"Be Revelatory to Finding Your Way": Rachel Myers, PhD

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Hi, I'm Dr. Rachel Myers, and I served as the associate director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention here at CHOP, as well as co director for the Community Violence and Trauma Support programs in our Center for Violence Prevention.

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And I'm an assistant professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine.

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So as a public health researcher, I work to not only understand what causes intentional and unintentional injuries to children and adolescents, but also to evaluate and disseminate programs and practices that may prevent those injuries and support recovery.

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My team's research is conducted in partnership with clinicians and community members to collaboratively build evidence of what works to reduce the burden of youth violence and enable both hospital and community program demonstrate their impact on reducing health disparity.

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So as for advice, I'm going to cheat a little bit and provide two pieces of advice.

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The first is to find mentors you feel comfortable with and who you trust.

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These are the people who are invested in your success and can provide you a place to test out your ideas, ask questions, and seek input to help you reframe or look differently at opportunities and challenges because both are inevitable.

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Don't be afraid to seek out peers and near peers and senior individuals who have been on similar journeys to fill this role for you.

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Having these mentors in your professional life who you can call on when you need a new perspective.

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Be revelatory to finding your way while maintaining what's important to you.

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And the second piece is related in that it came from a mentor, and that is to be comfortable reframing the things you think make you seem different or like you don't fit in.

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Instead of differences to be minimized, these are in fact the unique skills and perspectives that you bring to your role and your work.

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Whether because of our identities, our training pathways, our research areas, or our skill sets, we often tend to view our differences as potential weaknesses or liabilities.

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But rather, these are in fact the very perspectives and skills that each of us uniquely bring to our academic community, the ways of thinking and knowing and learning that can be complementary but are novel and no one else possesses.