After a major accident in the paper mill, I decided I no longer wanted to work with mechanical pumps or fluid dynamics, but I would like to take a shot at the human pump. So Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) opened its doors in 1973; I applied—one of 1,200 applicants—and was granted admission to the school. I became one of 24 charter students, and the first African-American to graduate from EVMS. From there, I did my residency at Cincinnati General. I worked on the Navajo reservation as the general medical officer; the U.S. Public Health Services in Staten Island, New York; and then Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh for 15 years in various roles.

I progressed to vice chairman of emergency medicine [at the Medical College of Pennsylvania], and I was the interim director of the division of emergency medicine, department of surgery from 1995 to 1996. I was also acting chairman of the department of emergency medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania, at the Hahnemann/Allegheny, campus from 1995 to 1996. I accepted the job as chairman of the department of emergency medicine at the University of Virginia in 1996. I came in as the first African-American chair in the UVA School of Medicine for any department. I’m currently the vice president and chief officer for diversity and equity for the entire university. I was honored with the Marcus L. Martin Distinguished Professorship of Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine at UVA, which is the first endowed professorship in the department of emergency medicine at UVA. There are only three African-Americans with an endowed professorship named after them—Julian Bond, Thurgood Marshall, and Marcus Martin—so, wonderful company that I’m honored to be with.

Human variations should not interfere with our duty to patients, inclusive of religion, race, ethnicity, any social standing, low-income patients, sexual orientation, ability, or disability. I feel very strongly about that. Anyone who comes into the emergency department or passes out in the street, it is my duty to help. —Marcus L. Martin, MD, FACEP

KK: Lynne?

LR: I’ve actually had three careers in emergency medicine because I came out of residency on a clinical/administrative track. I was chief of emergency services at a public hospital quite early in my career. I had become a physician because I was committed to serving a community that had been traditionally underserved. So for me to return to my hometown, which is New York City, Harlem, to help run an emergency department for people in that community seemed to be fulfilling the reasons why I had become a physician. I was good at it. I think it was meaningful, but clinical operations, although I felt like what I was doing was very important, was not perhaps, as intellectually satisfying as something that was more on the academic side.