The 2018 George W. Barber, Jr. Lectureship in Otolaryngology was a favorite for many faculty, residents and staff.  The topic, "Inspiring Change from Within: What We Can Do to Address Biases for the Future of Healthcare," was presented by Dr. Dana Mara Thompson, Professor of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, The Lauren D. Holinger Chair in Pediatric Otolaryngology, Division Head, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Dr. Do-Yeon Cho, Assistant Professor and Director of Otolaryngology Research, UAB Department of Otolaryngology, speaks in detail about Dr. Thompson's lecture:

1. How will attendees be able to use lessons from Dr. Thompson's talk in their own careers, whether as students, educators, researchers or clinicians?
   Millennial education required a change from within myself and we need to continue to change and stay relevant. We aspire to cultivate an environment of diversity and inclusion, advance diversity (race, gender, religion, etc.) as a key to excellence and enhance the recruitment, career development, and retention of students, trainees and faculty.

2. How did the lecture speak to the present and future of the field of otolaryngology?
   Dr. Dana Thompson is a world renown pediatric otolaryngologist and calls for more diversity in medicine, which means more female and minority representation in the field of otolaryngology. Her grandfather, who graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. in 1927, was the only African American general practitioner within a 100-mile radius of his office in Aberdeen, Miss. Dr. Thompson’s father was another Meharry Medical College alumni, an obstetrician in Kansas City, Kan. He told his daughter early on that she couldn’t live her dream of being Howard Cosell of Monday Night Football fame, but instead, he brought her to his office and to the hospital to make rounds with him to show her what she could be. He instilled into her psyche that she would have to work four times harder than everyone else just to be on the same playing field. African Americans make up only 2.3 percent of all otolaryngologist residents in training, well below percentages in other specialties and the overall population. “Continued success requires recognition of how one’s own biases get in the way of compassionate patient centric care,” Thompson said. Then our future will be brighter.

3. How did this talk relate to previous George Barber Lectures?
   Since becoming the director of research of our department, I have been inviting the most world-renown otolaryngologists or pioneer scientist in the field of otolaryngology who can motivate and inspire our department and community. This year was different from most as we focused more on our culture than surgical practices. Dr. Thompson left us all very inspired and wanting to do better. She was the first African American female intern in general surgery, the first African American female resident in Otolaryngology, the fourth African American resident in Otolaryngology and the fourth female resident in Otolaryngology. Her lecture, “Inspiring Change from Within: What We Can Do to Address Biases for the Future of Healthcare,” was as much a heartfelt explanation of her personal journey as it was a prism through which to view a future for our society.