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Edith Peterson Mitchell, MD, has a distinct memory from when she was 3 years old and growing up near Memphis, Tennessee. Her great grandparents, who were in their 80s, took care of her during the day while her parents worked. At the time, medical care for Black people, particularly the elderly, was not good in southern Tennessee. When her great grandfather became ill, a family physician came to the house to treat him.

“I was so impressed with him, and I loved his black bag,” she recalls. “After he left, I remember saying to my great grandfather, ‘Don’t worry; I’ll be a doctor when I grow up and make sure you get good medical care,’ and he patted me on the head and said, ‘You can be whatever you want to be if you study and work hard.’”

She took her great grandfather’s words to heart and never looked back. His memory remains a constant reminder, especially when she sits in her home office rocking chair, the same one her great grandfather rocked her in when she was a little girl.

Dr Mitchell is a clinical professor of medical oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and she also serves as director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities, as associate director for diversity programs, and as enterprise vice president for cancer disparities, all at Jefferson Health’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. Her research primarily focuses on gastrointestinal and breast cancers, and she has dedicated her career to helping people in medically underserved areas to realize that simple changes in lifestyle can have a dramatic impact on cancer care.

“She is a once-in-a-generational person who is hard to say ‘no’ to because she’s always on the right side of justice and is a shining light of reason,” says Orlando C. Kirton, MD, professor of surgery at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College, who works closely with Dr Mitchell on education, diversity, and inclusion through the Jefferson University Alliance of African American Physicians. “She has achieved such a high level of prestige as a clinician, researcher, educator, and advocate, and is a very giving soul who’s always willing to offer advice to younger faculty.”

A precocious child, Dr Mitchell was the fifth of seven children born to parents who were farmers. There were always plenty of books in the house, and she was an avid reader by the first grade. She was fortunate to have the same teacher for many years in grade school and middle school, who pushed her academically. She went on to become high school valedictorian and received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University in Nashville, a historically Black college or university; she received her medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia/ Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond. Between the two, she married her husband, who was in the US Air Force, and briefly taught high school math.

While in medical school, Dr Mitchell received an Air Force scholarship, and upon graduating, she served in the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where she provided care for the US President and other dignitaries. She was on active duty for more than 7 years and then joined the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves. Dr Mitchell became the first woman physician to be promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the US Air Force after spending 36 years in the military and having attended flight school in her 40s to be a flight surgeon.

Improving care for underserved communities

In her work, Dr Mitchell has focused on the importance of community service and outreach to people who may not have access to more conventional medical advice.

“There is a shortage of cancer treatment facilities and physicians in these communities, and I work with primary care physicians [there] to facilitate cancer screening and delivery,” she says. “Patients in these communities have to deal with challenges like traveling on public transportation, paying for parking, and taking time off of work to get to treatment facilities.”

Dr Mitchell also works to foster more educational, mentoring, and scholarship opportunities for Black and other underrepresented minorities to attend medical and other health professional schools, including nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry. Among her numerous leadership posts, from 2015 to 2016, she served as president of the National Medical Association (NMA), which was formed in 1895 by 12 Black physicians when they were not allowed into the American Medical Association. The organization advocates for medical care and education of underrepresented minority groups.

“Although Black people make up about 13% of the US population, only 5% of clinicians are Black,” Dr Mitchell notes. “We need physicians who understand these communities because implicit bias further contributes to disparities. Clinical trials, for example, are very important, and when many minorities are asked why they don’t participate in them, the most frequent answer is, ‘Nobody asked.’

“It’s more than equity; it’s justice,” she continues. “There are disparities all along the continuum of cancer care, and justice should be a goal of every person who has some contribution to the future of health care.”

Her longtime colleague, Doris Browne, MD, MPH, also a former NMA president, notes how highly respected Dr Mitchell is in Philadelphia and beyond. “I couldn’t tell you any group that I’ve met with, both professional and in the community, that hasn’t praised her work and her interactions,” she says.

Dr Browne and Dr Mitchell have much in common and have worked on a variety of projects together over the years. Dr Mitchell was an oncology fellow at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, when Dr Browne was a medical student, and both ran oncology clinics on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands as part of their training.

“We were both known as the hardest working people there,” Dr Browne recalls with a laugh. “We were the first female fellows, and a lot of the male fellows would go to the beach and have a good time while we hadn’t gone to the beach yet. They told me, ‘You and Dr Mitchell don’t know how to have fun!’”

In addition to formerly serving as NMA president, Dr Mitchell serves on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Review Panel, Cancer Investigations Review Committee, and Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee. She is co-chair of the NCI Disparities Committee and a member of the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. Dr Mitchell also was selected to serve as a member of the NCI blue-ribbon panel convened to advise the National Cancer Advisory Board and on then–Vice President Biden’s 2016 National Cancer Moonshot initiative. In 2019, she became a member of the President’s Cancer Panel, and she was named a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2020.

Researching gastrointestinal cancer treatment, precision medicine

Dr Mitchell has authored and coauthored more than 150 articles and book chapters as well as many abstracts on cancer treatment, prevention, and control. Her research in breast, colorectal, pancreatic, and other gastrointestinal malignancies involves new drug evaluation and chemotherapy, the development of new therapeutic regimens, chemoradiation strategies for combined modality therapy, patient selection criteria, and supportive care. She serves as coprincipal investigator for toxicity for the NCIMATCH (Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice) clinical trial.Among her multiple honors, she has received the Tree of Life Award, which recognizes health professionals who have made extraordinary contributions to health management, and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Control Award.

Despite her long list of awards and achievements, Dr Mitchell remains humble according to Dr Browne. “Sometimes, when people receive lots of awards and are nominated to be on various committees, they get a swelled head, but Dr Mitchell doesn’t have that trait,” she says. “She’s a genuine, concerned person. No matter who you are, she treats you as a human being who deserves her respect and care.”

 

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