Narjust Duma, MD, assistant professor, Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care, was accepted as a UW School of Medicine and Public Health Centennial Scholar. 

The competitive program develops faculty whose diversity enhances the quality of education and research at the SMPH, and who may serve as visible and available role models for students and trainees, especially those from underrepresented minority backgrounds.

The program provides mentoring and three years of funding to support each Scholar's work.

Dr. Duma graduated first in her medical school class at La Universidad Catolica Nordestana in the Dominican Republic, and completed her internal medicine residency at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School, where she was awarded the most scholarly resident award in 2015 and 2016. She completed her hematology and medical oncology fellowship at Mayo Clinic Rochester and was selected by her peers as one of the 2018-2019 chief hematology and medical oncology fellows.

She has been recognized for her work with numerous awards, including the Mayo Brothers Distinguished Fellowship Award, considered the highest trainee honor in the Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education; the Merit Award/ASCO Employees Endowed Merit Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology; and the Next-Generation Innovators Award, HemOnc Today – Healio. She has authored more than 25 professional publications on this research in addition to presentations and book chapters.

Dr. Duma’s clinical interests include the care of women and minorities with lung cancer. Her research is focused on understanding the challenges faced by underrepresented groups in medicine, improving the diversity of our medical workforce and the effects of unconscious bias in medicine and medical education.

She is an innovator and the co-founder of the #LatinasinMedicine community, composed of over 2,600 members. The first phase of her project includes a nation-wide study followed by the creation of an online curriculum to improve the inclusion of underrepresented groups in medicine.

Resources

• Centennial Scholars Program, UW School of Medicine and Public Health intranet. Accessed March 18, 2020.