Edith Mitchell came a long way from growing up on a Tennessee farm, to becoming a brigadier general and serving on the President’s Cancer Panel.
“It was making a plan, having a plan, and all of us had similar type plans that we needed to leave the farm—yes I grew up on a farm—and get out of town,” Mitchell, member of the President’s Cancer Panel, clinical professor of medicine and medical oncology, director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities, and associate director of diversity affairs at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson University. “Yes, you have success, but look back and pull somebody behind you, pull them up.”
Mitchell spoke with Robert Winn, director of VCU Massey Cancer Center and John Stewart, founding director of LSU Health/LCMC Health Cancer Center.
When Mitchell was growing up, and well into her training, there weren’t many Black doctors. She noted that even now the percentage of Black practicing clinicians hovers around 5%.
“We’ve got to get more people out there like you Dr. Stewart, like you Dr. Winn, like me, so that we can say that we are affecting change,” she said. “And it’s up to us to either accept the 5% or do something to affect change.”
The role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and working to change the pipeline are crucial to increasing that number, she said.
“One of the things that I’m doing now with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education is—how do we work with the pipeline? How do we get residents through their training so that they are successful? It probably is not recognized that more Black residents and fellows leave their training programs before completion,” Mitchell said. “HBCUs now are receiving more funds and resources for research, for graduate studies as well. And therefore, it’s very important that we support the HBCUs in making sure that they are thriving and doing well.”
When Mitchell attended medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University, then called Medical College of Virginia, she was given a military scholarship and was supposed to give the Air Force two years of service.
She became interested in health policy and military medicine and remained in the Air Force. When thinking about retirement after 20 years of service, Mitchell, a colonel at the time, learned she was up for a promotion.
The only problem? Her competition, mainly white men, had all been to flight school.
“Most people go to flight school in their 20s, right? I was in my 40s with two teenage kids. So what did I do? I signed up for flight school. I finished. I got my flight wings and my certification in aerospace medicine,” Mitchell said. “Very few people know that I am certified in aerospace medicine, but what happened was, I was selected. I am the first woman doctor ever to be promoted to brigadier general in the history of the Air Force.”
This story is part of a series of interviews conducted by Robert Winn, guest editor of the Cancer History Project during Black History Month (The Cancer Letter, Feb. 4, 2022).
This conversation is also available as a video and a podcast.
