A Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University graduate made history by becoming the first Black female accepted as a neurosurgery resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The soon-to-be doctor said she was “over the moon” to discover she’d made history at the 148-year-old Nashville, Tennessee, institution.
Case Western Reserve University Medical School student Tamia Potter has worked hard for nine years to join the small ranks of Black neurosurgeons in the country. In fact, she will become one of 34 Black women currently serving in the field, according to the American Society of Black Neurosurgeons.
On March 17, she received the acceptance letter that realized that goal and then some.
Out of the entire world, there were only three people accepted into the program. VUMC Neurosurgery tweeted a picture of Potter, along with two others: Alan Tang and Freddy Vallejo, both people of color.
“We are thrilled to announce our new Vanderbilt Neurosurgery residents! Congratulations- we are so excited to have you on our team!” the hospital tweeted.
Potter tweeted about the accomplishment.
“My first job was a certified nursing assistant at 17 years old in 2014. Today on March 17th, 2023, I was blessed to be selected as the first African American female neurosurgery resident to train at @VUMC_Neurosurg,” she wrote.
One of the posts included a video where she is speaking to an administrator from the school and asks, “Am I the first Black woman to train there?”
To her surprise, the woman on the other end of the call said simply, “You are.”
This is not the young woman’s biggest “first.” She also was the first in her family to attend medical school.
After high school, Potter, as a…
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