bean," the physician says dur-
Texas. "In Caribbean first-generation
families, you can be a lawyer, a doc-
tor, or an engineer."
calls, "Some parents would give their
kids $1 for every A. And my parents
would look at me and say, `Why
should we pay you for what you are
supposed to be doing? Wait, what is
that? Bs--what are Bs?' My father
went to the University of the West
Indies. He did his law degree in the
U.S. The only schools they had heard
of were Yale and Harvard and Duke.
I had never heard of anywhere else."
Yale University, Dr. Flash visited an
AIDS hospice, Bread & Roses, and a
lifelong mission began. Now assistant
medical director of HIV Prevention
Houston, Dr. Flash is also an assistant
professor of medicine in the section of
infectious diseases at Baylor College
of Medicine.
wanted to do something with AIDS or
cancer, and after working with the
AIDS hospice director, I knew that is
what I wanted to do."
wanted to remain on the East Coast.
Once she established residence in New
Jersey, the in-state tuition at Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School was a
plus.
tion, they had research, and they had
a commitment to working in under-
served communities and working with
the homeless. That commitment was
very important to me," she says.
health care assessment from what is
now the Rutgers School of Public
Health.
star," says Patricia Whitley-Williams,
MD, professor and former chair,
Department of Pediatrics; and chief,
division of allergy, immunology, and
infectious diseases.
Williams says. "She worked with our
pediatric infectious disease division on
a project that looked at how many
pregnant women were being screened
for HIV, part of a nationwide initiative
to identify pregnant women who were
positive, and which would allow them
to receive HIV treatment and prevent
transmission from mother to child."
says Sunanda Gaur, MD, professor of
pediatrics and director, Robert Wood
Johnson AIDS Program. "As a third-
and fourth-year medical student, she
worked with me on a project related
to rapid HIV testing among women in
labor, which was eventually pub-
lished. I remember her as being very