Goucher Names Inaugural Tisch Fellow In Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program

Press release from Goucher College:

April 6, 2021

Goucher College is proud to announce that Yaphet Getachew has been named the inaugural
Tisch Fellow in Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program. Getachew is a first-generation
American who previously studied at Yale and whose work has focused on advancing healthcare
equity for underserved communities. He is particularly drawn to the role physicians
can play in addressing the impact of systemic racism on the health and wellbeing of communities of color. He will begin at Goucher
in Summer 2021.

“Goucher’s long history of rigorous science education, social justice, and service
to vulnerable communities is reflected in the post-baccalaureate premedical program’s
mission to support students, like Yaphet, who will go on to make significant contributions
in reducing healthcare disparities and improving health equity and outcomes, particularly
among marginalized populations,” says Betsy Merideth, Goucher College Post-Baccalaureate
Premedical Program Director.

Through a $1 million gift to Goucher, the Andrew and Ann Tisch Foundation established
a fellowship in the post-baccalaureate premedical program to support Goucher’s commitment
to foster a diverse and dynamic student body inclusive of underrepresented communities.
The Tisch Fellow in Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program is awarded annually to an
outstanding student enrolled in the post-baccalaureate premedical program.

Formalized in 1984, Goucher’s post-baccalaureate premedical program is one of the
most highly regarded in the nation. The College’s modern liberal arts curriculum focuses
on interdisciplinary complex problem-solving. The post-baccalaureate premedical program
is built upon Goucher’s rigorous undergraduate science education tradition and provides
students with intensive premedical preparation. Over the past ten years, one hundred
percent of program graduates have been accepted into top-ranked U.S. medical schools.

In applying to Goucher’s post-baccalaureate premedical program, Getachew noted that
“665 Black men matriculated at medical schools this year, a number virtually unchanged
in 40 years. I read about the underrepresentation, and the reasons were familiar to
me – stigma, bias, financial barriers, and more…my experiences as a minoritized person
in the U.S. have motivated me to work towards becoming a physician that will prioritize
and improve the health care experiences of underserved communities.”

Getachew was raised in Minnesota, where his parents had immigrated to when escaping
civil conflict in Ethiopia. The family now owns and operates a small business that
provides assisted living facilities for adults with disabilities, with whom Getachew
has worked as a Home Health Aide. He attended Yale, where he was admitted to the selective
Global Health Scholars program and graduated with a B.A. in Global Affairs in 2016.
For three years at Yale, he was an elected member of the Yale College Council. He
spent summers interning in Ethiopia, as well as in Brazil working on a program to
address childhood obesity, and advising the Clinton Health Access Initiative on healthcare
programs in Liberia.

Since 2018, he has worked in healthcare delivery system reform and helped to launch
the new health equity program at the Commonwealth Fund in New York City. He has co-authorship
on papers including “COVID-19 More Prevalent, Deadlier in U.S. Counties with Higher
Black Populations” and “Increasing Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Could Reduce Maternal
Deaths and Improve Outcomes.” He is first author of the publication Beyond the Case Count: The Wide-Ranging Disparities of COVID-19 in the United States.

“Our program was honored to receive the gift from The Andrew and Ann Tisch Foundation
to support our efforts to provide opportunities for aspiring physicians from backgrounds
that have traditionally been less represented in medicine,” says Merideth.

The Andrew and Ann Tisch Foundation shares Goucher’s commitment to providing educational
opportunities to underserved populations. Goucher’s efforts to provide exceptional
education, paired with the emphasis on community-based learning and social justice,
earned the institution the distinction as a 2020 Top Performers on Social Mobility
by U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges report. Goucher is also recognized as one of the most innovative colleges
in the United States.

This press release was produced by Goucher College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.