Please welcome Program Planning Committee Chair, Dr. Rachel Brackey-Holman. ♪♪ Good morning, everyone. On behalf of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and as Chair of the Program Planning Committee, I'd like to welcome all of you to the 2022 Annual Assembly. I have served in this role for the past four years, and what an interesting past four years it has been. Morphing our meeting from in-person to virtual, and now to hybrid, I think I have earned the bragging rights for the PPC Chair with the most change. For all of our sakes, I hope no other span of four years requires as much change as the past four years has required of all of us. I could talk about the impact that COVID had on my life and those around me for hours, but I don't want to do that now. I want to look around and take in the experience of this meeting. I'm admiring and appreciating the ballroom, the feeling of community, and seeing all of you sitting here and the feeling of being together again in one space. I am also looking at you virtual attendees. This is what I have missed and what is so special about these meetings. I will never again take this for granted and will never forget how important this community is for my professional and personal life. I have missed all of you, and I'm so happy to be back together. Now I would like to recognize the volunteer members of the Program Planning Committee who have put the content together for this meeting. They have been innovative, thoughtful, and persistent in creating content for the annual assembly, despite the uncertainties that we live in this post-COVID world. This meeting would not happen without you, and thank you for being an amazing group to work with. I would like all members of the PPC to please rise or wave so that we can thank you. this year's assembly theme. This theme is so appropriate because physiatrists are leading the way like never before. From long COVID to new technologies to taking care of patients throughout the continuum of care, we are leading the way. Each session and event that you attend here focuses on the education, conversations, and resources that you need to be successful now and into the future. From participating in PM&R bold discussions, attending our new technologies and practice evolution sessions, to sharing your thoughts in our town hall, you are helping to lead the way. This year's agenda is once again jam-packed. We prioritize and value our commitment to diverse representation in our program. Our volunteer faculty help make this possible. I cannot say thank you enough to our generous faculty who have worked so hard to create educational sessions for us. If you are a session director or faculty member, will you please stand or wave so that we can recognize you? Thank you. My two-word check-in is nervous and excited. I'm hoping Steve continues this. I'll give it a couple minutes. You know, our AAPMNR Annual Assembly is so very special to me for a whole number of reasons. I remember coming here as a resident to present my poster first time, sometime last century or so. Of course, I loved the educational opportunities at the Annual Assembly, but I really thrived on the networking and, you guessed it, volunteering. Another reason that this meeting is so special to me is that I met my husband, Dan Clark, on my flight to the San Antonio Annual Assembly when I was chief resident. In a nearly empty plane, he was sitting next to me from Columbus to Dallas. Dan's father, a Lutheran pastor who married us, liked to tell people that we met in the heavens, and I love that line. We did meet in the heavens. In fact, we just celebrated our 30th anniversary in September. Anyway, if this is your first or your 10th or your 20th time here, welcome, and I hope that you have a wonderful meeting and experience. So first, a few thank yous to Dr. Stu Weinstein, our immediate past president who's been my mentor and dear friend in preparing me to assume this role. He tolerated my mound of bananas, an inside joke, as his dessert as we celebrated his retirement. Stu, I hope you've had time to relax and maybe write a little poetry. To Michelle Gittler, our previous past president who led us through the initial shutdown of the pandemic. Michelle's been my role model, cheerleader, and friend, and I laugh at our very expensive impulse purchase during a stroll through the AAP exhibit hall in May. Both Stu and Michelle have bravely led the Physician Volunteer Academy leaders during this early part of the pandemic, and I know it was not how they envisioned their presidential years, and they handled all of those challenges with grace and humor. So I'd like both of these courageous physician leaders to join me on the stage. ♪ MUSIC ♪ Thank you guys. I know they weren't exactly excited about doing that. Okay, we just started with the thank yous. So to Dr. Rachel Brackey-Holman, for the past four years as chair of our program planning committee, thank you, Rachel, for innovating our annual assembly experience and leading us through two years of virtual conferences. We cannot thank you enough for all of your hard work. And we are super excited to have Dr. Sarah Wong take over as chair for the program planning committee. Welcome, Sarah. And we are thrilled to see what the next four years hold in store for us. To Tom Stautzenbach and the entire professional staff team at AAPMNR, all of you guys make this organization hum with a professionalism I admire and a tolerance of me and my very silly request that's unmatched. APPLAUSE To the entire AAPMNR board of governors and so many other volunteers, I am so lucky to count all of you among my friends. I have had a blast, truly a blast, this past year, and I've loved learning with all of you. To my family, Dan, Matt, and Katie, my mom, Barbara, and my brothers, Brian, Scott, and Dave, and their families, they've always been my number one fans, as well as my editor, my photographer, my script holder, my cheerleaders, as well as my LinkedIn partners. In fact, Dan, Matt, Katie, and my brother Scott are here in Baltimore to celebrate with me, and my brother Dave and Brian are joining online, so thank you. APPLAUSE These folks keep me grounded and very humble. Katie recently texted me and shared Sia's song, Unstoppable. She said that the song always reminds her of me and how unstoppable I am in life and leadership roles. Actually, it's the other way around, Katie. You guys are my role models, Dan, Matt, and Katie. To our academy past presidents, my appreciation and respect for this group of leaders has grown tenfold as this past year has taught me so much about leadership and our specialty. And it is with great respect and admiration that I say thank you. So the group of the past presidents, if you can rise and stand, if you're able, and we'd like to give you a round of applause. APPLAUSE I love you all over there. To our outgoing class of academy future leaders who started in 2019 pre-pandemic, took a year off, thank you for your flexibility and your desire to learn and grow. And if you guys can stand and be recognized also. APPLAUSE And most importantly to all of you, our members, we know what these last three years have brought. We see your commitment to your patients. We see your advocacy for our Big Tent specialty. So thank you for all that you do. You know, I have been an active volunteer throughout my entire professional career. And I've been a volunteer with our Academy for, I guess, a few decades. My history of volunteerism and leadership comes from my family and some amazing mentors. My mom, Barbara, a nurse and an attorney raised me and my three brothers as a single mom. Barbara was a lifelong volunteer to dozens, and I mean dozens, of community and professional organizations. She instilled that love and that passion of giving back and volunteering into me. So maybe, maybe I'll be able to instill just a little bit of that volunteer love and an engagement into all of you that's listening. As Dr. Thomas mentioned, I am a proud graduate of the Ohio State University PM&R residency. I came to OSU after I met Dr. Ernie Johnson, one of the luminaries of our field. Among so many others in PM&R, he was my mentor, he was my former chair, and dear friend. And at these meetings, at these Academy Assembly meetings, in particular, he is deeply and profoundly missed. Dr. Johnson shared with all of us a deep passion for our field and for the patients we are privileged to care for. I am also truly honored to be one of seven former OSU PM&R residents who served as president of our incredible American Academy of PM&R. Those include George Craft, Myron Laban, Randy Bradham, Robert Weber, and Claire Wolfe. One experience our residency provided was trips with Ernie to small towns around Columbus to do EMGs. So in between carpal tunnel studies, he'd read people's palms and he'd pierce ears. We'd also get Dairy Queen. In addition to his expert clinical skills, Ernie loved to show how he could tie a knot in a cherry stem with his tongue. Yes, this is what we did during the annual assembly. His record was under eight seconds, and this is not a skill that I have, so please don't ask me. Dr. Bill Pease posted a YouTube video of Ernie at age 84, demonstrating how to do a wheelie in a standard wheelchair, not a lightweight one, balancing on its back two wheels. So go under YouTube and Google it or whatever and find it. It's really pretty fun to watch. You know, these past three years are absolutely nothing we could have imagined, and I am extraordinarily mindful that we have endured tragic loss of loved ones and so many other things. Jobs, personal connections, celebrations, graduations, proms, to name just a few. And I believe that we are resilient, and I believe that each of you are leaders. So I'm going to take this opportunity to share with you some examples that I've been exposed to in the last year of things that our Academy members, you guys, have been doing and leading in their own bold way. I invite you to share your innovations and your talents with our Academy. So I am a podcast lover, and I got into listening to podcasts probably a little bit later than most, but I really got into listening to them during the onset of the pandemic while cycling with my family. And did you know that we have a couple of podcasters in our midst? Dr. Lisa Varghese-Kroll and her good friend Dr. Lanre Falusi teamed up to start a podcast, Health and Home, with the Hippocratic Host. It's focused on informed parenting, medical news, and life hacks. Look for their podcast. It is their down-to-earth conversation and interviewing style that really hooks you. We also have an amazing YouTuber, Dr. Brian Sutterer. Brian is a sports medicine physiatrist at Mayo Clinic who explains sports-related injuries seen on television, like TJ Watt's pec injury, and in a way the casual sports fan, like me, can understand and learn from him. Dr. Sutterer has over 630,000 followers on his YouTube channel. 630,000 followers. And I am excited because I have over 710 followers on LinkedIn. I don't know. I have a ways to go. We have amazing communicators and authors in our midst. Dr. Saloni Sharma is the author of The Pain Solution, a five-step process for relieving and preventing back pain. Communicating our unique value is Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, as the host of Dr. Radio on Sirius XM Radio. Jonathan is a gracious, gracious host with a wonderful British accent, and it was super fun to be interviewed on the Monday after our annual assembly last year, when I had been on the job for one day. And did you know that we are establishing ourselves as the leader in the treatment of long COVID? Tireless work is being done by many, including PM&R journal editor, Dr. Janet Freedley, and congressional testimony that Dr. Monica Rodusco Gutierrez provided. Doctors Alba Azola, Amanda Morrow, Steve Flanagan, Kathy Bell, and Jonathan Whiteson have all provided countless, countless interviews with media outlets about long COVID, as well as Chair Ben Abramoff and the entire PASC Learning Collaborative. It's those difficult conversations our Quality Practice Policy and Research Committee and the board has about the future of inpatient rehabilitation. It's the federal advocacy with our Days on the Hill in April and September, through efforts by longtime friend and OSU colleague, Dr. Susan Hubble, as well as resident physician, Dr. Manish Tiwari. These and so many others, I've had the privilege of seeing in the last year. This year also has me reflecting on my own professional journey and the impact we, as physiatrists and leaders, have in the lives of our patients. My practice is primarily outpatient spying, a little bit of MSK, and electrodiagnostic medicine. I see a lot of chronic pain, and as you can appreciate, it's hard some days. One of the best classes I've taken was a patient communication course. I was pretty skeptical at first. I'd been in practice for a fairly long time, but it did change how I practiced and how I interacted with my patients. So I don't sit and type right away, I sit and I listen. My standard opening, after pleasantries, is when you scheduled this visit, what was your main concern? Thanks for sharing that with me. I'm going to take some notes, maybe not so well, in the computer now to make sure I record what you said. I think about one of my favorite patients, Henriette, an 80 year old counselor, still working part-time. I started seeing Henriette during the early days of the pandemic, for a flare-up of right-sided low back pain. Henriette and I developed a really deep connection. I truly, truly loved our visits, discussing her back-related issues, and hearing about her work. Then we met in person over a year later, and I met a super cool, now 82 year old, who drove two hours to see me in person. Touched my heart. And recently I saw Colin, a young 28 year old dad, I've seen maybe, I don't know, four or five times over the past eight months. So this time when I asked, so Colin, what are your main concerns today? He shared that he wanted to, quote, start the process of medical euthanasia, unquote, because his pain had become intractable. So golly, yeah, I obviously changed how I interacted with with him that day, and certainly changed how I handled everything that day. That course also taught me to thank the patient for coming in to see me that day. A reaction that's brought some shocked responses from some of my patients, like, thank you, no, no, you, thank you. These examples and hundreds of others remind me every day that we have the chance, actually we have the privilege, to be with people and their families at some of the most vulnerable points in their lives. Because of the work that I've seen in the last year, I know that every one of you has risen to that challenge, and I am honored to be amongst fellow physiatrists today. As I started my year as president last November, I pledged that I would listen thoughtfully and carefully. I would unabashedly advocate for our specialty. I would lead with wholeheartedness. I pledged that you would hear me say, wow, or cool beans, and say thank you, as we recognize your accomplishments and our progress. And as I saw things that touched my head and my heart. So thank you for joining us all here in Baltimore and virtually for the next few days. As our worlds continue to recover, I urge you, I really urge you to lean into the Academy as your primary professional organization. The AAPMNR is the, there's a theme, the society that is defending, that is guiding, and connecting the specialty at PMNR. And there is absolutely no better time to engage. So for those of you who have been focused elsewhere, obviously in the last three years, we welcome you back. For those of you who have been on the sidelines, we encourage you to find an interest here in our Academy and jump in with both feet. We want and we need your talents and innovations of our members, you, to guide our specialty forward into new terrains of health care. We need volunteerism and engagement with our Academy now more than ever. Thank you and have a fantastic experience during our annual assembly. Thank you. So I have to share with you that I am super, super excited to introduce our keynote speaker. You are in for a treat. Mr. Byron Pitts is a Baltimore native and he is a multiple Emmy award-winning journalist and news veteran with more than 35 years of experience. He began his career at WNCT in Greenville, North Carolina, where he covered local news and served as a weekend sports anchor. Personally, I've known Byron since college. We both went to Ohio Wesleyan University, where he studied journalism and speech communication. We became good friends when we both worked as resident assistants or RAs together in our college dorms, and I believe I'm really the only one that's still rounding since college. But fun fact, we were on the homecoming court together our senior year of college. My hair is still the same. A little later. We've kept in touch over the years. Byron was named co-anchor of ABC News Nightline in 2014. He has covered national news stories and in-depth features for the network, reporting across the news division, including Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir, This Week, and 2020. He's known for his thoughtful storytelling, on-the-ground reporting, and in-depth interviews, as well as giving restaurant ideas in Baltimore. Prior to joining ABC News, Byron spent 15 years at CBS News, where he served as chief national correspondent for the CBS Evening News. He filed regularly for 60 Minutes, a childhood dream of his, and won an Emmy for his coverage of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Byron was named the National Association of Black Journalists Journalist of the Year in 2002. He's written two books, and he has a memoir in 2009, Step Out on Nothing, How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life's Challenges. And this chronicled his journey overcoming illiteracy and a stutter to become a journalist, none of which I knew until I read his book. So I am thrilled that my dear friend is able to join us today. Please give a warm welcome to Mr. Byron Pitts, who will give us an informative presentation on overcoming struggles and obstacles on our journey to success. Great job reading the teleprompter. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to thank my dear friend, Debra Vennessy, for that wonderful introduction. As Deb mentioned, we've been friends since we were teenagers. Two kids from, two college kids from humble beginnings with big dreams. She is an awesome human being. I'm so very proud of her, all that she's achieved. I love her. I love her wonderful family. And I know for a fact that Dr. Debra Vennessy is a remarkable human being. And therefore, since you are her colleagues, I presume I'm in a room full of remarkable people. So, good morning. Man, let me rephrase that. Good morning. How you doing? Good, good, nice, fine. I'd like you to consider moving forward when someone says, hey, good morning, you be a little more responsive. But me, when someone asks you, how are you doing, that you can honestly answer, live in the dream. It's true. Live in the dream. I mean, consider this. About 24% of the U.S. population is college educated. 6% of the world is college educated. And for most of us, that's high cotton. And then there are you guys. There are about 885,000 physicians, doctors in the United States. That's one-third of 1% of the U.S. population. There are about 9 million doctors worldwide. And there are 8 billion people on earth. Many of us depend on you to maintain our life, to improve our quality of life. You are special and important people. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Nelson Mandela, shortly after he was free from being in prison in South Africa for 27 years. And I asked Mr. Mandela, and I remember his answer to this day. The question was, Mr. Mandela, what is the one thing in life you know for sure, for which you have no doubt? And with that kind and wonderful smile, he said, ah brother, good question. He says, the one thing in life I know for sure, for which I have no doubt, is that good and evil are constantly at war, and good men, good women must choose. I am so honored today to be in this space with good men, good women, who have chosen to do good on this earth, to make life better for other people. I applaud each of you. So we've got, I've got a clock here, so I'm going to end on time. Good news. Oh, my one restaurant recommendation, being from Baltimore, so I'm from East Baltimore, which means I don't deal with people from West Baltimore that often. We are a petty people, us Baltimoreans. Anyway, a great local crab cake place is called Coco's, K-O-K-O. If you're looking for a good place to get crab cakes while you're in Baltimore. Okay, so with that local announcement made, there are microphones stationed in each aisle. I hope to leave time near the end of our conversation to answer questions about whatever, something I talked about, touched upon, any questions about politics, you know, that's how I spend a good bit of my time. We have the midterm elections coming up soon across our great nation or whatever else that may spark your interest. So we'll do that near the end. So as I mentioned, I am a journalist. I've been a professional journalist now for more than 40 years, right? We're getting old, sis. And so as a professional journalist for 40-plus years now, I've had, I've covered three wars, I've interviewed the last seven presidents of the United States, I've been to 89 countries, and at last count, I've watched 53 people die. I've watched as American service members gave their full measure to our great nation in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I was in New York on September 11th, 2001, and watched as nearly 2,500 of our fellow citizens died, many of them making the hard choice to leap from the building. How awful life must have been in that moment if your best option in life was to jump from a 101-story building. So in many ways, as a professional journalist, I make my living covering death. And I've made my peace with that. But something that makes me uneasy still is indifference. My friends, life has taught me that indifference can be a deadly weapon. So the core of my message to you in our conversation is don't be indifferent to your opportunities, each of you individually, collectively, to change the world. I believe that. Now, for the record, I know next to nothing about your profession. It's not my gifting. I mean, in fact, I'm really not that bright, I mean, in this room of scholarly people. I mean, there are people who graduated, Madden Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude, I'm sure there's some folk here, Phi Beta Kappa. I graduated, thank you, Laurie. I graduated in four years. That's as much as I can say about my education. Now I know over the next couple of days, you will fortunately learn best practices, new ideas from your colleagues and peers over the next couple of days. My job over the next 48 minutes is to encourage you, lift you up, love on you, remind you how special you are, how blessed you are, and the responsibility I believe each of you has to be a blessing to someone else. As I mentioned, I believe that all of you have the capacity to change the world. I believe that. I am, just so you know, I am an optimistic person by choice. And for those of you in the room who are also optimists, you know it is a hard-earned choice that you get to make. So as an optimist, I believe that each of you can, will change the world in your own way. I believe it not just because of the work I do and the places that I visit, I believe because of the life I've lived. You see, long before I was Byron Pitts, a national correspondent for CBS, for ABC News, before that CBS News, I was a kid from East Baltimore. I grew up about four miles from where we sit today. My mother had her first child at 16. She had me before she finished high school. I didn't learn to read until I was about 13 years old. I spoke with a stutter until my junior year in college. When I was in Baltimore, going to elementary school, not far from where we sit, I was failing all classes. And so they brought me in for a series of tests. My mother and I. My mom's name is Clarice Pitts. I'll mention Clarice a couple of times today. I wear her cross. God called her home about 10 years ago, but I keep her close with me always. So my mother just sort of set the stage of who she was. My mother was a God-fearing woman raised in church. My mother believed there was nothing that hard work and prayer couldn't overcome. She could quote scripture with any church elder anywhere in this country. She could also hold a conversation with any sailor, any bar, any place in America if you get my drift. So they brought us in and ran these series of tests on me to try and figure out why is it that Byron can't read? This kid's almost 12 years old and he can't read. So after a few days of running the tests, they brought my mother and I. And at that particular time, my mother had a 10th grade education. She was a seamstress at the local London Fog Coat Factory in Baltimore. Now, eventually she would go back to school, earn her degree in sociology from Morgan State, the Morgan State University, here in Baltimore, and spend the bulk of her professional life as a social worker helping families much like her own here in Baltimore. But at that time, she was a woman who'd only gone through the 10th grade in North Carolina. So we're sitting there with these fancy folk, like you, they've got initials at the front end of their name, initials at the back end of their names, all kinds of fancy degrees on the wall. And they said, Ms. Pitts, we've run these series of tests on Byron. And we've concluded, it's our professional opinion, our expert opinion, that your son Byron, their words, not mine, is mentally retarded. That was my mother's reaction. She had some other words in that moment in her reaction. And they said, because of your son's limited mental capacity, we think you should place him in an institution. And my mother said, test him again. And you know how sometimes people like y'all in the medical field can sometimes you give your expert opinion, and you think the conversation ends when you stop speaking. Well, my mother's one of those people who didn't necessarily go with what was first said to her. She said, well, test him again. And they said, Ms. Pitts, did you hear what we said? And she said, did you hear what I just said? Test him again. And she used some other words to drive home her point. I said, OK, fine. So they're polite. They ran the series of tests. They brought us back several weeks later and said, Ms. Pitts, just as we thought, the results were the same. Our conclusion remains the same, that your son Byron, their words, not mine, is mentally retarded. He lacks the mental capacity to live a normal life in this country. Our only recommendation to you is that you place him in an institution because you lack the resources, the means to get him help. And if not, perhaps you can bring him back when he turns 18 years old, and perhaps for their time there might be research or funding to support him. And my mother said, if I wait until my child is 18 years old, my boy will be dead or in prison. He needs help right now. And none was available. Fortunately for me, what my mother lacked in formal education at the time, she made up for with the old folk, the old saints would say, her knowledge of the Word. You see, for all of my life and much of her life, my mother wore around her neck a mustard seed and a clear plastic ball and a chain around her neck. I wear it now. It was my mother's daily reminder of the scripture of the book of Matthew that says, if you have faith just the size of a mustard seed, you can sit any mountain, move from here to there, and nothing will be impossible. Because with my mother's mountain-moving faith, she got me the help I needed, and I've been able to live my dreams. So as Deb mentioned, I wrote a book several years ago, mostly about my mother, actually, and about my faith walk. Now, I'm respectful of the audience that I'm talking to. This ain't Sunday, this ain't church, but as a Baptist, I welcome and amen if anyone so feels inspired. But I was invited here to tell my story, and so that is part of my story, my faith walk. I'm respectful of all faiths, but it was a late, great Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, who – I didn't realize there were some Cleveland fans in here, I know that's a little sensitive right now, but – too soon? The late, great Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra, once said, always dance with the one that brung you. Always dance with the one that brung you. So it was the faith I learned at my mother's knee that brings me to this place. And so I wrote this book, the book is called Step Out on Nothing, and actually the title comes from a sermon I heard at my home church, which is actually in West Baltimore, about seven miles that way. It was a Women's Day service, and I don't know if any of you all have noticed at this point, but I'm black. And I grew up in a Baptist church, New Shallow Baptist Church in West Baltimore, and for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the black church experience, perhaps next to Christmas Easter, there's no bigger occasion at the black church than Women's Day. Women's Day service, when the ladies show up in their best hats, their best dresses, it is an event. So this particular Women's Day service, they invited a woman minister to speak, and so during her sermon, she was talking about manicures and pedicures and women's sore feet. I looked at my watch and said, oh Lord, there is nothing in this sermon for the fellows at church today. And then she said something that took my breath away. She said in those difficult moments in life, when your Rolodex and your resume, your degrees, your profession, your 401K, your retirement, isn't enough to get you past a difficult moment. For some people, they say you are stepping out on nothing. For others of us, we're stepping out into a space where only God is, to get us through a difficult moment. So that's why I wrote the book, and I talked about people in my life who impacted me. Deb, in her wonderful speech, talked about her mentors in your industry, and all of us have had those people. Her family, the people who've inspired us, who've pushed us on, I've had those people. I mentioned my mother, who was my biggest advocate. My mother also believed that there was nothing that a whoopin' couldn't solve either, if prayer or hard work wasn't quite enough to get you to the next level. And so, my mother was someone who stepped out for me. Her faith went beyond what the experts said to her. What she saw in her child at that point, she believed there might be more for me. I went to a local high school here in Baltimore, Archbishop Crowley High School in East Baltimore. Which is about 4.2 miles from here. I measured it before I came up to that. And in my high school, I was ranked, freshman year, I was ranked 445th out of 450 students. God damn, I mean, you know, I mean, I knew at 445 I had issues. But the dude who was 446, 447, man, what were their problems? Woo! Sometimes in life, it's nice to get perspective about where you stand. You think you're having a bad day, someone's having worse. Well, as it turns out, I graduated 40th in my class from Crowley. Not the best student, thank you very much. But the best student I can be. And like Deb, I wound up at Ohio Wesleyan University, wonderful four years of my life. But when I get to Ohio Wesleyan, I take freshman English, and the fall, my freshman year, I get an F in freshman English. I mean, think about that for a second. And perhaps it's one reason why the media in America is so troubled right now. That every night, millions of people watch me on television to be informed about the world, and I failed freshman English. So as I mentioned, my mother was someone who believed that hard work could overcome anything. So we decided over Christmas break that first year, my fall in Delaware, Ohio, she says, well, baby, it's going to work harder and pray harder, and you're going to go back there and kick English's ass. Yes, ma'am. So we decided I would sign up the same English class, same professor, second semester. I'm going to work really hard and pray really hard and get through it. And so the professor, no insult to any of you who teach at the college level, but this professor could have been, you would have, they found this guy from Central Casting. He wore, what's the sweater called with the buttons? Cardigan. He wore the cardigan, and like, in the spring, in the fall, he still had on this cardigan sweater. Big fancy pipe, pipes, he had a collection of pipes. And so second semester, I take this same professor, and so he's passing out midterm test results. And Debbie, you know, at Ohio, it was in our class size, like 12 to 18, most classes, small liberal arts school. And as he's passing out these midterm results, he announces to the class, congratulations, Mr. Pitts, your best work thus far, D plus. Come see me after class. Yes, sir. I followed him to his office, and I love what Deb was saying about how professionals should treat patients, should treat people who are coming to you for assistance. So I walk into his class, he's distracted, looking at other things. He said, Mr. Pitts, don't sit down. This won't take long. He said, Mr. Pitts, based on my opinion as a tenured professor, it took him about 15 minutes to say tenured. As a tenured professor, I believe you're wasting my time and the government's money. You are not Ohio Wesleyan University material. I think you should leave. 17 years old, raised to respect authority. I said, yes, sir. I left his office, and I went to the admissions office next door to get the papers to withdraw from school. Now, I would imagine there are some of you in this room who may have been the first person in your family to go to college, or the first person in your family to earn a medical degree. And you know what a wonderful blessing and burden that can be, right? Because you're carrying not just your hopes and dreams, but the hopes and dreams of your families and the people that support you. So as I walk outside in the winter in Delaware, Ohio, filling out this form to withdraw from school, I start to cry. Now, these weren't like Hollywood tears. These were nose-running, head-bobbing, ugly tears. Anyone ever cry like that? I mean, sometimes it's just, right? It's just awful. So as I'm crying, true story, a stranger walked by. I didn't know her. She didn't know me. She simply said, young man, what's wrong? She sat down and talked to me for about 20 minutes, and then she left. That stranger was actually a professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. She wasn't any professor. She was a first-year professor. It was my first year at Ohio Wesleyan, it was her first year at Ohio Wesleyan. She wasn't just any first-year professor. She was a first-year English professor at Ohio Wesleyan University. And so I explained to her what I was doing, and she didn't try and correct me or stop me. She said, well, think about it, and then come see me the next day. And I went to see her the next day. Her name is Dr. Ula Luz. I like to say that Ula didn't simply change my life. She saved my life. She stepped out on nothing for me. She became my unofficial advisor. She advised me through college. In fact, when I got married, Ula came to the wedding. Now, Ula is from Estonia, and so at weddings, you have the meals for everybody and the meals for family. And so we're at the family thing, and there's security and to keep it loud and stuff. And so Ula shows up, this blue-eyed, blonde-haired, white woman with an accent, and says, I'm here for the Pitts wedding. I'm a member of the family. I said, excuse me, ma'am, but the... And so she insisted. She got in. And so Ula has become family to me. I like to say that Ula recognized struggle in my life because she'd experienced it herself. You have to imagine that life was not easy for this woman who was born and raised in Estonia, a country ravaged by the Russians and then the Germans during World War II. Ula spent the bulk of her childhood in refugee camps, and eventually the Lutheran church brought Ula and her family to Roxbury, Massachusetts. And you have to imagine that the Roxbury, Massachusetts of the early 1950s could be a difficult environment for blue-eyed, blonde-haired, white girl with an accent. As I said, Ula stepped out for me. And I'd imagine many of you in this room have stories about people who stepped out for you, who believed in you before you didn't quite yet believe in yourself. I think oftentimes when we think about stepping out, serving people, we think it often has to be the relationship where it's you, the well-educated, well-fully-formed adult has to help someone of less circumstance than you. But life has taught me that's not necessarily the case, that sometimes we can step out for our peers. Also at Ohio Wesleyan, my best friend at college was a guy named Peter Holthe. Peter was from Minnetonka, Minnesota. It's fair to say that I never met anyone from Minnetonka, Minnesota, and Peter never met anyone from East Baltimore, if you know what I'm saying. Pete used to call me Baby Boy. I guess that's what a white guy from Minnetonka, Minnesota thought you could talk to a brother from East Baltimore. He called me Baby Boy. Pete and I were roommates, best of friends. And so one day, Pete said, Baby Boy, let me ask you a question. Yeah, man. Why do you suck so at school? I'm like, wow, bro, that's a little aggressive, don't you think? And I'm from East Baltimore. We might have to throw hands because of the way he just spoke to me. Because sometimes, and you all know this in your profession, sometimes you have to deliver hard truths, right? You have to deliver bad news. You have to give people a reality check. But you can do that in a kind way. And so that's what Pete went on to say. He says, look, I observe how I know. I see how hard you, how many hours you spend studying at night. I see your test results, and they don't add up. So I explained to Pete in that vulnerable moment for me where he called me out. He was speaking hard truth to me about my situation. I explained to Pete that I didn't learn to read until I was almost 13 years old, that by the time I got to Ohio Wesleyan, I was still only reading at about a 10th grade level. And I wasn't fully prepared for the college experience. And so for me, college was really, really hard work. And Pete said, OK. And Pete was a botany major. Brilliant mind. Pete is the kind of person that would have ended up in this kind of room with these kinds of people, people like you, a brilliant, brilliant man with a wonderful heart. Pete went on to become a cancer researcher in California. So in that moment, Pete says, OK, baby boy, here's what we're going to do. Every day for the next four years, I'm going to give you a word in the dictionary. You're going to say it, spell it, and use it in a sentence. We're going to do that every day for four years, because when I graduate, you're going to graduate with me. Pete is also someone in my life who stepped out for me. I was 17. Pete was 18 years old. He had his own issues to adjust to in college. But he took time to share what God had given him to give to me, his brilliant mind. And so my friends, I would encourage you these next couple of days, while you're here to further grow your skill set, perhaps reconnect with colleagues, that you seek the opportunity to step out for someone here. I would imagine in this room of overachievers, there may be people in this room who are in a difficult space in their lives right now, perhaps personally, perhaps professionally. Because of all that our society has been dealing with these last couple of years with COVID and the changes in our economy, there may be people in this room who may be deciding this is going to be my last Academy conference. I'm out. I'm going to go do something else. And that's fine if they choose to do that. But this might be your opportunity to step out for that person. I mean, you guys are physicians. You are paid observers. You have a sense, right? It makes sense when someone is struggling. I would encourage you these next couple of days to look, to use those spider senses, to seek out someone who you do not know in this space and ask them, how are you doing? How can I help you? Because I'm 61 years old. And I see there are a few people in this room in my neighborhood and a couple of neighborhoods ahead of me down the road. So there's some wisdom in this room. I would encourage you in particular to find some young person here just out of medical school, perhaps someone midway in their career who is struggling right now. And you can sense it. And you reach out to them. You step out for them. You share with them. You lift them up. Because it seems to me that that's really why we're here. I know this week a lot of what you will be discussing is what you do. I hope you spend some time exploring who you are. As a journalist, every story I cover, war, disaster, politics, falls into one of three categories. A journey story, the fire started at 10 o'clock, the firefighters arrived by 10 to 15, the fire was put out by 11. That's a journey story. Second story is a search for treasure. I think about my friend Deb. My friend Deb, that when she came to college, she knew when she got there, inspired by her mom, that she wanted to go into the medical field. And eventually, she decided on medicine, becoming a doctor. And so finding her way to medical school was like her search for treasure, as I'm sure it was for all of you. The third kind of story in my business is a love story. And I would argue the most important stories I ever get to tell are love stories. It is about people who make sacrifices, people who show courage, people who lift others up. Again, referring back to my friend Deb, I think of her love story. This woman who so deeply admired her mother, her mother's strength, and she had her own dreams. She came to Ohio Wesleyan, she killed it. Went to medical school, killed it. Along the way, she found the man of her dreams. They raised a wonderful family. She now inspires people around the country. She is a leader. That's a love story. So I hope this week, while you look at what you do, you spend some time exploring who you are, why you do what you do, writing your own love story about your life, your career. Last, I want to leave you with the story of why I think it's important that you write your own love story for yourself and for others. There's a young woman I know. None of you have met her, but all of you know her. None of you have met her, but all of you know her. Her name is Pilar. Pilar lives 3.2 miles from where we sit, where we stand right now. I met Pilar about 10 years ago now at a local charter school. This isn't a charter school story at all. I met school. I was there, talked to young people, as I'm sure you all do when you lecture at different settings, about the importance of education, staying in school, working hard. And afterwards, I answered some questions. And usually, when I talk to the school kids, they ask me questions like, you ever interviewed Beyonce? Do you know Jay-Z? So I got some of those questions. And then at the end, this adorable little girl. I'm sure all of you have been in a public space, and you sense someone looking at you. It's not just ego. You sense that someone in the space you're in is looking specifically at you. And I felt that in this space. And so this adorable little 11-year-old girl walks up to me, and she said, Mr. Pitts, I have a question. Sure, baby. What's your question? She said, Mr. Pitts, thank you so much for coming back to Baltimore. It's so nice to meet someone like you who's born and raised in Baltimore. Mr. Pitts, here's my question. When you were 11 years old, living in Baltimore, where did you go? Where did you hide when the world hurt too much? Where did you go? Where did you hide when the world hurt too much? My friends, no child in the most powerful country on Earth should ever ask that question. But we know that they do. Pilar's back story. As I said, my mother had her first child at 16. Pilar's mother had her at 16. When Pilar was two, her mother had a choice to make. Her new boyfriend or her daughter. She chose her boyfriend. From age five to maybe seven or eight, Pilar would stay at an auntie's house, someone from church, a schoolteacher, anyone would care for this child. At eight, her fortunes changed. And finally, the family service system in Maryland recognized this child in crisis and placed her in foster care. And this story is not meant to be a critique or criticism of the foster care system. So Pilar was so happy, her foster mom was an 81-year-old diabetic, a woman who suffered from almost daily fainting spells. And one can make the argument that Pilar was as much raising this woman as the woman was raising this child. But Pilar still called her mama. Because it's the closest thing to a parent she'd ever had in her entire life. So when Pilar was about 10 and 1⁄2, her fortunes changed again. Her foster mom decided, perhaps because of her giving hard the economic realities of her own life, took in another foster child, a 16-year-old boy. His first night in Pilar's home about 3.2 miles from here, he wandered into her bedroom late at night and whispered in her ear, you don't matter. No one will care. Where do you go? Where do you hide when the world hurts too much? When Pilar asked me the question, I didn't yet know her back story. She and I became pen pals, and we remain friends to this day. Fortunately, there was a young teacher who observed and said, Pilar doesn't talk to anybody. What did she talk to you about? I explained to her Pilar's question. They investigated. I'm happy to report that that young man was removed from that home, and Pilar's life got better. In fact, Pilar went on to graduate college here at a state university in Maryland. In fact, I remember her freshman year, we would always communicate. And we're talking, and I said, Pilar, how's school, she said, oh, Mr. B, man, college English is kicking my ass. And I start laughing. How wonderful life is that your most difficult challenge today is English, freshman English, based on your journey. My friends, I would argue that each of you know a Pilar. It could be a little girl, a boy. It could be a 75-year-old man or woman. It could be a 35-year-old. It could be a 24-year-old, recently medical school graduate, someone in the midst of their residency. All of us know a Pilar. I would encourage you to, this week, while you're here in Baltimore, fellowshipping with your colleagues, but more importantly, when you go back to wherever your home is, that you find your Pilar. You reach out to her. You him or her. You make their life better. I have to say, as a journalist, part of my job is to judge people. I do. Because oftentimes, I've gone into difficult environments, Afghanistan, Somalia, where I need to make snap to judgments. I can trust you to drive me and my colleagues to the next location. It's OK that we're going to protect us in this difficult space. So I often have to make snap judgments about people for my own safety and the safety of the teams I travel with. So when I took the stage, I judged all of you. Made a snap judgment. I did. OK, a couple observations. Really good-looking group. Really, really good-looking group. And then I also sort of put you in one of two categories. There are some of you I will call the children of privilege, right? There are some among you who went to great schools. There are other physicians in your family. You're the third, fourth, fifth-generation person, college-educated person in your family. For you, life has been comfortable. To you, the children of privilege, I say you have a responsibility to go find the pilars in your space and let them know that life does not always have to be hard. Don't be embarrassed or uncomfortable about your privilege. Celebrate it. Be grateful for it. And let others know, let the pilars in your space know that life can be good. There are good opportunities, good people in this country. So you are the children of privilege. Now, the other side of the house, I call you, and I see you, the children of the storm. These are my people. I'd imagine there are people in this room who are the first in your families, not just to become doctors, but the first in your family to go to college. I'd imagine in this room, there are people who for many years of your life heard, no, not yet. You're not ready. You're not good enough. This isn't your place. You don't deserve to be here. You're not skilled enough to be here. To you, I say you have a unique responsibility to go find the pilar in your life and say, baby, you can make it because I can make it. You can make it because I made it. I am so grateful, again, to be in your presence. I wish each of you Godspeed as you continue to write and discover your love story. Thank you. All right. Now, thank you so much. Now we have time, if you want, we have microphones in the aisles if anyone has a question. I'd be happy to take a question about anything I talked about or any other sort of subject matter. Feel free. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. I want to just say that I'm a big fan of your book. I'm Dr. Merritt. I'm on the board. I believe I might be the first African-American female on the board. And we have two more joining us. Yay, under Debbie's plane. But I also want to say I had a similar experience. I'm glad you shared that. I am, this weekend, also attending the Georgetown Black Alumni, Howard Homecoming. And there was a professor at Georgetown that had a very similar conversation with me, my so-called pre-med advisor. That mother. That's right. But the first thing I did was go to the one black junior ahead of me to ask him, as I told this man, I didn't agree with the outline that he was giving me on what I needed to do, which would have set me up for failure. And I'm so grateful for that chain, that reaching back that we do. We just had our meeting this morning with the African-American community on the same thing. And I just wanted to ask, how do we help people understand from a different background that it is so much more than just being good enough? I was there at Georgetown on an academic scholarship. I graduated early. I had more than the minimum qualifications in that sense. But it was still that I was being told I wasn't good enough, this thing that happens where people judge. And so people need to know this. There's a trend now where people are afraid of diversity, inclusion, that that's sort of passe, or it's not fair. Or in Florida, where I live now, that's a whole other situation. But we know that the playing field is not level. And how do we communicate to people who do not have that experience to understand that we should all be looking for those pilars, that it benefits society to not miss those diamonds in the rough? So much of our leadership now is coming along because of these pipelines. Sure, sure. Thank you so much for the question. And congratulations to you and to your journey. Thank you. I hear you. It's a common question I think we all ask at different stages of our lives. So my daughter, who is absolutely, like all of our children, a child of privilege, when she went to Florida State, she was a musical theater major. And her roommate, a young white woman from a horse country part of Florida, the Kissimmee area of Florida, from a very affluent family, she asked my daughter, she says, huh, you're in the honors program? You're living in this dorm in Florida State? What kind of scholarship did you get? My daughter said, oh, I'm on the Byron Pitts scholarship program. It seems to me, so I come from everything as a perspective as a journalist. I believe there is a narrative to everything. And so there's a narrative to that story. And the reality is, I think, while certainly we know that race and class is a major issue in our country, that all of us have a story. All of us have a back story. And I think if we can relate to each other, we can discover the next person's narrative, and we can find a place in which we can meet. I think every survey across every industry points to that diversity and inclusion isn't just about political correctness or doing the right thing. It is an economic necessity to remain viable in any industry. Because America is becoming more and more diverse. What's the study that says by 2015 that whites will no longer be the majority of our nation? So I think you can appeal to anyone. There's a practical, nuts and bolts reason why every organization should embrace diversity and inclusion. I was so pleased to see one of the issues you all will discuss this week is that in your particular area of expertise. Certainly there are challenges, there are opportunities. But I believe part of it is just the narrative nature of, if you can hear someone else's story, connect it to your own story. Even in the way that you all present your work, I was so happy to see that you all recognize the importance of getting your message out to media outlets. I didn't see ABC News up there on the wall. We can correct that. Because I know people at ABC who can help spread the good news about the important work that you all do. So I think that's part of it, is sharing each other's narratives. And also the realization that I think, what is it I've heard to say that in most situations, only 15% of the people are the ones who actually get things done, right? I know like at my church, like a church of 2,000 people, they're the same 87 people who do all the work at our church as I'm sure probably true in this organization that if you have 10,000 members, I'd imagine there are probably 87 people who do the bulk of the work. So I think for the 87 people in the organization who are committed to diversity and inclusion, it's part of your responsibility to lean in, to share the narrative, to be the person in the room to speak up. Yes. Oh, sorry. Byron, thank you for your powerful words. Thank you. I'm Darrell Kalen from Louisville, Kentucky. What are brothers, you're not a Kentucky Wildcat fan, I take it. Yeah. Okay. So you've met many, many people. You've had amazing experiences. You've been many places. With all of those experiences, what's the one thing that you know for sure? Oh. Thank you for that. The one thing that I know for sure is that God is good. All right? Amen. That I'm certain. You know, like all of you guys, right, that you often meet people at one of the lowest points in their lives, right? And that's kind of how I spend my day with the things that I've covered. But in every difficult situation that I've ever been in, whether it's Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, I cover the earthquake in Haiti, 300,000 people killed. I cover the tsunami in Indonesia, hundreds of thousands of people have killed. And in all those places, for me, I still see, as I'm sure you all see, grace. I see strength. I see resilience. I remember being in Haiti the night after the earthquake, and we arrive in the Port-au-Prince, and we get there, and we're at the one public hospital, public hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince. No power. Almost all the medical equipment had been damaged. They weren't able to give people morphine or anything for their pain. People arrived with crushed injuries. The medical professionals had to make decisions to amputate. That was the best option that night. So you can imagine being in a courtyard about the size of this room, pitch black, no power. It's like two o'clock in the morning. And you know that there are hundreds of people laying on the ground, and all you hear is moaning. And it's so incredibly sad, because either someone is moaning because they're in pain, or their loved one, who they brought there, is in pain. And at some point, you hear off in the distance, in the corner, this woman humming. She sounded like an older woman, humming. Hmm, interesting. And then she started to sing, over there in the corner. And then, for some reason, two people over there started singing the same song. Then two people over there started singing. Come to find out, they were singing the Haitian National Anthem, which speaks in part about struggle and overcoming hardship. And so in that difficult moment, for me at least, I saw the presence of grace, of resilience. And I've seen it wherever I've gone in the world, the presence of good people. And so for me, the one thing I know for sure, which is true in my own life, is that God is good. And that he or she breathes life into good men and women. Yes? First of all, I just wanna say thank you for your powerful message. I am a pediatric rehab doctor in Oklahoma City. And I think through my journey in my career, a lot of what you said spoke to me. I feel like, in a lot of ways, going through the journey of medicine, there's this distractor of chasing accolades and degrees. But you've redefined the term of success. And I think that's a very powerful message. What you can give to another person and making them a better version of themselves, using that wisdom, is one of those things that are irreplaceable. And I just wanna say thank you, because I think that message needs to resonate throughout society. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. One of the wise doctors in my life, my grandmother, Roberta May Walden, she said, the only way that God can give you more is if you open up your arms and share what you have. And I think I've seen that. I was thinking about, you know, Deb and I were buddies back in college. I remember Deb and I, as RAs, we'd sometimes go to meetings, we'd have like, you know, bad Domino's pizza. And she and I, we would sit and talk about what we dreamed of. We would sit and just brag about our mothers, how proud we were of them, and how motivated we were to be successful, to honor their sacrifice. And so when I think about sort of my fond memories of college, some of those memories of the time that Deb and I spent in, and so I think relationships are so important in what you pour into people. Like for me, you know, not being that bright, struggling in school to meet this beautiful and brilliant young woman who's gonna be a doctor, like, wow. Because trust me, there are no doctors in my family, ever, not once. You know, we've got a couple of street pharmaceutical salesmen in my family, but no doctors. Yes, over here, question please. Hi, thank you so much for being here. My name's Esther and I'm from Austin, Texas. Do you have any, what is your quick advice on how to conquer imposter syndrome? That's, as we're going through our journey and people are encouraging us or stepping out, how do you overcome your own, the obstacle that you set for yourself when you're not feeling worthy of that? I feel you, right. That's a great question, because I think we've all, many of us have felt that, right, at different stages of our lives and our careers. For me, I think, I often say, for me, I know who I am and whose I am. That helps me. Also, I know my family. I know where I come from. You know, my mother grew up during the Jim Crow South. My grandmother. My grandmother was a domestic most of her life. She cleaned the homes of white folk in Apex, North Carolina. And so I often think that my worst day would have been my grandmother's best day. I often think of the poem by Maya Angelou, I am the hope and the dream, right. And I think all of us are, right. And so for me, sometimes, what always helped me when I had those moments of pause, of insecurity, of doubt, I'm reminded of whose shoulders I stand on. In those moments, when I have so much self-doubt about me, I have no doubt about the people who sacrificed for me. I have no doubt about the people who breathe kindness and encouragement in me. I had no doubt that whatever opportunity I had, whether I thought I was deserving of it or not, that it would allow me to give opportunity to someone else. So for me, managing the imposter syndrome, which I think is something we all deal with, is when I realized it wasn't about me. It was about others, that it helped me, right. That whatever I had, it's more than what my grandmother had. Whatever I have, I have it because of the sacrifices that she made and my mother made. Whatever I have, I have it because someone else needs me. As mediocre and undeveloped and unworthy as I am, there's someone who may have a shot because I have a shot. That helps. Yes, please. Yeah, hi, I'm Brian McMichael. I'm from the Ohio State University. So I, yeah. So I graduated high school by the hair of my teeth. I joined the Marine Corps. I got my bachelor's in the 30s. Oh, thanks for the service. And then got, I graduated med school when I was 45. I would just tell you, our specialty has a diversity pipeline problem. I'm curious about your experience covering things across the country. If there are other, or if there are programs, I mean, I think it boils down to high school, college, med school, and then us. But what do you see in the country about supporting African-American men who are dwindling in college experience now, et cetera? Thank you. I certainly know there's a great example of what's possible, not too far from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. They recently retired President Freeman Hrabowski, a black man with a Polish last name, love that. Because he was the, Freeman Hrabowski Jr., because he was the third Hrabowski born free. It was kind of came with a name. Anyway, and so the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program at UMBC, which was the question originally raised by Mr. Meyerhoff, a wealthy entrepreneur in the Baltimore area. Why aren't there more black people, black men in medical school, right? Getting their PhDs in science. Are they not that bright? They don't care, what is it? And so he challenged Freeman to figure that out. And what Freeman discovered, among many things, is that, as you all know, in the medical profession, you can't date in school, you can't date medicine. You gotta be married to it, right? It becomes your life. And a lot of people of color don't have the financial wherewithal to sustain what has to occur, the long journey required to become a medical doctor. And so he started the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program at UMBC to recruit black men. They were so incredibly successful, they started recruiting black women. They were so incredibly successful that they realized that some of the same challenges that face men and women of color also are faced by white folk of modest means. And they opened the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program on a need basis. And so I think what the Meyerhoff Program proves is that there's no shortage of talent, right? There's no shortage of talent, but there's a shortage of opportunity. And certainly, while I subscribe to the notion of fortifying the pipeline, I think that's important, also I think a lot of industries, certainly mine is guilty of this, they miss out opportunity in the middle, right? I know I work for the Walt Disney Company, and we spend a lot of time talking about diversity and inclusion. And our organization, I would imagine like your industry, is better at recruitment than the art of retention. And so I would think, I would hope part of your energy is built not just on getting as many people of color in the pipeline, but where is this organization supporting people midway through their careers, creating opportunity, allowing men and women of color to head programs, right, at different universities, at the Ohio State University or elsewhere across this country. And it's almost, I think of, I think about this issue, I think about the great American bank robber, Willie Sutton. Someone asked Willie Sutton, so Willie Sutton robbed more than 100 banks in the 1940s and 50s in the United States, and he was finally captured. He escaped from prison seven times. They asked Willie, he says, Willie, why do you rob banks? He says, it's simple, that's where the money is. And so I think when it comes to dealing with this issue of retention and recruitment, diversity and inclusion, if you want, forgive me, if you want black folk, go where black folk are. Morgan State University here in Baltimore, a great school. Do your organizations have internships or are you connected to HBCUs, right? Because I imagine black folk have been graduating from medical school for a long time, as best I can tell. So there is no shortage of talent, but there's a shortage of opportunity. There's a shortage of recognizing different skill sets. Like I was at a conference just a couple of weeks ago with investment bankers, and this one CEO, he made the point that he said that his company, they redefined what they were looking for, that the traditional model was go find the top five graduates at these Ivy League schools, then we're good. And then when they realized they can open the pool up to other, they changed, not lower the standards, but expanded the standards. They got access to talented people in other fields. So I think that's, as Willie Sutton said, go where the money is. If you want these communities to be representing your organizations, go to where they are, nurture them. And not simply be mentors, but be sponsors. Like how many of you, if I may ask this question, in your professional lives, have ever sponsored a black or an Asian or Latino physician? Where you said, for this job, for this board membership, I recommend this person, right? I mean, I think more easily people do internship programs and mentor kids, great to see you, go speak to schools, but how many people have you put skin in the game to lift their careers? And I think that's part of the answer. Yes. Good morning. Question, two more questions, yes ma'am. Mr. Pitts, Dr. Brenda Waller, I'm from Virginia. And I have many questions, but the one that keeps circling around is what happens when your PILAR does not recognize their own worth. And I'm here, and this may be the only opportunity I get, in representing an organization for black farmers. I am a child of the storm. I am now a child of privilege, and I am going back to encourage my roots to stand up for maybe what has been denied, but food security is something that this world will face shortly. And I believe that our farming community needs to rise up, and especially our black farmers that have been denied on so many stages. Thank you. I think, here's what I believe, right? I think in many ways finding PILAR apply the same science you've applied to being a good parent, right? All of us who are parents often know that we have to reach out to our children fail often, right? And we don't love them less. We don't give up on them. We lean in more. So I think whenever possible, right? Lean in when you can. And also the recognition, I think, you know, many times when the PILAR is in our lives, some PILAR will be there our entire lives. Some PILAR will be there for 20 minutes at a conference. But I think you give the best that you have in that moment, and they will cling to what they cling to, and perhaps it will serve them in your time, but hopefully it'll serve them in their time. That's what I think. Last question, and I have one thing I wanna do before I go. Yes, please. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. I'm Brandi Waite from University of California, Davis. Is that the University of California? It's just the University of California. All right. We don't need a the. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Fiyoho didn't catch that. She just dropped shade just in a second. Please, go ahead. Thank you so much for sharing the difficult part of your journey. I think many times young people coming up see the Instagram version. You see the prettiness, you see the shine, you see the accolades, you see the accomplishment, and you don't get to see I couldn't read until I was almost 13 years old, or this person turned me away, or these were the struggles that I overcame to get here. I think that piece of the narrative is so important, so thank you for sharing that, and I just wanna encourage other people to do the same thing. We like to stand on our merits and show how fantastic we are, but I think showing that the failures and the things that you've overcome actually speak more to the people that really need that encouragement. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Before I go, thank you very much. Is there any, I need a volunteer. I need a 61-year-old person. 61? Not yet, boo. I don't need 66 yet. I need 61. But thank, 61, please sir, come up, come on stage if you don't mind. You can come up that way over there. I hear you, right, because I think, again, all of us have a story, right? All of us have some measure of struggle. I mean, part of your success is based on struggle. All of us have had challenging, difficult times. I think about, you know, I say all these glowing things about my mother, and she's a wonderful woman. I think about, I joke and say, my mother was hard. She was a hard parent. I'm not sure how many of you had hard, she loved hard, my mother. I used to joke and say that up until I was about nine, I thought my first name was God damn it. God damn it, Byron, I told you. Anybody else think that was your first name? Hello, sir. Hi, I'm Byron. Brian. Brian, where are you from? Anaheim, California. Nice, welcome to Baltimore. So you're 61. When's your birthday? August 12th, 1961. Nice, so you're fairly mint at 61. I turn 62 tomorrow. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you. So here's a question. Brian, what did your parents do for a living? My mother was an LVN, and my father owned a bar supply business. Okay, so from that, I think you learn entrepreneurship, right, the importance of investing in yourself and people. So my mother was a seamstress, as I mentioned, became a social worker. My father and my parents divorced when I was young. My mother would say he was a no good SOB, but actually, he was a meat cutter. Okay, what did your grandparents do? What did your grandparents do? Okay. My grandfather was a farmer. He died young. My grandmother was a farmer, but because he died young, they left the farm and she ended up becoming a domestic worker. Again, from your family tree, the value of hard work, right? Just physically investing the time. What did your great grandparents do? Farmed. What part of the country? So same thing, right? You see a theme in your life that you saw an example, heard stories about the value of hard work, right? My great grandmother was born a slave. That means she was a shovel, a rake, a dog, a cat. She wasn't human. And sometimes when people like question my optimism that I'm being naive about my optimistic view about life, about our world, I remind you of that story and how our stories intertwine. That we are the sons of people who sacrificed, right? In different ways. And then how we now live in a society that the great grandson of a slave can share a stage, can share a conversation with the great grandchild of farmers. And to me, that's one of the unique and wonderful, thank you so much, Brian. And so to me, in closing, that's one of the great and magical things about our country. As flawed as America might be, as divided as we are, I would argue we've always been divided. There have always been divisions in our nation's history. Just read the history books. But I still choose to believe that the promise of America still remains like no other place on earth, right? There's no other place on earth where descendants of slaves and farmers can now work in important industries and make contributions. So to me, it says that for all of our challenges, right, that we are a good and decent people. We are a nation of good and decent people. We are a nation where the dream is still possible and that the promise of America, not as politics, not all of us policies, but the promise of America is unique and is special. So as you all enjoy your conference, enjoy my hometown, you also soak up the notion that how blessed we are to live in what is still a great country. And that each of you get to contribute in such important ways. As I said, I am honored to be here. I'm humbled by all of you because I know that you are people who make life better for others. And that is a God-fearing thing to do. God bless. Thank you so much. 🎵

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