53: Your Difference Makes You Valuable: An Interview with Dr. Kemi Doll

Dr. Kemi Doll joins me on this episode of The Academic Womxn Amplified, sharing her expertise and advice on everything from how she balances her multidisciplinary career with joy, to power dynamics and privilege to why coaching is so helpful for academics. She shares her own journey to doctor and health academic, and why she decided to add coach to her list of titles.

Key points discussed:

• Struggling academically through undergrad, going for med school anyway [3:30]
• How Kemi spends her time, with many different aspects of her career weaving together to form the whole [8:30]
• The multidisciplinary life [13:00]
• How she got started coaching [15:00]
• Coaching vs. the paternalistic mentor/apprentice model [19:00]
• Power dynamics, privilege, and imbalance in academia, and what to remember about being free [22:30]
• The glorification of suffering in academia [25:30]
• Racism and patriarchal systems in academia [28:30]
• Creating the career you want from the very beginning [33:30]
• The impacts of isolation and the benefits of community [41:00]
• Kemi's programs for women of color in academic medicine [44:00]

Key Quotes:

"It was hard the whole time." -Kemi Doll

"I'm going to go for this anyway." -Kemi Doll

"I want to do research as a big component of my life." -Kemi Doll

"I'm not being pulled in either direction...everything is weaving together into the bigger picture." -Kemi Doll

"So what doesn't fit here?" -Kemi Doll

"I was always that person that people came to when they were like 'I'm trying to make a decision, I can't figure out what to do.'" -Kemi Doll

"Academia is: conform, and coaching is: no." -Kemi Doll

"You don't see the behind the scenes." -Cathy Mazak

"You're basically an independent entity, creating something new." -Kemi Doll

Connect with Kemi Doll:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Connect with Cathy:

Website

Facebook Group

Facebook Page

This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode53.