By Philip Walzer
When Mia Platt ’19 was growing up in Virginia Beach, “a lot of people around me didn’t go to the doctor much,” preferring home remedies instead.
She’s becoming a physician to change that mindset.
“I want to provide more knowledge and education to the community,” said Platt, who is scheduled to graduate from Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University in 2026. “Having somebody to talk to you who you can identify with and relate to—I think it helps.”
As a student at ODU, “I was in the library all day, every day,” she said.
Two faculty members in biological sciences made a difference: Lisa Byrum, Ph.D., a lecturer, and Ralph Stevens, Ph.D., a University Professor Emeritus. Byrum “was one of the best professors I had,” Platt said. “When I left the class, I understood what she was teaching.” Stevens, she said, was an exacting instructor. “His class prepared me greatly for medical school.”
But it wasn’t a smooth path.
She didn’t score well on the MCATs her first three times and almost gave up her dream. Platt was enrolled in Eastern Virginia Medical School at ODU's medical master’s program, which helps prepare prospective med school students. She said Dan St. John (Ph.D. ’14), director of academic development, helped her craft a study plan, and “that’s when a lot of my confidence came back. I thought, ‘I’m OK. I can do this.’”
She succeeded on the fourth try and began medical school in 2022.
Platt has served as president of EVMS' chapter of the Student National Medical Association, which seeks to support underrepresented minority students. The group networks with pre-med undergraduates and recently strengthened a mentorship program for first-year students. “We want to make them feel comfortable with the transition to medical school.”
She hopes to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology. Her interest was piqued after conducting research last summer on the lower participation rates of Black mothers in six-week postpartum checkups. “I got engulfed in it for two to three months,” she said. “I thought, ‘This seems like a field where I could help.’”
Platt believes the medical field is too reactive. “We wait too long to impact patients’ health,” she said. Outreach is crucial, “but just having a community health fair — I don’t think that’s enough.” Community advisory boards are one way to facilitate conversations between physicians, researchers and community members, who can then share information to others, she said.
In general, there needs to be more efforts toward “meeting the community where they are and being proactive in education/ treatment,” she said, rather than making people seek care only once they’ve reached a level of chronic disease or emergency.
These days, Platt said more of her relatives are seeing their physicians. “But now, they’ll come back and say, ‘What do you think?’ I tell them, ‘I’m not a doctor yet.’”