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Dr. Kertia Black named WSU School of Medicine assistant dean for student affairs

Dr. Kertia Black, former vice president for medical affairs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, recently was appointed assistant dean for student affairs at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Black retains her faculty rank of associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R).

Dr. Black replaces Dr. Jane Thomas, who retired last year.

“Kertia’s experience makes her uniquely qualified to succeed in this role,” said WSU School of Medicine Dean John Crissman. “We know that she is an exemplary role model for our students.”

Dr. Black aims to improve the computer-driven aspects of the Office of Student Affairs. She hopes to make several forms available to students online by the summer. Many other improvements will go unnoticed by students, but will make improved workflow within the office, she said.

Programmatically, Dr. Black’s first priority is to expand the school’s mentoring programs to help students make better career decisions and develop professional contacts. Dr. Black is hoping to get more WSU faculty members, alumni and members of local medical associations involved to aid in this endeavor.

Mentors help students make better career decisions earlier, Dr. Black said. She believes she would have benefited from a mentor when she was in medical school, because it wasn’t until her internship in internal medicine that she realized that she didn’t think she had chosen the right area of practice. She decided PM&R was a better fit after talking to a physiatrist.

“If I had had a mentor, even if it had been a mentor in internal medicine, I probably would have figured out that it wasn’t for me,” Dr. Black said.

Dr. Black’s career path, as a whole, has not been a direct one. Her first career was as an academic counselor. It was while she was working as a counselor at Temple University, in Philadelphia, that she decided to apply to medical school. She had started out as a pre-med student during her undergraduate education at Wayne State University, but she had changed her mind. It wasn’t until she found herself counseling other students who wanted to become physicians that she realized that she needed to make a change.

At age 38, Dr. Black entered Hahnemann University. She credits her husband with helping her to balance medical school and raising two children, and she stresses that it’s important for every medical student to have help and support from other people.

“No matter what age you are, you need a support system that will allow you to pursue your studies,” Dr. Black said.

Dr. Black went on to become a WSU associate professor of PM&R. Since 1993, she has worked as a traumatic brain injury physiatrist at RIM and was appointed associate chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 1999. From 2000 through the end of 2002, she served as chief of staff and vice president for medical affairs at RIM.

Dr. Black will continue to see patients two half days a week.

Dr. Black lives in Southfield with her husband, Sidney.

With more than 1,000 medical students, WSU is among the nation’s largest medical schools. Together with its clinical partner the Detroit Medical Center, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas, including cancer, genetics, the neurosciences and women’s and children's health.