UIC Grads Match Up

UIC classmates sharing a passion for urban health care will share the same family medicine residency.

Meet Jakara Hubbard and Tia Clay from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. These two UIC graduates are headed west to the same family medicine residency program. 

Jakara, now age 40, had a master’s degree in counseling and worked as a counselor for years when she found herself still drawn to the idea of physician career.  With encouragement from her father, the Monee, Illinois native enrolled in medical school. She matched to the family medicine residency program at University of California San Francisco Family Medicine Residency Program.   

She’ll be able to share the residency chapter of her journey with fellow UIC graduate Tia Clay, who found her way to UIC College of Medicine through Urban Medical Institute post-baccalaureate program. Clay also matched the UCSF program, which is close to home for the San Francisco Bay- area native.

IAFP had a chance to talk to them together, on screen, as they were in different states at the time of our conversation about their paths to family medicine. Jakara was a part of the Urban Medicine Scholarly Concentration (UMed), a 4-yr longitudinal curriculum that works with local community partners through service projects and social justice advocacy. Tia participated in the Urban Health Program's Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (PAP), which serves select underrepresented students in medicine to advance medical knowledge and provide a supportive network to aid success, which led her to enroll in UIC College of Medicine. Below is a summary of that post-Match conversation. 

IAFP: Jakara, what was it like being a second career medical student over the last 4 years?
Jakara: Initially challenging for her socially and she felt lonely in M1 year. Reached out to advisors who were able to connect her with students sharing similar life experiences. By end of M1, she’d found her group and developed close friendships across age ranges.
Her prior work history did provide some early advantages in med school, “The easiest aspect is I already knew how to talk to patients, I already knew how to engage people, so walking into a patient room was not that scary for me. I had a bit of an advantage compared to some of my peers.” Jakara kept her counseling practice open until beginning of M3 year, seeing 5-10 clients weekly and maintaining that schedule impressed her classmates and the people she met on the interview trail.

IAFP: What kind of patients or medicine are you most passionate about? What drives you into family medicine?
Jakara: "Because I'm a marriage and family counselor,  it gives me the ability to develop really strong relationships, and that longitudinal relationship is really important to me. There was a family that I started working with [as a counselor] that were mandated kids through the family courts. I saw them through middle and high school, They went off to college and then reached out to me after they graduated and said I need help, you know? You know my family, you know my situation, I don't have to re-explain things. That really meant a lot to me. I want to keep that longitudinal relationship, which family medicine also allows me to do.” Hubbard was part of the UIC Urban Medicine Program, which fueled her love for advocacy and activism which is supported by family and community medicine.

“I don't know where life will put me. I'd love to come back and work with the Chicago population. I've teared up thinking about leaving. I have a passion for geriatrics. My mom had dementia, my dad has had a lot of comorbidities, and I work with the Alzheimer's Association as an advocate. Geriatrics is incredibly important to me, so that will be a part of my career.” She also stressed her passion for family planning and abortion care, and emergency medicine. 

Tia is passionate about providing care for urban populations, especially creating access and providing holistic support including food insecurity, shelter, and clothing - integral aspects of health that bring dignity and pride to patients. "These social determinants are often forgotten by healthcare professionals. UIC intentionally teaches these concepts and is integrating more into curriculum. I believe in treating the whole patient and meeting them where they are."  

IAFP: What specifically attracted you to the UCSF residency program?
Tia: “The Mission statement resonated, but more importantly, they stick by it. They have a patient advocacy committee with patients receiving care at the hospital that interviewed residency candidates. Having them interview us as candidates for the doctors that will be caring for them and their community members, I thought, that was very intentional and put a lot of gusto behind their mission and that was something that really struck a chord with me.”

Jakara chose UCSF for same reasons that she chose UIC for medical school –to be an advocate and change-maker. She describes herself as having "a mouth" and wanting to make changes in medical education, policy, and in the community. “’I chose UIC because I felt like it would be a safe place for me to be that person, and I felt that way about UCSF. They don't shy away from the fact that they are in the community, and they are advocating for patients that people don't typically want to take care of. These are patient populations that Tia and I are incredibly passionate about, because that's who we treat here at UIC.”

IAFP: Were you two sharing notes during the application process?
Jakara: “We didn't communicate until mid-December when we both interviewed at UC Davis together. That's when we discovered both had interviewed at UCSF and started comparing notes.”
Tia: “We knew each other as classmates through SNMA (Student National Medicine Association) and the strong Black medical student community at UIC. Being from California, I knew I wanted to return. I saw Jakara at the UC-Davis interview and that opened up conversations about our values. We had those conversations about 'What do you think? How did you feel?' And as we realized that we have some similar values; it just makes perfect sense that we ended up in the same place.”

Are you planning the relocation together?
Jakara has been in Midwest her entire life and owns a house so she’s relying on Tia's advice on cross-country move logistics. “I'm gonna be leaning on Tia to help figure out how to make a move, because I've never, never done anything this big.” Tia adds, “I had significantly less things when I did it the first time! But it is comforting to know that there's someone else is coming from the same area and we'll definitely be supporting each other through it.”

They’ll spend the next three years training together.  When asked to consider what might be next, Jakara hopes to complete a fellowship in geriatrics, emergency medicine, or women's health. She plans to be in urban setting continuing work with that population, which aligns with training and passion where she plans to incorporate health policy advocacy into her work.

Tia has an athletics background and plans to do a sports medicine fellowship.  “I don't think I'll ever let go of primary care. I think I will always want to have a job at an FQHC. I can continue to serve my community, and I do feel that I will probably open up a non-profit to provide other resources.”  She specifically praised UIC’s Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, who co-founded the Pilsen Food Pantry through her non-profit Figueroa-Wu Family Foundation. “Seeing her being able to manage her, patient panel and also serve thousands of pounds of food to her Chicago community that gives me hope that I'm able to continue to work in the community and provide the care that they deserve.”