Richard Kazibwe

Since my medical school days in Uganda, I have always been attracted to research. I wanted to walk in the footsteps of well accomplished clinical scientists like my Professors Nelson Sewankambo and David Serwadda at Makerere University. However, most research was limited to postgraduate students, and undergraduate research was not emphasized during our training. Also, opportunities and mentorships in research for medical students were generally limited. Therefore, many medical students, like myself, who had an interest in basic or clinical research had to mostly rely on our own individual initiative or wait until after joining master programs. Despite such an environment that did not offer many opportunities, I was able to participate in a few projects while continuing with my medical school studies. For instance, I was one of two students from our faculty who took part in a students’ research project that was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation for our university. My research topic for this project was actually focused on the various ways for enhancing undergraduate research at the faculty of medicine. With mentorship from experienced researchers at the Makerere University Institute of Social Research (MISR), each successful student’s research topic became a book chapter entitled: “Illuminating Students’ Voices in Higher Education: Empirical Insights Into University-based Reforms in Uganda.” In another project, I was part of a group of undergraduate students who won a dissemination and implementation grant by Path Finder International with the goal of improving sexual and reproductive health among university students. I point out these examples of my past research experiences and achievements when I was a young student for two reasons: 1) as a reminder of the natural inclination I have towards scientific inquiry and 2) those projects provide the impetus and motivation for me to continue pursuing research at this stage of my career. I love research as a means to contribute to society. However, since medical school, I have been more focused on clinical aspects of medicine and less on research. After I graduated from medical school, my career journey involved immigrating to the United States for a medical residency. The opportunity for residency happened in a community hospital where there was less emphasis placed on research. After I finished residency, I chose to work in a rural hospital. Over that time, I had a chance to reflect on what kind of a physician I wanted to be and how my career will ultimately be defined. I realized that my desire for research never died away and, even though I had a lot of opportunities, I still was drawn to research. More career options became available for me after I became a legal permanent resident of the U.S., and I decided to rejoin a more academic environment. As a black African immigrant, I am also partly motivated by the current efforts in the U.S. to increase diversity among researchers in various fields including medicine. I joined Wake Forest University with hopes to combine my clinical work with research. I believed that with enough commitment, education and mentorship, I could invigorate my research experience which had not progressed since medical school. As a means to accelerate my growth as a physician scientist, I decided to enroll in the Master’s of Science in Translational Health System Science (THHS) at Wake Forest University. My main goal is to conduct research in the areas of hospital medicine and cardiology. During the program, I have sought mentorship of Professors Elsayed Soliman and Joseph Yeboah who have published extensively on preventative cardiology. I am motivated to take my research skills to the next level by undertaking training in biostatistics, epidemiology, clinical trials etc. I am excited about the prospect of future collaborative projects and personally spearheading research projects.