Dr. Valerie M. Harvey with mentee Stafford Brown III
I am extremely grateful for the Skin of Color Society Mentorship Program! I cannot thank my mentor, Dr. Valerie Harvey, enough! She guided me during every stage of my application process. Last year, I was finishing my MBA and knew that my first rotation back would be a Dermatology away rotation. I was nervous, but Dr. Harvey planned a dermatology bootcamp where I worked with her in her office. She helped improve my patient presentations, clinical decision-making, and critiqued a presentation I made discussing new biologics and their indications. She was always available to answer questions, and we met in person, on zoom, and on the phone multiple times throughout the application season. We discussed how many and which programs to apply to, how to redraft my personal statement, and how to reorganize my noteworthy characteristics. During the interviewing and ranking process, Dr. Harvey helped me understand my personal and career goals and create the rank list that helped me match at my #1! Throughout this time, Dr. Harvey also taught me how to improve my research paper writing, and we were able to submit three publications together. I want to thank the Skin of Color Society and Dr. Harvey again and become a future SOCS mentor!