WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Creating equal opportunity is a priority for Dr. Brenda Latham-Sadler. She is the Senior Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
“That diversity of thought and skill and ability and perspective is what will allow us to have inclusive excellence and allow us to provide for our patients who are diverse,” Latham-Sadler said.
For more than 30 years, she’s worked in the school of medicine helping to grow the next generation of medical doctors. Her success didn’t come without challenges.
“I am a child born in the segregated south in the 1950s and that in itself was a challenge,” Latham-Sadler said. “We were challenged to make sure that we had equal opportunity to education.”
Latham-Sadler graduated from Wake Forest School of Medicine in 1982. She said there were just 12 women in her class.
“There were people who didn’t think women could do medicine,” Latham-Sadler said. “You know we were histrionic; we were temperamental, we change our minds. We had a lot to prove. We had a lot to prove.”
#BreakTheBias is the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. #BreakTheBias is a message Latham-Sadler said she strives to promote in her work daily.
“I think you have to educate yourself and you have to listen to people unlike yourself and challenge yourself,” Latham-Sadler said. “I’m trying to break that bias by helping people think through the decisions that they’re making and why they’re making them and I challenge myself to do the same.”
As a wife and mother of two, Latham-Sadler hopes her story will inspire others to shoot for the stars and not let life’s challenges limit them.
“Be bold, be brave,” Latham-Sadler said. “The worst thing that can happen most of the time is that someone will say no, but they might just say, yes.”
You can join the movement to #BreakTheBias by calling out gender bias, discrimination, and stereotyping each time you see it.