This past spring, Penn alumna Dr. Alex Miller was recognized with the Perelman School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching. The honor is something she couldn’t imagine possible when she left the education field and enrolled in Penn LPS’ Pre-Health Post-Baccalaureate Programs back in 2013.
“I didn't realize when I joined the post-bacc that medical education was a whole field,” she admits. “I thought I was leaving my career in teaching permanently.” (For more on her pivot from education to medicine, read her 2020 Pre-Health Programs alumni profile.) This fall, after 11 years of hard work, Alex becomes an attending physician and psychiatry faculty member at Penn Medicine—combining her passions for patient care with teaching in a role she describes as a dream come true.
Alex first became aware of medical education training when researching potential med schools, near the completion of her Pre-Health Core Studies program. “When I started interviewing, I would ask, ‘What are the opportunities in medical education here?’” she says. The school she chose, Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, offered a robust list.
“I was involved in a lot of medical education activities as a med student at Penn,” Alex shares. For example, she helped revise the curriculum for Doctoring I—the clinical course on narrative medicine, structural competency, and humanism in medicine—and then became the course student facilitator. She also served as academic chair for Penn’s chapter of the Student National Medical Association, an alliance for underrepresented minority medical students, and as the chief teaching assistant for an anatomy course.
For her medical specialty, Alex first considered pediatrics but switched to psychiatry, drawn to the connection between patients’ personal stories and their mental and behavioral health. After graduating from the Perelman School of Medicine in 2020, she started her four-year psychiatry residency program, also at Penn, where she homed in on caring for patients with psychosis that forms in late adolescence.
During residency, Alex remained committed to education, helping revise the preclinical curriculum, working on teaching workshops for med students, and more. “I love teaching. I think it’s fun and it keeps me energized and excited about medicine,” she says, “and I think it’s really important to provide the next generation of physicians not just with the knowledge and skills they need, but also some perspective of the real kinds of existential challenges they’ll face.”
Her dedication to clinical teaching and medical education earned her this year’s Dean’s Award. “Receiving the award is such an honor,” she says. “I’m so grateful that the program thought to nominate me and I’m grateful to all the learners who took the time to write letters of support.”
Alex wrapped up her final year as a psychiatry resident this summer and started her clinical and faculty positions at Penn Medicine this fall. “It is literally my dream job, or my dream four jobs,” she laughs.
Her clinical time is spent mostly with early adolescent and adult psychiatry patients with a focus on psychosis. Her educational responsibilities—which account for 40% of her time—involve the psychiatry residency program, medical school student education in psychiatry, and Doctoring I.
“It’s been a long process,” Alex says looking back on the 11 years since starting the Pre-Health Programs. “There were times that were extremely challenging, but the moment I got into medical school, I knew I was going to be a doctor. I kept that big goal in mind, and I tried to enjoy the process as much as possible,” she says.
Some of her personal milestones during her training include getting married and having a child. “Your life keeps happening during your medical training,” she points out. She also found a home in Philadelphia, becoming deeply connected to the community during her time here. “I really care about this city, and I think it’s made me a better advocate for my patients,” she says, pointing to both her knowledge of the systemic and structural challenges her patients face as well as community resources she can refer them to as part of their care.
To students at the start of their journey, she offers some advice. “I say this to patients not infrequently—I think it's a sign of strength to know when you need support and ask for it,” she says. Reach out to advisors and take advantage of University resources, find your advocates at school and in your personal life. “It is so valuable to have those people. Some of them will be with you through the whole process,” she says, offering gratitude to her family and mentors who helped her reach her goal.
“The journey has been 100% worth it,” she concludes. “It was a challenge. It was meaningful, and, dare I say, it was joyful.”
