Albert Einstein College of Medicine has appointed national diversity innovator and emergency medicine physician Lynne M. Holden, M.D., senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion (D&I). Dr. Holden, a member of Einstein’s faculty since 1996, is an accomplished leader both within her medical discipline and in her efforts to help diversify the medical workforce.
“Through her dedication to medical education and D&I, both at Einstein and nationally, Dr. Holden has made a meaningful and positive impact on the lives of thousands of young men and women,” said Gordon F. Tomaselli, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein and executive vice president and chief academic officer at Montefiore Medicine. “She has clearly demonstrated her abilities and leadership by succeeding in a range of positions at the College of Medicine over the past two decades, making her the ideal person to fill this crucial position at Einstein.”
Dr. Holden, who is professor of emergency medicine at Einstein and an attending physician at Montefiore Health System, has worked extensively with medical students, residents, and faculty at the College of Medicine. In recognition of her teaching excellence, she was elected to the Leo M. Davidoff Society, which honors teachers who have made significant contributions to the education of Einstein medical students. She has served as a co-chair of the admissions committee, taught in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course for first-year medical students, and held the position of associate residency director/site director at Montefiore. She continues to serve on the EM residency admissions committee.
As vice-chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the department of emergency medicine, Dr. Holden spearheaded the development of the Social EM Program, which fosters activities that expose residents to the social determinants of health in the Bronx and empowers them to create empathetic solutions through research and community service. Since 2006, she has directed the Emergency Department Clinical Exposure and Mentoring Program, which has provided educational and experiential learning through volunteering and shadowing for 1,800 New York City undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students.
“I am honored to take on the role of senior associate dean for D&I at Einstein,” said Dr. Holden. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to help increase diversity, enhance inclusion, and advance equity for our current and prospective students, staff, postdocs, and faculty, as well as our community members.”
Dr. Holden is co-founder and president of Mentoring in Medicine, Inc., (MIM), a national non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing students to become healthcare and science professionals in order to help eliminate health disparities. Since its establishment, MIM has reached more than 58,000 students from elementary age through medical school, along with parents and educators. MIM alumni include 478 physicians from diverse backgrounds. The organization has also introduced 8,000 students, kindergarten through 12th grade, to biomedical and healthcare careers through class presentations, stage plays, and workshops.
Dr. Holden’s numerous honors include a 2007 Maybelline NY-Essence Empowerment through Education Award, a 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader award, and the 2019 Distinguished Community Service Award from the United Hospital Fund. She has published the results of her work extensively and has appeared widely in the media as an expert in mentoring and diversity in medicine.
Also on the national level, Dr. Holden is active with the American Board of Emergency Medicine as a senior national oral board examiner and as the National Medical Association’s (NMA) immediate past section chair for EM. She serves on several national committees that address workforce diversity in medicine, including the American Association of Medical Colleges’ Action Collaborative for Black Men in Medicine (in partnership with the NMA) and the American Association of Medical Colleges Pathways Program Advisory Group. She is chair of the K-Grad Working Group within the Roundtable on Black Men and Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She is also a board member and on the education committee of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine.
Dr. Holden is a graduate of Howard University and of Temple University School of Medicine. Following an internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, she began her residency in emergency medicine at Jacobi Medical Center, and later served as chief resident. After a brief stint as an attending physician at Kings County Hospital, and as assistant clinical professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, both located in Brooklyn, Dr. Holden returned to the Bronx to join Einstein and serve as an attending physician at Jacobi and Montefiore. She rose through the academic ranks at Einstein to become a full professor in EM, the fifth African American female in the United States to achieve this distinction at an academic medical center.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation’s premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2021-22 academic year, Einstein is home to 732 M.D. students, 190 Ph.D. students, 120 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and approximately 250 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,900 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2021, Einstein received more than $185 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in cancer, aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. For more information, please visit einsteinmed.org, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.
