Vanessa B. Sheppard, Ph.D. and Ardythe Morrow, Ph.D.

Without several mentors along her educational path, Vanessa B. Sheppard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Center for Pediatric Research, would probably be in court right now — facing a jury as a lawyer instead of working as an academician at EVMS.

Law was Sheppard’s interest, but there were influential mentors who introduced her to the health care field and gave her the confidence and guidance she needed to succeed as a woman in medicine.

While a graduate student in Urban Services at NSU, the youngest student in the program, Sheppard was encouraged by her professors to enroll in the ODU Ph.D. program in Urban Services with an emphasis in administration and policy, a degree she completed in 1997.

As a Senior Health Policy Analyst in Richmond, Sheppard attended a national policy summit where she was the youngest member plus the only African-American woman. She was noticed. Richardean Benjamin-Coleman, Ph.D., in the School of Nursing at ODU, introduced Sheppard to community-based research and encouraged her to submit her first abstract to a national meeting. Interest in health care administration and research flourished.

A powerful force in Sheppard’s life was her mother who challenged her to " ‘think outside the box’ and to persevere regardless. She really made me believe I could do anything."

Since 1996, Dr. Sheppard has been at the Center for Pediatric Research where she conducts maternal and child health services research, primarily doing program and outcome evaluations looking at vulnerable populations. She works on the Healthy Start Initiative program, a federal program designed to reduce the infant mortality rate. For the M.P.H. program at EVMS, she teaches a course in epidemiology in health care delivery and research.

Sheppard’s work is directed by Ardythe L. Morrow, Ph.D., an epidemiologist who is Associate Director of the Center for Pediatric Research and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at EVMS. Dr. Morrow has been a friend, role model, and mentor to Dr. Sheppard. "Before I met her (Dr. Morrow), I thought research was boring," Sheppard says. "Then Ardythe turned me on to the joys of it."

Morrow gave Sheppard the guidance and encouragement to launch an exciting career. "Ardythe is a strong woman who has shown me how to accomplish tasks by breaking each down into smaller manageable tasks. She showed me how to do research and how to get published. She believed in me. She gave me a ‘I can do’ philosophy. I want to be like Ardythe (Morrow) when I grow up," states Sheppard.

Morrow believes that it is imperative to have a mentor to maximally develop one’s career. Her father, a businessman, felt so positively towards mentoring that when Morrow was contemplating the move from the University of Texas to EVMS seven years ago he asked her who would be her mentor if she took the new job.

There would be a "strong mentor" for her at EVMS – Larry K. Pickering, M.D. "Larry is mentoring everyone in his environment," declares Morrow. "He wants everyone to reach her/his greatest potential, to demonstrate their best abilities."

Annually, Dr. Morrow meets regularly with each member of her division. Each sets goals for self-development, and goals are written down and revised on a yearly basis. "Without a written plan, we are all like hamsters running on a wheel, getting work done, but not accomplishing long-range goals. There have to be goals worthy of accomplishment in order to perform to the best of our abilities," says Morrow.

In the division, learning takes place individually and on a team basis. Informal mentoring is ongoing — sometimes in the hall, on the phone, or via email. Recently, the group decided that a time management seminar would be helpful. At first, there was amusement: "Aren’t we good at juggling a dozen projects at once? Do we need such a class?" Well, the course was conducted and rated as an exceptionally useful one. After all, managing priorities and time is a crucial skill that each professional must use daily to be most productive, and a refresher course proved beneficial.

In a "community" of professionals, Morrow believes that "peer-to-peer" mentoring should not be overlooked. She works to establish "a place you want to be; a happy, enjoyable division where your co-workers care about whether you succeed" while at the same time fostering a "cooperative of healthy competition." Contented professionals are those who set goals and reach them, thus feeling good about themselves and their work. Morrow appears to have succeeded in developing this positive productive atmosphere in her division.

Currently, Vanessa Sheppard juggles her vocation at EVMS and avocation with the Virginia Beach Symphony, where she plays the cello. She hopes to have a child at some point, admitting that she has given much thought to balancing research, music, and family. Also, she wants to secure NIH funding for research, expressing that she and Dr. Morrow are plotting the course of action to attain this goal.