Scholar Profile

Erica Shelton

Voted Most Likely To:
Either keep changing her career, or find a career that keeps changing!

Graduated:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 1999
UCLA/CDU, MD
Johns Hopkins University, MPH
Johns Hopkins University, MHS

Currently Working As:
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

What do you love about your job?
What I love most about my job is empowering patients to better manage their own health. Cultivating a partnership between my patients and myself in this regard is the most challenging, and most rewarding, part of my career.

What has been the most exciting part of your career so far?
Compassionate medical care requires not just diagnosis and treatment, but understanding of the larger societal forces at play for vulnerable populations: access to health insurance, housing, social support, basic health literacy, etc. As a physician and a researcher, I seek to understand how to improve access to health services for these populations--I have the opportunity to work with community and academic partners, facilitating a multifaceted and nontraditional approach to problem-solving.

What would you tell yourself at age 18?
Be passionate, be persistent, and have faith in yourself.

How has ACS Scholars impacted your life and career?
Yes, receipt of my ACS scholarship and the chance to meet peers and classmates who were also undergraduate ACS Scholars gave me the financial assistance and confidence that I needed. The Scholars program helped me to understand that I could pursue and be successful in a scientific major, and eventually, in a scientific career.