Hugely influenced by his grandparents (contemporaries of MLK), and his mother, Dr. Kimble follows in their footsteps accidentally and on purpose. The roots of his ancestor’s influence show up in his garden, his parenting, and the impact he is quietly having on his community.
Hugely influenced by his grandparents (contemporaries of MLK), and his mother, Dr. Kimble follows in their footsteps accidentally and on purpose. The roots of his ancestor’s influence show up in his garden, his parenting, and the impact he is quietly having on his community.
heardofem.com
elizabethrivertrail.org
nps.gov/locations/chesapeakebaywatershed/grants.htm
virginiahumanities.org
(Sounds of birds chirping and insects buzzing)
Dr. Kimble: So we have now six blueberry bushes. We had four; we planted two more in the spring. And so usually in the spring or in the summer, we make a blueberry pie from the blueberries that we grew.
(Tinkling piano softly plays)
Nichole Hill: This is Dr. Thomas Kimble. He also goes by Tommy, or Dad.
Dr. Kimble: My Grandmother was very, very much into gardening. I would do that with her as a little kid.
So, you know, after school, I would be out in the garden planting vegetables, and we grew everything. We had plum trees, peach trees, an apple tree, a pear tree, a pecan tree, eventually a fig tree.
I remember my Grandmother being the history teacher and, other members of my family were primarily educators.
My Great-Grandmother was a teacher. My Grandmother was a history teacher. My Mother was an English teacher and eventually became a coordinator in the school system. My Father was a principal and a former biology teacher. So, you know, I had it from the academic standpoint coming at me from all angles as a child,
I did kid things, right?
But the difference is if I misspoke or if I didn't say something correctly, I would have to stop and say it again the correct way.
(Sound of cutting food on a plate, and a Granmother talking to a Grandchild)
I came from a family where we had dinner around the table. The TV was off, and we had to sit around the table and that's where I heard some of these great stories.
(Sound of sweet nostalgic music)
My Grandparents were both very active in the civil rights movement. My Grandfather was a pastor and a politician and he, he was a pastor of a church in Atlanta and was friends with Martin Luther King and the King family. And an interesting bit of trivia: my Grandfather was the one that helped to organize the first delivery of the “I Have a Dream” speech that Martin Luther King gave.
Nichole Hill: So yeah, you could say education was kinda the family business, but it was more than that. It was how they lived, how they loved, and how they made sure the next generation always had something solid to stand on.
And that’s the thing, those moments, those family stories, they weren’t just about the past. They were his fate.
Dr. Kimble: I specialize in reproductive medicine and contraception, and I'm an Obstetrician and Gynecologist, and I take that very seriously. And I was actually formally the Chair of the Contraception Section of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
I was involved with the research and development and the creation of many contraceptives that are out there and available today.
One of the proudest things I have done is to write a prescription for a medication that I was involved in it’s development.
Nichole Hill: Tommy was living his dream. A different path than everyone at the dinner table. But he later discovers that life was about to write him a prescription he didn’t plan to fill.
(Slow piano underscores the following)
Dr. Kimble: I myself had an unplanned pregnancy with my partner at the time, and I think about that. And if I, somebody, or expert in reproduction, I have resources, I have an education. If that could happen to me, what about my patients who don't have, all of the knowledge, don't have all of the resources, don't have access to contraception? I always think about that for every prescription I give and, and my counseling as well.
So when I found out that I had an unplanned pregnancy, I was in shock. How is this happening to a physician, OBGYN, who was Chair of the contraception interest group for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.
And at first it was, I was embarrassed...but not long. I was excited, and I was happy to be a father. But I took so much from that, and it made me a better physician because I understand. And I understand where my patients are coming from. Some people practice medicine from an ivory tower. I wanna practice medicine with my patients. And I learned that from my own experience.
I was in my late thirties at the time, and I had resources and I had a supportive family and, and so I recognized it was time and I was just so excited about my future son.
So I found myself eventually as a single father.
(Musical breath, sound of a baby crying, and someone "shhhing")
I grew up with a single mom, and so I learned a lot from my Mom, and how to manage things.
(Sound of mother comforting the crying baby)
My Mother was 19 years old when she had me. She was a busy professional, and my mother continued to teach while going to graduate school. And there were times I was sitting in the classroom beside her as a toddler when she was in graduate school. And she was always supportive of my endeavors to become a physician.
And when I graduated from Medical School and my family threw a graduation dinner celebration, and my Mom gave a speech and a toast congratulating me, and then announced that she finished her doctorate. And so we had two doctors in the family. (laughs) I think about that as a parent, myself, as a single father and all that my mother sacrificed and her struggles.
And it gets tough. it's, not always easy to manage seeing patients, and getting to school events, and getting to the basketball practice for him. But we make it happen, and I was very fortunate to have a role model in my own Mother and, and other members of my family.
Now, what that has done for me as a physician is I get it; with my patients. Sometimes people are running a few minutes late. Sometimes people have their kids with them in the exam room. Some providers don't like that.
But I get it. You know, I sat there in my Mother's college classes with her, and somebody gave her the grace to let that occur. And so I think that has made me a better physician because I understand grace.
Nichole Hill: It would be enough if that was how he treated patients. But his reach became far greater in his next opportunity–one that he was destined for.
Dr. Kimble: At the medical school, I am the Assistant Vice Dean of Admissions and Enrollment. Now, my background is I'm an OBGYN, and it was not on my radar to get into academia and administration.
I was the one that decided I was gonna do something different and go into medicine, and then I circled right back and ended up being a teacher. (laughs)
Nichole Hill: In the same way he returned to his roots, moving into his new role, he looked to the roots of the institution he was a part of.
Dr. Kimble: The vision of EVMS is to be recognized as the most community-oriented medical school and school of health professions in the country. When I came here to do my fellowship, that is what I fell in love with about this institution.
We were not part of a larger university that one day said, let's create a medical school so that we can recruit more undergraduates to come here. No, we were actually born out of our community. There were community members involved, community leaders, politicians, physicians. We had the support of Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University in our founding.
On one day I see patients in the morning. Then in the afternoon I am doing research in my lab, and then later in the afternoon I'm giving a lecture and working on accepting new medical students. That's a lot, but I love that diversity. I think I'd get bored if I was just doing one thing day in and day out.
(Piano music underscores the following)
As an Admissions Dean, it's tough to select out of thousands of applications. We typically get anywhere from six to almost 8,000 applications a year, and we have a class of 151 seats. So how do you go from all of those applications down to that small percentage?
Yes, the standardized scores are very important, but what other non-cognitive aspects of an applicant are important? Like their lived experiences, what they have done for their community?
Nichole Hill: So legacy can look like the clinic, the classroom, or the garden. In Dr. Kimble’s case, it looks like all of the above.
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This series was written by Jackie Glass and Hannah Sobol, edited and hosted by me, Nichole Hill, Sound Design by Trendel Lightburn, and our work has been supported by the Elizabeth River Trail Foundation through a National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways Grant as well as by a grant from Virginia Humanities. Follow our work by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. We couldn’t do this without people brave enough to share their experiences, so thank you Dr. Kimble!