Medical Medical Careers and Technology Pathway (MedCaT)

The MedCaT Pathway is an academic-community partnership between the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity, Center for Native Health, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and Mountain Area Health Education Center that creates a structured pathway to engage Appalachian Rural and American Indian (AI) high school students with multiple resources that support the pursuit of health and biomedical science careers. 

  • Madison Leatherwood

    Madison Leatherwood

    PROGRAM COORDINATOR

  • Chelsea Rangel

    Chelsea Rangel

    MENTORSHIP COORDINATOR

  • Lisa Lefler, PhD

    Lisa Lefler, PhD

    ACADEMIC ADVISOR

  • Roseanna Belt

    Roseanna Belt

    TRIBAL ELDER, ADVISOR

MedCaT Alumni Testimonials:

“It was just really nice to make those friends from different schools because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have ever made friends from the other schools.”

“[MedCaT] allows students an opportunity to learn something that we couldn’t have had the opportunity to learn in high school..because once again, ‘We don’t have the resources available’. So I think being able to go and bring that back with new ideas on what we ‘should’ do within the community. We can learn how we can go outside of our resources and learn to bring that back.”

“The mentor I had was very encouraging. I feel like we’re told that we can’t do it a lot. At least like, rural students or like [native students] should stay at home. There are certain expectations like, you only go to nursing school and that’s how far you go. It’s a lot of the messaging I feel like we get from other people. But having someone there to continue to push me and say like, ‘No, you’re capable of this and you’re going to be able to do this if you put your mind to it’.”

“I wasn’t being taken seriously when I said ‘I want to grow up and be a doctor because I am from the middle of nowhere. ‘it helped me ‘find my identity as a health care provider interested in rural care and helped me make connections to be able to return there when I’m ready. I feel like I’m able to provide the best possible care for the community.”

“I have a couple of family members who have never been to a university because ‘they feel like they’re not good enough’ to be able to try and even achieve that. So I feel like seeing the Native kids have more representation and have more accessibility to go into these programs is really going to show the younger generation…[what] you can do and [going] into these programs is really going to show…that you can do and are deserving of being able to have that opportunity to go and better yourselves.”

Apply for the MedCaT Summer Academy!