Dr. Jennifer Miles-Thomas

Over the years, and especially in leadership, I tried to look back at myself a little bit more objectively and where I've kind of failed or not done as good of a job.

And I think it was Maya Angelou actually said it, but Oprah kind of repeated it later and said, when people tell you who they are, believe them.

And I have that underlying, like, desire to make people who I would like them to be, i.e., I don't know, ethical, on time, you know, all those positive attributes that we want to put on those people.

I mean, sometimes I was burned and I was realizing it's not a them problem.

It was a my problem where I assumed they were someone that they weren't.

And so that's my mantra now is when people tell you who they are, believe them.

Yeah, so I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, so was born and raised until about eighth grade as a Midwesterner.

My mother was a PhD psychologist and my dad is an engineer with an MBA who worked in nuclear power plants and quality assurance.

So I was raised in that balance of science, technology, safety, but understanding who people are and figuring out how to communicate.

So I was in Ohio until about eighth grade and we moved to Virginia.

The reason why was my mother's side of the family was from Barbados, but she was raised in New York.

And so when my grandparents were ready to retire, there wasn't as great of a health system then.

So they decided to come to Cleveland.

Well, lo and behold, the first winter came and they were like, where am I?

Like, we're not doing this.

So the whole family picked up and moved to Virginia for a more moderate kind of weather lifestyle.

So I went to high school and college in Virginia, med school in Chicago, and then residency and fellowship at Hopkins in Baltimore.

So it was an interesting kind of Midwest East Coast culture.

But I also always knew that, I mean, I wanted to be married.

I wanted to have kids.