JEDI Spotlight with Adjoa Kusi-Appiah, MD

In the pursuit of excellence in family medicine, few individuals exemplify the ideals of JEDI as profoundly as recent North Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program graduate Dr. Adjoa Kusi-Appiah. She has distinguished herself not only through her exceptional patient care but also through her unwavering commitment to advocating for underrepresented populations. Her contributions range from fostering community partnerships to addressing health disparities and systemic racism within healthcare. Dr. Kusi-Appiah’s compassionate leadership serves as a beacon of hope and change in the medical community, inspiring others to prioritize equity and justice in their practice.

What accomplishments are you most proud of within your JEDI work as a resident? 

The accomplishment that I'm most proud of is the research I'm currently doing as principal investigator, the Talking with Teens Project. This is a project aimed at really understanding the perspective of adolescence and the discussion of experiences of racism or discrimination, and whether they want to talk about that with a physician, and how a physician can play a role within that support process.

Being a physician, a resident in North Minneapolis, our community is predominantly Black, and I am able to identify with a lot of their experiences. And a lot of times I talk to my teams like, “Hey, you know, how are things going? Do you experience these things? Who do you go to for support?” I've gotten really great responses from the teens. We have real heart-to-heart conversations.

What does it look like to put this into practice, and how could this benefit people? 

That's where that came out of. We had great interest in the project. We had over 100 people sign up and show interest, and we had to narrow it down to people who are actually going to be part of the study. So just having that excitement from the community really just spoke to how much the work matched what people want or need or feel are important in the community.

We also partnered with some community organizations like the Northside Achievement Zone, and they were super excited. Just being a part of that was absolutely amazing, seeing it from start to finish. We're now in the paper writing and publishing phase, and I'm excited to get the voices of these teams out there. It was an idea when I was a first-year resident. And we've done it. It's been awesome.

How would you like to see family medicine bolster our connections and outreach to our communities? 

This can be done in many ways, and people have their own niches and interests. But what I think is so special is that view into the community. So if you're seeing a trend, if you're seeing something that just is not sitting right, being able to want to take note of that and then speak about it. That doesn't have to be on a huge platform like the state level, but even in a county discussion or in a forum or in a letter. We have the ability to do that.

And because we have those credentials in our name, because we care for these patients, because we know the community, there's some trust in there that we are privileged to have. And using that through any avenue, whether that's research, strict advocacy or just speaking about what you're seeing, it can make a huge impact.

Do you have any advice for new residents joining the department who are interested in JEDI work? 

One thing I would recommend is to be encouraged by any ideas or passions that you have. Support can be in the department, it can be outside of the department, it can be in the community. It can be from anywhere and everywhere. I'm grateful that the department has allowed me to put forth my time and energy and these adventures and have the financial support to do that as well.

Be encouraged that you could also find that support in other avenues and then bring it back to the department and say, “Hey, this is what I got, and I'm sure they'd be happy to support.”

Also, I would say be true to yourself. We live in a time where there's a lot happening, a lot of divisiveness and a lot of polarizing, and wherever you may be around that spectrum, staying true to who you are and allowing your purpose, your passion, and your career or your hobbies to really be a representative of that and not to be discouraged by other people's opinions. It can be hard as we fight for things that are in line with equity and inclusion. You can get pushback, but with a goal of pushing to be better, just keep pushing on.

Do you have future plans? 

I have accepted a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where I will be a faculty physician in the Department of Family Medicine. So with the residency program, I hope to do more community adolescent work focusing on a school-based clinic as well. So my research, my passion projects, my advocacy—it’s all something that I want to continue on in that role and will always be a part of my journey.

Do you have any ideas right now how you want to carry this work that you've done here forward into your new role? 

Not yet. I think for me, it's always really important to see what the community is like. I never want to walk into a space where I'm going to do this one thing or I'm going to focus on this thing.

It's about having ears to the ground on what's happening. What are you seeing? Where are people expressing their needs or gaps and then responding in that way. So I always call it community responsive research for that reason, because we can have a plan, but it doesn't mean that it fits.

Is there anything else that you'd want to share about your justice and equity work? 

Outside of the department, I've had the privilege of being able to be present in the community space. I've served on the Hennepin County Race Equity Advisory Council, and that has been an amazing way to influence policies and practices in the county that are related to race. That includes health, housing, income, all those things.

Being able to do that work outside of the department, outside of academia, has been a really important part of my journey. It's where you learn from other people in different industries, people who had different life experiences. That's where I think you really get the true, authentic nature of community work and advocacy. 

When you were in this position, were you working with all ages or did you focus on a specific group of people? 

Within the county board, it's people from different backgrounds, but we give recommendations to the yearly report that goes to the commissioners, who then determine where the money is going to be spread out for programming and stuff. My focus was on the chair of mental health and well-being, so I focused on substance use disorder within the county and how we can better improve the current racial disparities in substance use treatment and recovery. So my area included all people.