From the Office of the Dean at AECOM

Dr. Lynne Holden appointed as Senior Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)

"Dear Einstein Community: 

In March, we began a search for our new senior associate dean for diversity & inclusion (D&I). At this time, it pleases me greatly to introduce the new leader of this crucial role—Lynne Holden, M.D.

Many of you already know of Dr. Holden, who has been a member of our faculty in emergency medicine (EM) since 1996. She is highly acclaimed and accomplished both within her medical discipline and her national activities. At Einstein, she has worked extensively with medical students, residents, and faculty. In recognition of her teaching excellence, she was elected to Einstein’s Leo Davidoff Society. She has served as a co-chair of the admissions committee, taught Introduction to Clinical Medicine, and held the position of associate residency director/site director at Montefiore. She continues to serve on the EM residency admissions team.  

As vice-chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion for EM, she spearheaded the development of the Social EM Program. 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 NYC undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students.

Dr. Holden is co-founder of Mentoring in Medicine, Inc., (MIM), a national nonprofit 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 diverse physicians. The organization has also introduced 8,000 students, kindergarten through 12th grade, to biomedical and healthcare careers.  

Dr. Holden has been widely recognized for this innovative program and her leadership. Her 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 been recognized widely in the media.

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’ Black Male Collaborative (in partnership with the NMA) and the Pathway Programs Advisory Group. She is chair of the K-Grad Group of the Round Table on Black Men and Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies of Science, 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 the other “Einstein,” Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, she arrived in the Bronx in 1992 for her residency in emergency medicine at Jacobi Medical Center, which included serving 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 Center, both located in Brooklyn, Dr. Holden returned to the Bronx to serve as an attending physician at Jacobi and Montefiore; she also rose through the academic ranks to professor of emergency medicine at Einstein. She is the fifth African American female in the United States to achieve this distinction.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Holden as our new senior associate dean of D&I and in working with her to assure that Einstein lives up to the ideals set forth by our namesake—to be welcoming of all.

A Well-Earned Retirement

As we welcome Dr. Holden, we will be wishing a fond farewell to Nilda I. Soto, M.S.Ed., who has served our institution for 32 years as assistant dean for diversity enhancement (ODE). As we mark her retirement today, the date is particularly fitting since the office of diversity enhancement was established on September 30, 1982—exactly 40 years ago.

Ms. Soto’s commitment to our Einstein students is legendary, providing them with helpful wisdom and insights from recruitment through acceptance to Einstein, and throughout their time at the College of Medicine. Much beloved by students and alumni, she has embodied the office’s mission set forth by Albert Kuperman, Ph.D., our first associate dean for education, when he introduced a program that would offer counseling and advising, academic monitoring, development of academic support services, and recruitment of individuals from untraditional or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.   

In her role as assistant dean, Ms. Soto has administered and supervised ODE student activities at Einstein and been involved in the recruitment, admission, and retention of individuals from groups historically underrepresented in medicine. She also has overseen a variety of pathway programs that offer students who identify as underrepresented with opportunities in science and healthcare. These include serving as director of the Einstein Enrichment Program, which helps high school students gain the educational skills that will help them pursue careers in science or medicine, and of the Diversity Student Summer Research Opportunity Program, which offers students the opportunity to take part in research at Einstein. In 2016, the New York State Senate confirmed her as chair of the state’s Minority Health Council, on which she had served since 2007.

Please join me in congratulating Ms. Soto on her well-earned retirement and thanking her for her decades of devotion and dedication to our students whose diversity enriches our campus community.Access to Helpful D&I ResourcesIn closing, I would like to alert you about our online training courses for staff and for students, located within our learning management system, Vector Solutions. Topics covered include unconscious bias, LGBTQ+ inclusion, diversity- competent mentoring, and building an anti-racist culture. I encourage you take the opportunity to use these vital resources.

Sincerely, 

Gordon F. Tomaselli, M.D. The Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz DeanAlbert Einstein College of Medicine Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Montefiore Medicine"