DISSERTATION TITLE
Operationalizing Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) to Disrupt the Hegemony of Medical Education: (Re)Centering the Counterstories of Marginalized Students (Working Title)
Candice (they/them) is a dual-degree MD/PhD in Education candidate in the School of Medicine and Graduate School of Education. As a queer, non-binary, Person of Color, they are passionate about connecting research and practice to catalyze institutional change with the ultimate goal of transforming higher education to better support multiply marginalized students. Their dissertation focuses on operationalizing Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) to amplify the counterstories of first-generation and/or low-income (FLI) Students of Color to and through the medical education trajectory, from the premedical undergraduate track through medical school and residency training. Utilizing critical qualitative methodologies, their work seeks to unveil the systemic processes that push out multiply marginalized Students of Color from the medical education trajectory and highlight the radical forms of resistance and resilience they enact in their persistence.
During their time at Stanford, they have been deeply invested in higher education pedagogy, curriculum design, and program development. They have co-taught close to twenty courses at Stanford across a variety of disciplines, including biology, medicine, and education. Additionally, they have led faculty development on social justice and health equity for the School of Medicine; initiated an inclusive mentorship program STEM Mentors Network for graduate students and postdocs working with undergraduate researchers across STEM departments; and redesigned Stanford's Course Design Institute for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars (GradCDI) to focus on abolition and liberatory frameworks for developing higher education courses across different disciplines. They have served as a Lead Fellow for the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL)'s Leadership in Inclusive Teaching Program, Lead Learning Consultant for CTL's Academic Skills Program, Graduate Writing Tutor for the Hume Center, Residential Academic Director and Co-Instructor for the Leland Scholars Program for FLI freshmxn undergraduates, and Graduate Residential Associate for Bing Honors College for senior undergraduates pursuing honors thesis research. They received a BS with honors in Biology and a MS in Biology from Stanford. They have been awarded the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF), Stanford Law School Public-Service Leadership Grant, Stanford Ethics, Society & Technology (EST) Hub Research Grant, and the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research (VPDoR) Large Propel Grant.
Despite concerted efforts over the past two decades, prior interventions to diversify the medical profession have proven to be insufficient. In fact, a recent study found that Black and Latine physicians are more underrepresented in clinical academic medicine now than they were in 1990. A clear limitation of previously published interventions has been the overwhelming focus on targeting Students of Color for change, rather than the medical education system itself. In my dissertation, I critically examine the systemic processes that drive the active push out of FLI Students of Color from the medical education trajectory, seeking to dismantle the inequitable education system in which multiply marginalized students are embedded. Through this work, I strive to highlight the radical ingenuity of FLI Students of Color, shifting away from the prevailing deficit framework underlying existing literature and instead advancing an asset-based approach.