Roszalyn Akins: A Community Leader Helping UK Enhance the Pipeline for Black Male Physicians
We want these young men to believe in themselves and say, ‘I can be a doctor.’”
Lexington, Ky., native Roszalyn Akins is passionate about helping students reach their potential. With 40-plus years as an educator and civic leader, she has found tremendous success when she encourages students to believe in themselves.
It crushed her to hear young Black men suppress their potential and associate being smart with “being white.” Akins knew it was important that she changed that perception. So, she introduced students to Black doctors, Black lawyers, Black educators, and more, connecting them to real-life success stories so they could envision themselves in these positions.
“We said to them, ‘If being smart is acting white, then what do you say about these young men standing in front of you?’” Akins said. “And a lightbulb came on.”
Akins has been creating those lightbulb moments for nearly 20 years as executive director of the Black Male Working Academy, a Saturday educational program she founded in 2005 to promote academic and professional success for young Black men in the Lexington community.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine has joined forces with Akins to translate her success into medicine through the Black Boys and Men in Medicine (BBAMM) program. In 2020, Black men made up less than 3 percent of physicians. Former UK associate professor Anita Fernander, PhD, created BBAMM to introduce students to medicine earlier to better prepare them for medical school.
BBAMM gathers sixth- and seventh-graders on Saturdays at First Baptist Church Bracktown for workshops and community speakers. In January, the program hosted Darwin Conwell, MD, incoming chair of internal medicine at the UK College of Medicine. This summer, the program will host a mini medical school camp.
BBAMM helps students by exposing them to medicine, but the underlying benefit is that students also gain confidence in themselves.
“This program can change the trajectory of so many of these young men, and we have the opportunity to have more doctors of color in the country,” Akins said. “We want these young men to believe in themselves and say, ‘I can be a doctor.’”
Akins has extensive expertise in education to help BBAMM achieve its goals. Her work history includes 30 years teaching at Leestown Middle School, where she later served as dean of students. She is the founding dean of the Carter G. Woodson Academy, a program housed in Frederick Douglass High School that prepares young males from sixth to 12th grade to be college- and career-ready through a rigorous curriculum, after-school tutoring, opportunities for college visits and studying abroad, and instilling a “whatever it takes” mentality.
She is currently in her 42nd year in education within the Fayette County Public School System, and the Black Male Working Academy has jumped from mentoring 40 middle schoolers in its first year to more than 400 Black boys, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Akins is proud of those numbers, but what really warms her heart are the stories she gathers. It’s the former student who takes a local teaching job so he can give back to the Lexington community. It’s the student who has never been outside the state cherishing the opportunity to study abroad in Europe. It’s the student who fulfilled his dream of playing in the band at a historically Black college.
And in a few years, it will be when BBAMM helps Lexington gain another Black male doctor.
To learn more about Black Male Working Academy, click here.
