Cincinnati Children's Physician and CCTST’s WE C-RAB Member Bring Hands-On Health Sciences Career Day to Middle Schools
- UC CCTST
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
CCTST’s West End Community Research Advisory Board (WE C-RAB) often has ongoing relationships with researchers across the Academic Health Center who see the opportunity to connect with community beyond just coming to one of the monthly meetings. Cincinnati Children's Emergency Department’s Michelle Eckerle, MD, is one of these individuals. Over the years, in addition to coming to the WE C-RAB for feedback on research, she’s been involved in community events at the West End’s community center, including helping to provide CPR and Stop the Bleed training.
So, when Dr. Eckerle approached WE C-RAB’s Research Community Liaison, Julie Wijesooriya, with the idea of bringing healthcare professionals into a school to talk about health careers and do hands-on activities, Julie immediately knew who to ask – WE C-RAB member Twala Taylor-Wills. Twala serves as the assistant principal and dean of students at Cincinnati Technology Academy, bringing this expertise and her lived experience to the WE C-RAB meetings every second Tuesday of the month.
Working together, Twala and Dr. Eckerle planned a Health Sciences Career Day at Cincinnati Technology Academy in December 2025, organized in conjunction with Cincinnati Children's Graduate Medical Education Committee for Advocacy and Belonging.
“The goal of this presentation was to introduce the idea of a career in healthcare to kids who may not have exposure to these jobs in their personal lives, so they understand all of the possibilities for their future,” said Dr. Eckerle.
Excited to bring this opportunity to her students, Twala coordinated two sessions of 6th – 8th grade students to take part. The students were introduced to several different skills including CPR, AED use, suturing, IV placement, blood pressure measurement, and even bag-mask ventilation demonstrated on pig lungs. The group of healthcare professionals also described their different roles and the education needed to work in each of their positions.
This group included:
Attending and Fellow Physicians: Cindy Chang, MD, Alexandria Card, MD, Marisa Roman, MD, and Michelle Eckerle, MD
Nurses: Mishael Appling, David Franke and Christi Hinh
Nurse Practitioner: Mariah Staples
Respiratory Therapists: Lauren Lampkin and Regina Brandon
Patient Care Assistant (PCA): Marcella Gifford
The students were extremely excited to hear real-life examples and have hands-on opportunities from a range of healthcare professionals.
“Because opportunities like this are not readily available to many students and schools, this was a great experience for our students,” said Twala Taylor-Wills. “It is one thing to tell students about careers and verbally explain them, but this program took things a step further by giving the students a hands-on opportunity and sharing life-applicable ways to actually take steps to understanding exactly how to get there.”
Sometimes, as in this case, the relationship between the researchers and community members goes beyond the WE C-RAB meetings and greater connections are made. The existing relationship with WE C-RAB and Dr. Eckerle provided the foundation for this deeper, extended connection into community to bring this hands-on program more readily to this school. With this first event established, Julie and the WE C-RAB are now working with Dr. Eckerle to identify additional schools to visit in 2026.
About the Research Participant Advisory Group (RPAG). The RPAG, comprised of three advisory groups: CCHMC RPAC, UC RPAC and WE C-RAB, is a resource available to anyone across the Academic Health Center interested in learning the research participant or community perspective and improving how research is conducted at the hospital, university, or out in the community. If you are interested in seeking feedback from one of these groups at one of our meetings, or through electronic survey, contact Julie Wijesooriya: Julie.Wijesooriya@cchmc.org.