“I really wanted to do research centered around breastfeeding, and I just kind of moved into breastfeeding-related disparities,” Shipp said. “At the time, I had no clue. Obviously, breastfeeding rates weren’t as high, but there was a disparity between Caucasians versus Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people in terms of breastfeeding rates, and I couldn’t understand (why).”

Part of Shipp’s research results came from breastfeeding patients themselves. Shipp interviewed subjects, sought to understand their barriers — both social and systemic — and saw what was keeping them from their goals.

“There’s inadequate maternity and paternity leave that impact breastfeeding outcomes,” Shipp said. “Childcare can also be an issue. Having a lack of diverse lactation professionals can be an issue. Having inadequate hospital support can be an issue. And the biggest one is workplace support.”

Shipp said breastfeeding is just one of the contributing factors and inequalities affecting Black parents and non-parents alike.

“There are disparities,” Shipp said. “There are several issues and differences within the African American population, not only when it comes to breastfeeding, but also across the board. Maternal mortality, morbidity, infant mortality — breastfeeding is just one of the ways to help improve that.”

Much of Shipp’s work is deeply personal, she said. When growing up and before she got her PhD in human nutrition, she noticed her family members had different chronic diseases that were often related to the food they consumed. Shipp said she has also gone through many of the obstacles she explores in her research.

“It’s important to me because I’m African American, and it has impacted me,” Shipp said. “I was the one who was giving the nutrition education, but I’ve been on the receiving end of racism and discrimination. I’ve also been on the receiving end of having to breastfeed and going through those challenges and experiences.”

Shipp’s findings point to solutions such as a continuum of non-judgmental support systems for breastfeeding mothers. While she doesn’t know if her work has a direct impact, Shipp said, she’s satisfied with helping science to progress overall. 

“It’s gratifying to feel like I can make a change in some way,” Shipp said. "This is the way that I feel I can do it. That helps me to keep going and stimulate my passion.”

Widespread medical change can also manifest through artistic expression. 2024 MSU M.D. candidate Orezime Uyeh wrote and illustrated "Girls for Medicine," a children’s picture book depicting girls of color discovering and following their interest in the medical field.

“I’ve always had a passion for the younger generation, and my understanding of how we could help address the need for more physicians is to catch them early,” Uyeh said. “The more books you can expose (children) to that have characters that look like them, and books that are created by people who look like them — I just wonder what kind of impact that could make in what they could envision themselves to be.”

Uyeh, who’s had an enthusiasm for drawing since she was a child, was anxiously awaiting her medical school application results when her mother instead encouraged her to redirect that nervous energy into something that would "make her proud." This spark eventually turned into "Girls for Medicine." 

“That question prompted me to be in this reflection mode,” Uyeh said. “There was this day where I was like, ‘I don’t see a lot of physicians that look like me. I also don’t like that there’s young Black girls like me who don’t see themselves in books that they’re encouraged to read.’ I asked myself what little Rezi would have loved to read when she was younger.”

The book features characters with various hairstyles, family backgrounds and areas of medical interest. Though Uyeh originally never set out to create a children’s novel, she said, she believes this was a “full circle” experience in which she was able to combine her passions, use her gifts to serve others and provide the much-needed representation she lacked as a child.

“For me, I felt like this was a great opportunity to address the need for more Black physicians in our healthcare workforce,” Uyeh said. “There are so many people who are very passionate about health equity and advocacy with addressing disparities. I feel that this is my way of responding to that need.”

"Girls for Medicine" has sold more than 1,000 copies. Uyeh said she plans to create a "Boys for Medicine" book, as well. 

The need for proper representation in healthcare is also a priority that MSU College of Nursing Assistant Dean of DEI Dr. Krista Walker hopes to address in her role.

Walker was working at St. John’s University in New York and pursuing research surrounding students struggling during their first year of college. Eventually, she shifted her research focus to Black men in education.

However, this topic changed once more after Walker gave birth to her first son and found herself subjected to medical microaggressions, bias and mistreatment during delivery. From not being given a wheelchair or proper monitoring to information being withheld and safety becoming a concern among medical staff, Walker said she considers her experience "light" compared to stories she's heard about the treatment of other Black women at the same hospital. 

“I consider myself to be a pretty strong advocate, but when you’re in a space that you have never been in, and you are in your most vulnerable state, I didn’t know how to advocate for myself,” Walker said. “I didn’t know how to speak up. I didn’t know if they were going to come back and say something really terrible to me or do something to my child. You just don’t know.”

This experience, along with other media that had been circulating at the time, encouraged Walker to change her dissertation topic to center on the history of race and systemic oppression in the medical field.

“People in many of these underrepresented communities already know that this is what happens,” Walker said. “We have to navigate inequitable systems that are not created for us and where many healthcare providers aren’t even treating us as though we’re human. We’re receiving subpar healthcare, and it is essentially contributing to the loss of life. That is what started to drive me.”

Since starting her role at MSU in November, Walker has worked with the college of nursing to start student engagement groups, look at curriculum redevelopment, work to hire diverse faculty, ensure administration and faculty have a grip on these challenges and most importantly, assure students that they can make a difference in the medical field.

“If we don’t take it upon ourselves to be the change, nothing’s going to change, and people are going to continue to die,” Walker said. “I am not okay with that. When you become a healthcare provider, you don’t become a healthcare provider for one race; you become a healthcare provider for all.”