BUFFALO, N.Y. — Karole Collier is finishing her final year at the U-B Jacob School of Medicine. But unlike her classmates, she’s juggling more than textbooks, tests, and coffee.
She just launched a clothing line, Twice as Hard Apparel as a way to celebrate the accomplishments of black physicians, who often face challenges to success.
"We all know that there are some times where we may have to work twice as hard at something and we may have to hustle a little different given that our barriers are different", she told 2 On Your Side's Karys Belger.
The project provided an outlet while she dealt with the stress of the pandemic and the inequities it amplified in communities of color.
She also felt a responsibility to explain those inequities to her classmates.
"They just couldn’t imagine what you were going through but I think there was very limited education until that point."
Collier knew the lack of diversity in her field played a part, and the outcome could impact her future patients. The scenario is something she’s all too familiar with.
"My father went to his local community hospital for a normal, what he thought was normal hernia repair surgery... my father didn’t get what he expected and that was in the form of having a prolonged hospital stay and an outcome that changed his quality of life for a time."
Rather than let that deter her, Collier felt inspired to specialize in surgery. Fast-forward to today, she’s doing her part to address biases in the medical field, She’s spearheaded an Anti-racist lecture series at her school.
She also helped found a summer program to help students from diverse backgrounds get surgical internships at U-B without the extra stress of things like cost to hold them back.
"You are funded, you have the ability to have a mentor, you then get to build a CV that will add to your application to surgery that will make you a competitive applicant."
She admits it’s a lot of work but she’s hoping it will make for more doctors who are willing and able to help everyone in their community.
You can watch Collier's full intereview here: