By Ashley Benkarski
NASHVILLE, TN — Managing all forms of your energy is critical to avoiding burnout during the pandemic, Dr. Charlene Dewey told a virtual audience on April 22 during the annual Matthew Walker Sr. Legacy Breakfast.
Dr. James E. K. Hildreth, President and CEO of Meharry Medical College and State Rep. Harold Love were honored for their work in the community and scholarships were presented to four Meharry students.
Dr. Dewey, a Dean at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, presented “Shifting Gears: Preventing Burnout
and Building Resilience in the COVID Pandemic.”
While focused on burnout of health professionals, the research is applicable to most occupations. Dr. Dewey said the importance of managing your energy (physical, emotional, spiritual and mental), building emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation and management, motivation, empathy) and mindfulness (prayer, journaling, art, conversation)makes a difference in how you live.
Dr. Hildreth, a member of President Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, received the Dr. Matthew Walker Sr. Legacy Award and Rep. Love, pastor of Lee A.M.E. Chapel, received the Michelle B. Marrs Advocacy Award.
Dr. Matthew Walker III, who passed away on April 24, was the grandson of Dr. Mathew Walker Sr. He presented
students Aalieyah Billings and Aliah Fonte the Matthew Walker, Sr. Legacy Scholarship of $1000.
The inaugural Michelle B. Marrs Legacy Scholarship was awarded to Melissa Bassett and Ashley Leon by Marrs’s daughter, Dr. Christy Marrs. they both received $1000 scholarships as well. Michelle B. Marrs was a CEO of the center and raised the money for construction of the Nashville building.
Dr. James E.K. Hildreth Sr., Ph.D., M.D., who is a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, was presented the Matthew Walker Sr. Legacy Award by Matthew Walker III. He lauded Dr. Hildreth as one of “an elite pantheon of intellectual leaders with downright spiritual richness.”
“Dr. Matthew Walker, Sr. was an amazing, gifted surgeon. He was a scholar of the highest order and a supreme educator,” Hildreth said. “Dr. Walker elevated medicine itself by what he did and how he did it– He certainly elevated African Americans in medicine.” He remarked the award was humbling and “one of the most cherished” in his career.
“It goes without saying that among Meharry’s alumni, he was an icon,” Hildreth continued. “To achieve all of this in the context of the time he lived in with the politics and social constructs leaves me in complete awe because I know how hard it must have been for a Black man to achieve what he achieved the way he achieved it. And to be quite honest, he must have been truly superlative to be recognized by his white colleagues the way that he was.”
Rep. Love In 2016 was appointed Pastor of Lee Chapel, where he continues leading his congregation and serving the underserved. He was elected to
the TN House of Representatives for the 58th Legislative District in 2012.
“I’m grateful to the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center for this opportunity to receive the Michelle B. Marrs Advocacy Award,” Love said. “I’m grateful to the legacy of Matthew Walker, Sr. and all that he has done in our community in the past to make sure people receive proper health care. It’s because of that I’m also able to advocate for increased health access and reducing health disparities in our community.”
Dr. Matthew Walker, Sr. was an integral member of the Nashville community and a Meharry graduate, eventually becoming Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He founded the center in 1968 and in 1970 the center was named after him, the first in the country named after an African American.
MWCHC has offices in Nashville, Smyrna and Clarksville, serving around 17,000 patients across the Middle Tennessee each year. To support MWCHC’s work, visit mwchc.org.
