MLK scholarship winner launches career at L+M as physician’s assistant
— One of Lawrence + Memorial Hospital’s recent hires represents something of a return on investment, you might say.
Tayla Willson, a 24-year-old woman who joined the hospital’s staff as a surgical physician’s assistant in the fall, had won a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship seven years earlier.
L+M has long been a supporter of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Trust Fund.
Willson, a Norwich Free Academy senior when she accepted her scholarship award at the fund’s annual gala in October 2016, already was eyeing a career in medicine at that time. The $20,000 scholarship she received would help pay her tuition at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, in Boston, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in six years.
Even before he knew L+M had hired an MLK scholarship recipient, Rich Lisitano, L+M’s president, had resolved to increase L+M’s support of the scholarship fund. The hospital will provide two $25,000 scholarships this year.
“As part of my effort to learn about the community, I made a point of getting out to a number of organization and events in the region, and one of them was the MLK scholarship dinner,” said Lisitano, who joined L+M this past July. “I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the scholars themselves, the vision they have for their lives and their interest in self-development ...”
“I thought it was important we step up,” he said of L+M’s ramped-up support of the fund. “Clearly, this is a recommitment.”
Lisitano said it’s in L+M’s interest to also support the educational attainments of students interested in pursuing careers outside health care.
“We employ lots of people in other fields, too — IT, logistics, materials management ...,” he said.
Lisitano sees Willson as a “poster woman” for the scholarship fund and its purpose: to advance the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the revered civil rights leader slain in 1968.
Scholarship recipients are students of color chosen in their junior year of high school on the basis of their dedication to learning, understanding of King’s mission, character and financial need.
“I see myself as a role model for minority students,” Willson said in an interview at L+M. “It’s important that they see what can be achieved.”
Willson had options when she graduated from college in the spring.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in premedical health sciences in three years and a master’s in physician assistant studies in three years that followed. In her final year, her clinical “rotations” in such areas as internal medicine, family medicine, emergency medicine and general surgery took her to hospitals in Atlanta, Miami, New York City, Boston, Norwich and New London.
Toward the end of her rotation in general surgery, L+M offered her a job.
“I could see myself working here,” she said. “Like in Atlanta, I’d see a lot of staff of color, but I hadn’t seen a Black female PA in the local area. I thought it would be good for me to be seen here. It would be good for my cousins ...”
As a surgical PA, Willson works closely with surgeons in the operating room. Her typical work week includes three 13-hour shifts that can involve multiple surgeries, and, on occasion, overtime.
She lives on Bank Street, a couple of miles from L+M.
Birse Timmons, the scholarship fund’s president, needed no prompting to recall Willson, one of more than 230 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship recipients over the years.
“It’s a pretty thorough process,” he said. “From our first look at her scholarship package — her application, essay and everything — we knew she was a top-quality contender. We whittle it down to 20 candidates who we interview. Her interview confirmed everything we’d come to believe about her. She was very poised, very accomplished academically and involved in the community. She had great leadership qualities.”
The scholarship fund’s board tracks scholarship winners during their academic careers and beyond.
Timmons said the fact that L+M hired Willson without initially being aware of her history as an MLK scholarship recipient “makes the story even better.”
“So she got there on her own merit,” he said. “Just another testament to her quality.”