A Fishers pediatrician overcame numerous challenges to become a doctor, including a lack of role models who looked like him. Now, Dr. Tony McHerron of Community Health Network volunteers his time to encourage Black and brown youth to consider careers in medicine.
McHerron grew up on Chicago's South Side in a community with limited resources but where hope and determination were strong. He said that when he was 6 years old, his older brother suffered a traumatic brain injury while playing at a park near his family's home.
"He had a very arduous recovery, because he had to relearn how to walk, talk, eat, speak, pretty much all over from scratch," McHerron said. "During the many visits to the hospital, and subsequently his physical therapy sessions, I started to become very fascinated with the human brain and body and how everything worked in tandem. The other thing that I kind of started to notice at that age, too, is whenever we went to the hospital, none of the doctors looked like us. I don't think I saw a single, or remember seeing, a single doctor with brown skin. That kind of stuck with me from early childhood."
McHerron said his parents stressed the importance of education, in part because nobody from his family had yet attended college. They didn't have to pressure him very hard, though.
"I definitely am a perfectionist with a Type A personality and some borderline OCD tendencies," he said. "I was the kid that, if I got a 99 on an assignment, I was upset. It didn't hurt that I have an identical twin brother who's my fiercest competition."
McHerron said there were other challenges to overcome before he was able to start his career in medicine. His parents divorced and his mother had a substance use disorder at that time.
"We were kind of forced to become very resourceful and mature beyond our years, as we were in constant survival mode," he said. "It kind of forced us to grow up quickly and to fend for ourselves, which I think helped me in the long run, actually, but throughout all that, I never let my grades waver once, because I believed that education was my ticket to a better life. Through perseverance, my twin brother and I, we went on to become the first in our family to attend college and we both subsequently went on to become physicians."
His brother now teaches medicine at Michigan State University.
McHerron said the lack of Black and brown role models in his chosen profession wasn't discouraging for him -- it made him want to become a doctor even more. But not all kids are that stubborn, which is why he volunteers with the annual Black Men in White Coats summit that Community Health has hosted since 2022.
Black Men in White Coats was founded by Dr. Dale Okorodudu, who McHerron worked with while training at the Mayo Clinic. McHerron said the nonprofit organization and its events are an attempt to address the low rates of African American physicians.
"He made it his mission to kind of get the word out, to start to expose young Black and brown kids to the field of medicine and get them excited about the field of medicine," McHerron said. "The message is a very good message, which is why, when they pushed it to come to Indy ... I volunteered for it."
McHerron said he wants kids to know that their circumstances don't define their destiny.
"They have the power to change the narrative and achieve greatness," McHerron said. "The struggle that they experience today is the strength that they can carry through tomorrow and that education and determination are just two keys that can be crucial to breaking barriers and reaching new heights"
He referenced his own challenges and said if he can overcome the odds, so can they -- and the world is waiting for the unique gifts those children have to offer.
For more about Black Men in White Coats, visit blackmeninwhitecoats.org.
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