NIH leadership, faculty, family and friends gathered in Masur Auditorium on June 14 to celebrate the graduating Class of 2024 Clinical Fellows.
The ceremony recognized more than 60 fellows from 30 programs and marked the first NIH Clinical Center-wide graduation ceremony for clinical fellows, a group comprised mainly of physicians, surgeons and dentists. A clinical fellow is a medical doctor who has completed their degree and general residency program and is now training in a health specialty.
NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnoli shared recorded remarks via video with attendees followed by a joint clinical fellow graduation speech by Drs. Mian Bilal Khalid and Hanna Blaney from the gastroenterology fellowship program. Graduating fellows were recognized by their fellowship program directors, who presented them with their completion certificates. A celebratory reception for fellows, family and friends was supported through a partnership with the Foundation for the Advancement of Education in Science.
Executive Director of Graduate Medical Education Dr. Joyce Chung said Clinical Center CEO Dr. James Gilman “lent his full support to the idea of an inclusive ceremony for all graduating clinical fellows, whose momentum continued to grow.”
“Everyone seem[ed] to be pulling in the same direction wanting to have this happen,” she added, noting that the ceremony was the latest example of a broader effort to build community for NIH medical fellows.
Among the graduates were Dr. Meghan Yamasaki, an OB/GYN fellow specializing in infertility and family building. A co-chair of the Clinical Center Fellows Committee, Yamasaki said it was important for NIH to come together as a community “to celebrate the fellows and the mentors that have led them.”
“We forget about the mentors and the program directors and everyone that helped [fellows] get to this point. They played a huge role,” she said. Yamasaki shared her hope that the campus-wide celebration becomes an annual tradition.
Dr. Ejiofor Ezekwe, a pediatrician and clinical fellow with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, co-chairs the Clinical Center Fellows Committee. He said the ceremony offered fellows well-deserved recognition of their achievement and contributions and a fitting coda to their time at NIH.
“We’re all incredibly fascinating people, who’ve had very long journeys to get to the place we are now—whether that’s as an NIMH psychiatry fellow, an NIAID fellow or an endocrinology fellow,” he said.
Ezekwe completed his own clinical allergy and immunology fellowship in July 2023 and is now undertaking two years of research on a rare blood disease.
“We all had really powerful stories about how research has touched us. Most of us [came] here because we’re actively interested in research. This place provides an incredible opportunity to do that,” Ezekwe said.
“I think the uniting factor [is that] we’re all physicians that want to hopefully make things better and really advance the field,” he said. “Not only from [the perspective of] taking care of patients but also finding new solutions.”
Chung, the Graduate Medical Education director, said NIH medical fellowships are distinct.
“The Clinical Center is a jewel of place, and it’s an incredible environmental in which to train,” she said. “We provide great care. We provide great training. We have a wonderful environment and staff.”
- Sean Markey