Dr. Mithya Lewis-Newby is an attending physician in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a Professor on the clinician-scholar track in the Department of Pediatrics, with an adjunct appointment in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities. She holds faculty appointments in both the Division of Cardiac Critical Care Medicine and the Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care. She is the Chair of the Seattle Children’s Hospital Ethics Committee and a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Ethics Committee. She is also a Principal Investigator at the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics and Palliative Care, where her scholarship focuses on ethical challenges that arise in pediatric critical care. Locally, she contributes as a PedsTalk educator, Bias Reduction in Medicine BRIM-Peds division champion, member of the Department of Pediatrics JEDI committee, and PedsPride faculty member.
Can you share a little about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in academic medicine?
My path to academic medicine was anything but straight (pun intended). Raised with limited resources, I managed with grit and determination to become a first-generation college graduate. It never even occurred to me that I could be a doctor. My first career was as an environmental political organizer. In my mid-20s, I reassessed my life goals and was inspired by an acquaintance who was in medical school. I realized that through medicine I could combine my passion for service and my love for science. After two more years of pre-med science classes and three years of applying, I finally started medical school at the UW in 1998 at the ripe-old age of 29. My wife and I started dating in 1997. She says that my pursuit of medical school was almost a deal-breaker for her – I’m glad it wasn’t! I owe so much of my success on this arduous academic medicine journey to her unwavering support over the past 28 years. Academic medicine blending cardiac critical care and ethics is my dream job. I am so grateful for the opportunity to combine providing high-quality patient and family care as part of an amazing team, publishing with the hopes of positively influencing the ways we deliver care, and training and mentoring the next generation. Ultimately, I am here today because I steadfastly followed my values, my passions, and my heart – and had a lot of supporters along the way!
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride Month to me is celebration, remembrance, and activation. It is a time to honor our diverse community and the unique gifts we offer the world, counteracting lifetimes of negative cultural messages and invisibility. Pride Month is also a time to reflect on the past and how much we have gained. My wife and I were married in 2001 surrounded by loving family and friends, long before legal marriage equality. We had no right to make medical decisions for each other, own our house together, or access each other’s medical benefits. In 2007, we were granted domestic partnership rights in WA state. Our kids were born in 2007 and 2010 – I was pregnant with our kids during fellowship and as a junior attending. Hot, angry tears still flow when I remember my wife having to adopt her own kids just to have the same parenting rights afforded to straight couples, which involved thousands of dollars in legal fees, social workers assessing our home and family, and standing in front of a judge asking permission to parent her own children. In 2012 we were granted marriage equality in WA state which was symbolically important, but a limited gain of rights. It wasn’t until 2015 that a Supreme Court landmark decision legalized marriage equality nationally which finally granted us full federal marriage rights including all the legal protections and financial benefits. It is surprising to many that was only 10 years ago. Pride Month is also an opportunity to emphasize that these hard-earned rights (and so many other rights affecting the LGBTQIA+ community) are under constant threat – there are many active legal efforts to reverse marriage equality. We and all our allies cannot let up on this fight for justice.
Have you had any LGBTQIA+ mentors or role models in your career? How did they impact you?
Throughout my 27 years of medical training and faculty career, I have only had two LGBTQIA+ mentors. The first was my medical school counselor and the second was my beloved residency advisor, a brilliant neonatologist/scientist. Both saw my potential when I doubted it, encouraged me to dream boldly, and modeled the courage to live openly in medicine despite the risk of discrimination.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?
I am most proud of learning over the years to bring my full identity to my work, finding my voice to share my perspectives, helping to create an inclusive environment for others, and advocating for equity and justice for all. Medical culture is like other cultures – it often requires “fitting in” to be successful. And “fitting in” often means we leave parts of ourselves in the shadows. But it is the very courage of bringing our full identities that ultimately shapes our work environment, our patient care, and medical culture to be ever more inclusive, equitable, stronger, and hopefully better for everyone. I am grateful that I have always felt my identify was embraced at Seattle Children’s and the UW in my 20 years here.
If you could share one message with the next generation of LGBTQIA+ healthcare professionals and allies, what would it be?
I have the great fortune of being a faculty member of PedsPride, a resident-led community (dozens strong!) of LGBTQIA+ pediatric resident, fellows and faculty focused on creating a welcoming and inclusive space for LGBTQIA+ healthcare providers and patients. It is an honor being a faculty mentor, but I receive just as much in the form of community support, hope, education, and inspiration from these amazing young professionals. To the future generations of LGBTQIA+ healthcare professionals: bring every part of yourself to medicine! You are EXACTLY who we need to make us better. To our allies: please continue to help us to create an inclusive environment and celebrate and amplify the diversity of our perspectives. Remember that families come in all colors of the rainbow and question your assumptions (I regularly get asked about my “husband” in my professional life, and our kids get asked about their “father” at Seattle Children’s medical appointments), and actively stand up with us to continue the fight for equal rights for all.