Her late mother, Kathy Espy, received the same honor in 1998, and for Dr. Espy-Bell to be one of just six women honored in 2022, meant a great deal.
“She had a longstanding career at Mount Carmel Health System. She did a lot of work with diversity, equity, and inclusion and a lot of community work and community outreach,” Dr. Espy-Bell said. “I say all the time that I hope I will always be a reflection of her.”
Dr. Espy-Bell founded the Made for Medicine program in conjunction with the CMA in October 2021 as a way to expose Black and African American youth to the possibility of a career in medicine.
“When I was growing up, there weren’t very many Black physicians,” Dr. Espy-Bell said. “Only five percent of physicians in the US are Black. My hope is that we’re able to change the face of medicine and make it more reflective of the communities that we serve.”
An emergency department physician with Ohio Health, Dr. Espy-Bell was honored by the YWCA at its yearly event on April 27 in Grandview Heights with an audience that included her family, friends, and colleagues.
Dr. Espy-Bell teaching a Made for Medicine class
“My acceptance speech was all about praising God for a purpose greater than yourself. Don’t take accolades and use them for your own gain … use them to shape the next generation. That’s what I’ve done with Made for Medicine,” Dr. Espy-Bell said. “We’ve wanted to expose Black and African kids to medicine, and the magic of Made for Medicine is the fact that we have Black faculty and Black physicians teaching (the kids), so they can essentially see themselves in us.”
Since its beginning, Made for Medicine has had about 30 students in grades six and seven go through the program. With a summer session on the horizon and two more cohorts already planned for the next school year, Dr. Espy-Bell hopes to have reached 100 participants by this time next year.
“They are brilliant kids. They’re so engaged, and seeing the excitement in their faces and hearing their inquisitiveness about medicine is really rewarding for the faculty involved,” she said. “They really just have a pure want for learning.”
Dr. Espy-Bell said that the Made for Medicine program is expanding its faculty from nine to 12 in the near future, adding a neurosurgeon and an OB/GYN to the already diverse staff.
“We try to teach them the gamut of medicine,” she said. “Generally, these kids already have an interest in medicine. There are some on the fence who think they like medicine but they’re not sure. After they complete this program, I like to think we capture their attention.”
Learn more about the Made for Medicine program at madeformedicine.org.