Photo: Hallie Leo
Lillian Cain, a second-year student in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, became an urban health scholar to give back to the community where she grew up: Worcester.
“I’ve always been a city girl. When they talk about underserved communities, that’s just my community,” said Cain, who was born in Seattle.
The Massachusetts Area Health Education Center Network (MassAHEC) Rural and Urban Health Scholars optional enrichment elective that Cain is participating in is a two-year interprofessional learning experience for medical and advanced practice nursing students at UMass Chan who want opportunities to learn about and work with diverse patient populations, pursue individual passions, and explore what it means to practice in underserved urban and rural and small-town communities. A notation is made on the transcripts and in the Medical School Performance Evaluation for students who successfully complete all requirements of the elective.
After graduating from Fordham University with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, Cain lived in rural Montana for a year, volunteering at an assisted living home near the Northern Cheyenne reservation to experience rural health medicine and confirm her choice for urban medicine.
“I studied abroad in Europe and it was a bigger culture shock for me to go from the East Coast to Montana,” said Cain, who studied in Ireland, through Fordham. “I saw a lot of rural poverty specific to Native reservations, which is an entirely different beast. Living in a rural area meant two-and-a half hour car rides to clinic and scarce resources, and very close-knit communities.”
Cain considers herself a world traveler and traveled to Kisumu, Kenya, last summer to conduct malaria research funded by UMass Chan and led by Douglas Golenbock, MD, the Neil and Margery Blacklow Chair in Infectious Diseases and Immunology.
“I learned so much from the doctors and scientists in Kenya, and I learn so much more when I collaborate outside of my own personal academic sphere. I’m hoping to bring into practice a more expanded world view,” she said. “You see so many different kinds of patients in urban environments from very rich people to very poor people. You can see families who have been in the U.S. since the 1620s and families who have been in the U.S. since yesterday. Diversity makes for a better practice.”
In September, Cain, with assistance from Linda Craigin, MS, instructor in family medicine & community health and former director of MassAHEC, launched a monthly Advocacy in Action webinar for UMass Chan students to learn about the impact of federal changes such as how immigration and LGBTQIA+ advocacy affect patient care. More than 50 people have attended each session.
“My parents taught me that being politically involved was a civic duty,” Cain said. “I can’t imagine being a health care professional who’s not engaged in the policy that dictates how I can practice. I want to help other medical students be politically informed and engaged.”
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan Medical School students in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and T.H. Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit the Prospective Students page.
