Impact in Education: Jasmine Marcelin, MD

Jasmine Marcelin, MD, is the recipient of the 2021-22 UNMC Impact in Education Emerging Educator Award. The award recognizes an emerging health science educator who demonstrates excellence, dedication and perseverance in teaching and education early in their career.

• Name: Jasmine Marcelin, MD
• Titles: Assistant professor, UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases; co-director of digital innovation and social media strategy for the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases; associate medical director of antimicrobial stewardship; associate program director of the UNMC Internal Medicine Residency.
• Joined UNMC: September 2017
• Hometown: Loubiere, Commonwealth of Dominica

You are the recipient of the Emerging Educator Award. How has innovation played a part in your teaching career? I was awarded a UNMC College of Medicine (COM) Education Innovation Grant in 2019 to co-develop the pilot “Structural Challenges & Inequities in Healthcare Delivery” curriculum adjunct (with student co-director Rohan Khazanchi and multiple community, faculty and staff collaborators), which has been incorporated into the Phase 1 Health Systems Sciences coil of the COM curriculum. The curriculum adjunct consists of several lectures on structural determinants of health, racism in health care and incorporated engagement with community members. Our institutional experience with this pilot was published in The Clinical Teacher. Collaborating to create this curriculum was a manifestation of how I try to develop my teaching career – innovative, collaborative, intentional and equity-minded.

In 2020, several students, residents, faculty and I created the Developing an Inclusive and Varied Environment for Residents, Students, and Educators (DIVERSE) task force for the residency program with the mission “to transform our residency into one that reflects the diversity of our patient population and ensure that our residency provides an inclusive environment for residents to succeed.” Chairing this task force has been an invaluable experience in innovative educational leadership and change management, reforming our selection committee processes to develop an intentional recruiting strategy to attract students from diverse backgrounds to apply to our program. Under this reformed process, the internal medicine residency recruited its most diverse class of new residents in 2021, and we continue to develop programs designed to create a more inclusive environment. Additionally, a new residency curricular experience, called “JEDI with Jasmine,” creates a safe space for residents to discuss issues related to cultural competency, navigating structural discrimination and effective allyship for their colleagues and patients.

Describe your proudest moment as an educator. My proudest moments as an educator all relate to seeing my mentees succeed. When they win, I win! I am the biggest hype-mentor a trainee could have. I felt immense pride seeing one of my trainees delivering an award-winning oral abstract presentation to the largest infectious diseases specialty meeting and watching another present at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine webinar on actions academic institutions and medical educators can take to institute antiracist curricula. My chest puffs out when I work with a resident or medical student and witness their realization of just how much they have learned and grown in the time we have spent together, or when I read a progress note that describes an intentional approach to the care of a patient with an infectious disease. When I was a little girl, upon being given a career choice of teacher or doctor, I chose doctor because I thought I lacked the patience to become a teacher. Little did I know, I was born to be an educator — throughout my career I have sought out opportunities to teach, as a student TA, resident, fellow and now faculty. This is what brings me joy, and I feel immense gratitude that I get to do this as a career and walk on this journey with new doctors developing their own missions.

What advice would you give other faculty members who want to have an impact in education? The central question is not “how,” but “why.” Developing a personal mission statement forces you to think about your “why” — why are you an educator, why do you want to have an impact in trainee’s careers? It is possible to evolve your personal mission statement over time — as long as we stay true to our personal mission, our “why,” the “how” usually tends to sort itself out.

Another important piece of advice as it specifically pertains to innovating in medical education is: Just because it has not been done before does not mean it cannot be done now or in the future.

Finally, perhaps the most valuable advice is that if you truly want to have an impact in education, the most important stakeholders in catalyzing innovation are the people whom the educational activity is meant to benefit — learners, community members, interprofessional colleagues. So be open not only to seeking their input, but truly embracing collaborating with them as embedded members of your team.

Do you have a favorite quote or philosophy on teaching? My personal mission statement is: “To create and support a health care and graduate medical education environment that strives for excellence and values inclusion, diversity, access and equity as not only important, but necessary, for excellence (success).” This mission statement fully encapsulates my teaching philosophy and my approach to everything else in my career.