The Geisel School of Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE) honored the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy during its fourth annual, “I AM THE DREAM: Past, Present and Future” service awards luncheon on January 19. The annual event recognizes individuals or organizations who have strengthened communities and created solutions to social problems, advancing King’s vision of a “beloved community.” This year’s theme, Building Community and Uniting a Nation, is a blueprint for action—guiding programming, fueling outreach, and anchoring DICE’s commitment to building the community King envisioned.
Steven Leach, MD, Geisel interim dean, who last year received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award, described today’s celebration as “an opportunity to reflect on the past and to recommit ourselves to our ongoing work promoting justice, equity, and compassion.
He noted King’s vision of a Beloved Community wasn’t symbolic but meant to be lived and built through deliberate action, service, and our willingness to see one another fully. “At Geisel, it is embedded in our mission and reflected in the work of our students, faculty, and staff who serve with humility, advocate for equality, and support our communities in ways both seen and unseen,” he said.
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Lisa McBride, PhD, welcomed everyone to celebrate King’s vision of a community “where everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate.”
Encouraging year-round volunteer engagement, McBride cited DICE’s small grant funding would be available to members of Geisel’s community to support individual and group National Days of Service projects that address the ongoing Food is Medicine initiative that aims to bridge the connection between food, nutrition, and health in the Upper Valley. She also talked about various DICE sponsored initiatives launched this year, including FreeFoodAlert, Beloved Community Talks, and a partnership with the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion whose workshops, using proven empathy and compassion principles, equip faculty, staff, and students with enhanced leadership skills.
Keynote speaker Uché Blackstock, MD, a physician, author, and founder of Advancing Health Equity, an organization dedicated to partnering with healthcare institutions to dismantle racism and close racial health gaps, talked about the influences of her physician-mother.
In a conversation with McBride, diverging from a traditional keynote, Blackstock read the introduction to her best-selling book, LEGACY: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine and talked about her mother’s fierce belief in community and her commitment to giving everyone the care they deserve—living King’s legacy as an example for her children.
As a graduate of Harvard Medical School, “My mother could have gone anywhere but she went to Harlem Hospital because of a deep commitment to her community and a belief that healing is both scientific and deeply human,” Blackstock said. “She understood that the issues the community faced were systemic rather than individual. That trust in the healthcare system was broken and needed to be rebuilt. And that understanding your patients’ communities was necessary to ensure they stayed healthy.”
The intimacy of the conversation facilitated a fluid give and take between McBride, those in the audience, and Blackstock who talked about the need for intentional, integrated power sharing in healthcare and the importance of cross-racial mentoring of Black students in medical school, Black doctors in residency programs, and shared thoughts on solving the diminishing number of Black men applying to medical schools.
“I AM THE DREAM: Past, Present and Future” Service Awards Luncheon Gallery (Photos by Rob Strong)
This year’s I AM THE DREAM awardees—Geisel faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners exemplify the ideals, courage, compassion, dignity, humility, and service that empowered King’s character and his leadership.
- Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award—Dean R. Madden, PhD, vice provost for research, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Biomolecular Targeting, director of the Dartmouth Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, and professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Geisel.
- Samuel Ford McGill Award—Black Students at Geisel founding members.
- Distinguished Alumni Award—Aaron Briggs MED’19, preventive medicine physician, research scientist at California Department of Public Health Black Infant Health Program.
- Outstanding Faculty Award—Diana M. Rojas-Soto, MD, neurologist at DHMA and assistant professor of neurology at Geisel.
- Outstanding Staff Award—Oluwatoyin (Toyin) Ajibola Asojo, PhD, associate director for inclusive excellence at Dartmouth Cancer Center and professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Geisel.
- Student of Merit Award—Nikolas (Niko) Giovanni Hernandez MED’28; Camilo Castelblanco-Riveros, a PhD candidate in Integrative Neuroscience.
- Community Champion Award—Denise Pouliot and Paul Pouliot, Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective.
- Dartmouth NEXT Stem Award— Alicia Cage, D’28; Michael K. Simoni, D’08, MD, reproductive endocrinology and infertility physician.
As one awardee noted, “This ceremony is a ray of hope.”
If you were unable to attend, you can read about the award recipients here and watch video of the event here
