For Shamone Gore Panter, 43, of Elyria, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, life has been a balancing act as she’s juggled professional and family responsibilities.
It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic when she saw the impact Black doctors can have on Black patients, that she decided to reset her sights on fulfilling a dream.
Gore Panter is a research scholar at the Cleveland Clinic. She teaches an online class at the clinic and is a wife and mother. Now she’s working on adding the title of family physician to her list.
The 43-year-old is currently enrolled at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, taking medical school courses online. It’s a predicament she could not have imagined 16 years ago. In 2007, Gore Panter considered medical school, but she was too intimidated by the Medical College Admission Test or MCAT.
“I am not a scary type person, but that is the one thing I can say in my life that literally terrified me,” Gore Panter said.
Gore Panter was always interested in working in health care after her mother died in 2001 of a heart attack at 41. She wanted to learn more about cardiovascular health and the risk factors she and her sister potentially had following their mom’s death. Instead of going the medical doctor route, she earned her doctorate degree as a researcher focused on cardiovascular genetics at the Cleveland Clinic. She also worked as an assistant lecturer at Cleveland State University.
For years, she had become content with being a researcher until the COVID-19 pandemic unearthed generational skepticism felt by many African-Americans. Gore Panter’s niece was pregnant at the time and asked her knowledgeable aunt about the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine faced skepticism, especially from Black and brown communities, due to America’s history of medical experimentation on Black bodies.
Gore Panter encouraged her niece to take the vaccine to help protect herself and her unborn…
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