Elizabeth Felton, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin
Q. Please tell me about your career path and research.
A. I’m originally from Chicago and did my undergrad at Northwestern University in chemical engineering. At that time, I was mainly interested in biomedical research and while I had an interest in medicine, I was not on the pre-med pathway. After undergrad, I worked for two years and then applied to graduate programs. I ended up coming to the University of Wisconsin to do a master's degree in biomedical engineering. Through a sequence of events that first year of graduate school I ended up shifting course and applied for the MD/PhD program. That was not my initial plan and honestly, I had never heard of the MD/PhD program when I was an undergrad… or if I did, it just went over my head, or was something that I thought wasn't for me. When I heard about it in grad school I thought, “oh, my gosh! This is perfect! Why didn't I know about this before?!” I did the PhD in biomedical engineering, and my research was around brain computer interfaces. After that I went on to do my neurology residency and epilepsy fellowship at Johns Hopkins. While there I became really interested in ketogenic dietary therapies for adults with epilepsy and did some research around that during my fellowship. When I was finishing up my fellowship, I decided that I wanted to go somewhere where I could set up a clinical and research program for ketogenic diets for adults with epilepsy. So that's what I've done here at UW-Madison - I have my ketogenic diet clinic and do research related to that, even though it's quite different than what I did for my PhD. If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would never have imagined that this is where I’d be, but I think that's the cool thing about research - if you have that fundamental training, you can go into other areas. Things have evolved since I have come to the University of Wisconsin and I'm now getting more into interests within the diversity, equity, and inclusion space. As you know, I'm involved with the American Neurological Association with that, but I'm also involved in some other professional organizations and am the diversity officer for my department of neurology.
Q. What elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion are most important to you in your career?
A. My personal feeling is that we really need a more diverse workforce within neurology, science, and medicine. In the medical space, having a more diverse workforce will lead to better health outcomes and improve health equity for everyone - not just people from underrepresented backgrounds.
I want to be part of inspiring the next generation to come into science and medicine. I was fortunate because starting in high school, I did summer programs that were targeted for women and people from underrepresented backgrounds to go into science and engineering. One was called Women in Science and Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology and another was the Young Scholars Program at Loyola University – it was these programs that made me go into engineering as an undergrad. I didn't have anybody in my family with an engineering background, and so for me, that was really my first exposure.
Knowing how I benefited from those programs, and how it impacted my career trajectory, I really want to give back. One of the things I'm doing is serving as the faculty director for the UW MSTP Summer Scholars Program, which is a summer research program for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds who are interested in MD/PhD programs.
However, I personally feel that you need to start at the elementary school level to get kids on this track and expose them to science and medicine careers, so I’ve started doing a little bit of work at the elementary level here in Madison and hope to expand on that in the next several years.
I guess the short answer is the most important thing for me with DEI is to increase the workforce which will lead to better outcomes for everyone - in order to do that, we have to start early and I’m passionate about being a part of that.
Q. What's the best career advice you've received?
A. To make sure that you're really doing what you love and you're passionate about it, and not what others want you to do. I mentioned earlier that my PhD was in biomedical engineering and I did brain computer interface work. When I was interviewing for faculty positions, a lot of places were really honed in on that, understandably, and wanted me to come and do that for my faculty research. But I had shifted in terms of my research interest, so I was really firm finding a place that was going to allow me to do that. I'm so glad that I did, because I know I wouldn't have been happy going that other path.
So the advice is to make sure that you're doing what you love, and also that it's okay to change course. You don't have to do the same thing forever - it's okay in your career to make changes based on new information that you have, or new things that excite you, because that's going to drive you going forward.
Q. What does Black History month mean to you?
A. I certainly, like many other people I'm sure, don't feel that celebrating Black people should be limited to one 28 or 29 day month out of the year. But it does provide an opportunity for a month, each year, to shine a light on the history and accomplishments of Black people and I think that's fantastic. I have two daughters; I always buy them a Black History Month t-shirt and now they have this collection of shirts over the years. And we do talk more about Black history during the month. Just last night my daughter showed me a video her teacher showed at school about Black history, and she was excited to share it with me - I thought that was pretty cool.
I also really enjoy when people share articles about historic firsts and accomplishments. I was just reading one earlier today about Alma Levant Hayden, the first Black woman to work at the FDA in the 1960s, and was thinking about how rare that was then and how many barriers she must have had to overcome to get there. Although it was a lot harder then, there is still so much more work left to do.
For example, I was looking today at the statistics for Black neurologists; only 2.8% of US neurologists are Black - that number is so low compared to the US population and it has not grown much over the last 10 years. I hope 50 years from now that will be different, and during Black History Month we will be celebrating how much better things are.
Q. Who is an inspirational Black historical figure that inspires you and why?
A. Dr. Mae Jemison. She's the first Black female astronaut. When I was in fifth grade, I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut, and that was actually what made me go down this path of science and engineering - my childhood dream was to be an astronaut. Dr. Mae Jamison and I have some similarities - she was also from Chicago, went to Chicago public schools, was a chemical engineer and went became a doctor. I have just always been really inspired by her. She went into space for the first time on my birthday and I've actually met her twice. Once as a graduate student I had the opportunity to hear her speak and have a meal with her (with a larger group), which was amazing. And then, about three years ago, she came and spoke at the University of Wisconsin. My daughter wore an astronaut outfit to that, and we went up to her afterwards with this whole bunch of kids just trying to get pictures with her. She saw my daughter in the astronaut outfit and she scooped her up while I was scrambling to try to get a picture! I love how she was a trail blazer. I heard her talk about how she overcame so much adversity when she was in school, and being told that she couldn't do certain things, and she just was like, “No, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.” And she did! Now using her platform to bring up the next generation which is amazing as well. She's incredibly inspiring to me.
Q. What can professional organizations like the ANA do to support the advancement of Black physician-researchers and scientists?
A. I think that organizations like the ANA can focus on making sure that their space is welcoming and inclusive of Black physicians and researchers. I do feel like that can be easier said than done, because none of our professional organizations within medicine would say they want to exclude Black people, but the question is what are they doing to be inclusive and make sure they feel that way? I think a first step (that ANA has taken) is to publicly acknowledge that diversity, equity, and inclusion is a value or part of the mission of the organization. For example, saying we want to have speakers from different backgrounds at the meetings and conferences. Saying we don't want to have panels that are exclusively white male and demonstrating that through repeated ongoing efforts. Also showing that you have a diverse staff and leadership within the organization. Doing that shows Black neurologists and scientists within the ANA that the organization values these things and wants to be inclusive, but also shows people outside of the organization that this is what ANA is about. It is especially important for the next generation to see this – we want medical students, for example, to say “wow, the ANA is doing this, maybe I should look at neurology.”