Eliana Verghese Hempel

My Greatest Accomplishment: In the past several years, I have faced some personal challenges. I was diagnosed with infertility during residency and, after many years of treatment, became pregnant for the first time in 2018. Unfortunately, my pregnancy was complicated, and our daughter, Norah, was born extremely prematurely. After a six-week stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, she died of complications of her prematurity. Weeks after her death, my father was diagnosed with terminal oral cancer and died nine months later. Our losses continued as we faced several more failed in vitro fertilization cycles. Through these struggles, with the support of my family and friends, I sought ways to use our experiences to connect to others on similar journeys. In my experience, infertility, infant loss and grief can be incredibly isolating. By transparently sharing our vulnerabilities, I hope to shift the culture of stoicism in medicine and create opportunities to connect and support one another through all manners of hardship. Thus, I feel that my greatest accomplishments are not my professional achievements, but rather the small ways in which I have been able to help others cope in their moments of darkness.

How Drexel Helped Me: I was most impacted by the diverse yet tight-knit community of students. As a member of the Program for Integrated Learning (PIL), I worked with a small cohort of our larger medical school class to navigate the first two years of medical school in the context of patient cases. We learned early in our careers how to apply basic science to the clinical problems our patients face. Additionally, I connected with my peers and learned a great deal from them about varying viewpoints and perspectives, communication, team management and leadership. My classmates also provided a great deal of support during the rigors of medical school. These relationships continue to be integral to my professional and personal life today – including the one with one of my very first PIL groupmates, my amazing husband, Ty.

My Greatest Source of Motivation: My father. A marine engineer by trade, he left India and everything he knew to start over in the United States. He navigated limited financial resources, graduate school in a different country, and several career pivots all with the goal of providing me with a bevy of opportunities. He taught me about perseverance, resilience and humility. Later in life, he faced his initial cancer diagnosis and his subsequent recurrence with incredible bravery. He and my mother made many sacrifices to build a wonderful life for me. I am motivated to make the most of the opportunities afforded me by their hard work by emulating the best parts of both of them.

Where I Hope to Be in Five Years: I hope to be continuing to live my mission to use a relationship-centered approach to leadership to create and maintain meaningful and mutually fulfilling connections with colleagues at all levels of training. I aspire to use these connections to support and advocate for others as they navigate challenges, and to help them identify and implement their own missions. More than a specific position or academic rank or achievement, I hope to continue to model transparency, vulnerability and authenticity in a way that is encouraging to others.