Inspirational Black Men and Women in Medicine: Johnson & Johnson’s Dr. Chandra Mickles On 5 Things You Need To Create A Successful Career In Medicine
An Interview With Jamie Hemmings
Pace yourself; burnout is real. I give 100% to everything I do, but taking care of yourself is important, so you are there for your patients. Avoid burnout at all costs by taking care of yourself.
In the United States today, black doctors are vastly underrepresented. Only 5% of physicians nationwide are black. Why is it so important to have better representation? What steps can be taken to fix this discrepancy? In this interview series, we are talking to successful black men and women in medicine about their career, their accomplishments, and how others may follow their path. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Chandra Mickles.
Dr. Chandra Mickles is an internationally recognized leader and is Johnson & Johnson Vision’s North America Professional Education Lead for the myopia team. Dr. Mickles lectures extensively and has published in internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed publications. She has served the optometry profession by being appointed to national optometric boards and has been on several industry speaker bureaus and advisory boards. Dr. Mickles has received many accolades; most notable are those for excellence in education from national organizations and optometric institutions such as the National Optometric Association, the American Optometric Student Association, the Association of Contact Lens Educators and Nova Southeastern University.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?
I grew up in a suburb in New Jersey, and my family was one of the only Black families in town. While I faced some adversity growing up in that environment, I appreciate the excellent education I received and the exposure to diverse ethnicities in my town which helped me become a resilient, cultured person. Early on during my childhood, I was exposed to eye care, which fueled my interest and passion for eye health and optometry.
Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Frequently, children are asked, “what do you want to do when you grow up,” and most kids say jobs such as a firefighter or an astronaut. For many, those childhood dreams are just fleeting visions of a future life that will probably change as they grow older. However, interestingly, my parents said that my answer of “I want to become an eye doctor” has never changed. During early childhood, I had vision issues, and the first time I was fitted for contact lenses sparked my interest in eye care. I was amazed how contact lenses could improve my vision dramatically and overall way of life. From that moment, I knew I wanted to help others with their vision. Throughout my journey in receiving and learning about eye care, I recognized all that great things that optometrists do for patients. We have an extraordinary opportunity to improve lives by not only enhancing but also maintaining sight.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite words to live by were inspired by Oprah Winfrey, of the many things I have learned along the way of my career. “Don’t put a ceiling above yourself. Follow your passion and success will follow.” What I’ve learned from influential and successful women is to not place a glass ceiling above myself and always to follow my passion because that will lead to further success. Sometimes, as a Black woman, it’s difficult to imagine what you can do because of the lack of representation of Black women and men worldwide. So, I remind myself never to place a ceiling; and that I can do anything. It is my passion that has helped me do the hard work required to break barriers, which has ultimately led to my success.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Imagine you’re excited to start a new role in a completely different environment than you’re used to and suddenly experience a scary vision issue. Only two days before starting my current leadership role at Johnson & Johnson Vision, which was the same day as my last day at my former position in academia, I was faced with the possibility of losing my sight due to a complication associated with my high myopia. Fortunately, the complication didn’t impact my vision, but this moment made the importance of maintaining our most treasured sense, our sight, a reality for me. I became an optometrist to help protect patients’ eyes. I’m passionate about promoting eye health, and this situation reignited my energy to continue to raise the standard in eye care and be a trailblazer in my role at Johnson & Johnson Vision to help change the trajectory of eye health, specifically with myopia.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Perseverance — Many people face adversity but growing up as the only black person in my class was challenging. I dealt with a lot of unconscious bias; for example, I was incorrectly placed in remedial classes. My parents voiced their concerns to the school. Soon after, I was removed from those classes. I always excelled in school and was a top student in my class throughout my scholastic career. I am thankful to my parents for believing in me and putting me on the right path. This experience along with others taught me the importance of perseverance. With perseverance, I’ve been able to lead a successful career and overcome any obstacle due to this mindset.
Dedication — I think the second character trait that has been instrumental to my success would be dedication. Any current or former colleagues proudly say that you can always count on me, and I am always dedicated and advocating for the eye health of patients.
Time management — The most important trait that is often not mentioned but a valuable skill — is time management. I constantly manage different tasks under tight time constraints throughout my career, especially in healthcare, and time management is key.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. This might seem intuitive to you, but it would be helpful to articulate this expressly. Can you share three reasons with our readers why it’s really important for there to be more diversity in medicine? (healthcare instead of medicine, flag to the reporter).
Based on my personal experience, there needs to be more diversity in healthcare to drive better patient outcomes. Research continues to demonstrate that patients feel more comfortable sharing information with someone that looks like them. I believe having a doctor with a similar background improves communication, thus improving patient outcomes. Ongoing cultural competency training for all healthcare professionals will enable doctors to communicate accurately with their patients and, ultimately, improve healthcare outcomes.
Another critical reason is role models and representation. It’s often said, “why aren’t there any Black doctors?” 13% of the U.S. population identifies as Black, but less than 2% of optometrists are Black. Therefore, we don’t have many examples of Black eye care professionals. The next generation needs to see Black healthcare professionals so they can aspire to become one. Role models and representation are critical to diversity.
Diversity is vital in healthcare because it leads to innovation and ideas. Diverse perspectives are important to excel healthcare and bring forward new ideas to create solutions and advance patient care.
As things stand today, what are the main barriers for black men and women to enter the medical field?
One of the many barriers is the lack of role models and representation in the healthcare field. I was inspired to pursue my current role because I met a Black woman optometrist, Dr. Millicent Knight, who exceled in her leadership position at J&J Vision. We all know the saying “If you see it, you can believe it.”
There needs to be more awareness and education at a younger age about the various professions within the healthcare industry. There are so many rewarding benefits to being an optometrist, and we need to do more to highlight those benefits. Additionally, having a mentor within the healthcare industry is critical.
From your perspective, can you share a few things that can be done by the community, society, or the government, to help remove those barriers?
I am part of various groups that mentor aspiring students and young professionals. It would be effective if all organizations across academia, associations, and private companies in healthcare created a coalition to raise awareness about the healthcare field. For my specific industry, it would be incredible if the optometry associations, schools, and industry partners worked together in communities to inform students earlier about optometry. This way, students are aware of this path in the healthcare sector. That’s why I was very proud to be a part of J&J Vision when we collaborated with Black EyeCare Perspective to become one of the first companies to sign the 13% Promise, an initiative to increase equity and representation in the eye care industry and in optometry schools by increasing the number of Black students to mirror the 13% of Black people in the U.S. population. It’s partnerships like this that can help create that pipeline of Black students into the optometry field.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started my career in medicine,” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
The first thing that comes to mind is in this profession, you won’t be able to make everyone happy. I wish this had been told to me earlier in my career. Sometimes it’s tough telling patients bad news about their eye condition or presenting a treatment plan that may be longer or more challenging than anticipated. I always remind myself that we are putting their eye health first and hopefully generating a positive lifestyle for the future.
The next thing is you won’t have all the answers, and that’s okay. Leverage your network and ask questions; you can learn new things and obtain resources to provide the best patient care. It’s okay not to know every single answer.
Work smarter, not harder. I wish I had known this sooner since becoming a doctor can be a considerable time commitment. I recommend that students reach out to their university for resources and guidance on the best study methods. Professional healthcare programs require different learning strategies, and I constantly give my mentees this advice.
Pace yourself; burnout is real. I give 100% to everything I do, but taking care of yourself is important, so you are there for your patients. Avoid burnout at all costs by taking care of yourself.
And lastly, life as an optometrist and in healthcare, isn’t always glamorous. Delivering tough news to a patient is hard and challenging, but you must learn and remind yourself that patients are thankful and appreciative of your expertise and time.
You are a person of influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I want to inspire a coalition movement to build awareness of unknown or rare eye conditions. Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a vision impairment, and the rates continue to climb. There’s an opportunity to come together across health care subspecialities and across sectors to make sure everyone has access to eye care needs, and to raise awareness on the importance of overall eye health. Vision is our most treasured sense, and we must protect it.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I can’t choose just one person, so I’m hoping I can select two people! I would love to have breakfast with Ava DuVernay and Serena Williams. They are both trailblazers in their profession, and I would love to get their insight on the keys to their success. Especially Serena Williams because she was a player in a male-dominated profession, and she was able to thrive and persevere.
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Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
