Reflections Hear what Slotnick Fellows Have to Say

Carla Spades, MD, MPH

OB GYN Women’s Center, Los Angeles, California
Fellow, 2009

My experience as a Slotnick Fellow helped shape me into the physician I am today. The Fellowship allowed me to experience several areas of clinical medicine and introduced me to mentors and leaders in medicine in ways I could never have anticipated. I am currently a Resident Physician at Cedars-Sinai. As such, I have the privilege of having my Continuity Clinic at the Saban Community Clinic, a clinic setting I fell in love with early on in my medical school career largely in part due to the Slotnick Fellowship. I also had the opportunity to work with one of my Saban Attendings in a Public Health setting when I took on a project with the L.A. County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force and was mentored in a research capacity by Dr. Brian Prestwich. My ability to carry my mentor relationships forward into a new and exciting research opportunity was a direct result of my time spent at the Clinic and the interests I expounded upon as a medical student. I am also proud to say that the Fellowship has become part of a new tradition in my medical school program. I was the first UCLA-PRIME (UCLA-Programs in Medical Education) medical student to be accepted as a Fellow, a tradition that has been carried forward with subsequent PRIME students who have been accepted as Fellows every year since my acceptance. Overall, the Fellowship has helped shape me in numerous ways and I am proud to have been a part of such a meaningful legacy.