Ria Roberts, M.D. '17
Despite my tremendous feats, my journey started as a disadvantaged, first-generation high school, college, and medical school student. I am the first and only physician in my family. Originally from the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I migrated to New York City with my family as a teenager. Shortly after, I graduated as my high school valedictorian from Manhattan Comprehensive; and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Brandeis University. Subsequently, I worked on developing a conjugate vaccine for the prevention of Tularemia in the laboratory of Dr. Dennis Kasper at Harvard Medical School. Then, I pursued my medical doctorate at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences (GWSMHS). There, I became a published first author on several biomedical articles on the Vitamin D status in black individuals and was awarded the highest research honor for medical student research. After medical school, I completed my residency training in Internal Medicine/Primary Care with a Clinician Educator Distinction at Yale New Haven Hospital, during which time I was also named a Young Physician Leader by the Connecticut State Medical Society and Yale-New Haven Health. I moved back to Boston from Yale to complete my geriatric medicine training at the Harvard Medical School Multi-Campus Geriatric Fellowship Program. During my fellowship year, I was selected by the Chair of the Geriatric Department to co-author the 45th Chapter in Hazzard's Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology textbook, entitled Syncope and Dizziness. As a fellow, I also completed the Shapiro Institute Medical Education Scholarship Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). In addition to being a Staff Geriatrician at Element Care-Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), I also serve as a Clinical Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, part-time nocturnist within Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, and Director for Diversity Recruitment and Retention within the Department of Medicine, as well as Director for Diversity Inclusion and Advocacy for Graduate Medical Education (GME) at BIDMC. Moreover, I am a Geriatric Medicine consultant for DynaMed, collaborating with the Editorial Board on Geriatric Medicine content/topics, as well as a contributor for The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Knowledge+ Question Bank, creating medical board questions focused on geriatrics topics to prepare physicians for their medical board certification. As you can see, I’m a true ‘doctor-plus’, a term I carved for myself during my medical school days at GWSMHS.