Health Equity Training Pathway

Dr. Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Associate Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency, and Co-Director of the Health Equity Pathway at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Alexander completed her undergraduate education at the University of Florida. She then attended IU Bloomington for her Master of Public Health Degree. After a short stent as a high school teacher and basketball coach, Dr. Alexander attended medical school at IUSM in the MD/PhD (MSTP) Program. She completed her Emergency Medicine Residency at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ. Her clinical and research interests include resident education, improving Emergency Department care for sexual and reproductive health issues, and raising awareness of systemic racism and implicit biases in ED clinical practice and their influence on health inequities. Over the past few years, Dr. Alexander has worked hard to integrate DEI and strategies to eliminate health inequities throughout the residency curriculum. She has developed a longitudinal simulation curriculum on addressing microaggressions in the clinical learning environment and is currently working on an intervention to increase access to contraception in the emergency department. Dr. Alexander also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Indiana State Medical Association and on their Commission on Legislation where she advocates for health policy that will decrease health inequities. Because of this work, in 2021 Dr. Alexander was named to EMRA’s Top 25 Under 45 Influencers in Emergency Medicine and she received the Indiana University Trustee Teaching Award in 2022. 

Dr. Williamson (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor and Education Specialist for Graduate Medical Education at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is an interdisciplinary scholar by training, specializing in research methodology and education in science and medicine. Dr. Williamson’s research broadly focuses on designing disciplinary learning experiences to support learners in developing the knowledge, skills, and practices for advancing equity and justice in their scientific and professional work. Within graduate medical education, Dr. Williamson leads and collaborates with physician partners on various initiatives for health equity education, anti-racism in medicine, and Resident as Teacher training. Dr. Williamson is also a health services researcher, focusing on racial health care equity in patient experience. She studies doctor-patient interactions to characterize how particular ways of using language or interacting, verbally and non-verbally, facilitate or undermine the quality of patient experience. Using insights from this research, she develops evidence-based role-play training activities to support trainees in recognizing potential sources of health care inequity and strengthening their communication skills. Beyond educational and research activities, Dr. Williamson is a trauma-informed care champion. She contributes to systems-based efforts to reduce the potential for re-traumatization for learners, patients, and colleagues who experience racial, historical, and other traumas within health systems and education. 

Jennifer Mattei is the GME Health Equity and Education Project Manager. Her educational background is in psychology (Butler University) and public health (IUPUI Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health). Prior to working for Indiana University, she worked in public health as a tobacco treatment specialist and program coordinator. Besides health equity and tobacco cessation, she is also very passionate about mental health awareness, advocacy, and treatment. She joined Indiana University’s Graduate Medical Education team in December 2022. She primarily works as the project manager for the Health Equity Training Pathway and Dr. Francesca Williamson’s Health Equity research. She is also a member of the CLER advisory board, focusing specifically on health care disparities initiatives.