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What does it mean to belong somewhere when you've never quite fit anywhere?

In this episode of the Provider Pulse Series EthnoMed Podcast, we interview Dr. Ayman Youssef, Chief Resident of Quality Improvement in Internal Medicine at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Ayman grew up in Houston as the bicultural son of an Egyptian Muslim father and an American mother — finding he never quite fit in at his Islamic school or in public school.

His path to Harborview was anything but direct. It wound through a series of engineering majors, a grueling commute through Houston traffic, a passion for organic chemistry, and a personal statement that forced him — for the first time — to make sense of his own story.

We also get into the work that now defines much of his day: running Harborview's Morbidity and Mortality Conference, where he works to review cases of adverse outcomes while ensuring that he remains curious, humble, and human.

This is Part One of a two-part conversation. It's a story about finding potential late, earning belonging slowly, and learning to hold failure — your own and the system's — with honesty and care.

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