“Maybe part of the reason why Black men are more likely to die from prostate cancer is that they are reluctant to go to the urologist. One way to encourage this might be to support the training of more Black urologists and scientists.” Steve Silverman had prostate cancer, but it’s gone now. With advice and treatment from Mohamad Allaf, M.D., and Patrick Walsh, M.D., his cancer was diagnosed early and removed successfully. “The surgery, the post-op, the recovery all went well,” he says.

But he knows that many men are not as fortunate. In particular, men of African ancestry have the highest risk of developing aggressive and potentially fatal prostate cancer, due to genetic and environmental causes and also disparities in health care, including a lack of early detection.

Silverman and his wife, Elizabeth, have a long history of philanthropy and of generously giving back to make the world a better place. When they heard about the Schaufeld Program for Prostate Cancer in Black Men, they wanted to contribute. “Maybe part of the reason why Black men are more likely to die from prostate cancer is that they are reluctant to go to the urologist,” Steve says, “and one way to encourage this might be to support the training of more Black urologists and scientists.”

With this goal in mind, each year the Schaufeld Program funds Schaufeld Scholars: post-baccalaureate students interested in science, medicine, and health disparities who come to Hopkins for two to three years. The scholars are paired with a faculty mentor, and they conduct prostate cancer research and volunteer to lead health education in the community. They also prepare for graduate school and shadow Hopkins faculty and trainees.

Now, through the generosity of the Silvermans, there is an additional endowed Schaufeld Scholar position: the Silverman Family Fellow.

“Potential To Diversify The Biomedical Workforce”

So far, three Schaufeld Scholars have graduated from the program. “Two are in medical school, and the third is working in a lab at Stanford and applying to Ph.D. programs,” says Tamara Lotan, M.D., the Rose-Lee and Keith Reinhard Professor in Urologic Pathology, who with Allaf co-directs the Schaufeld Program. “One of our scholars was first author in a study published in Cancer Research Communications, and was co-first author in a paper published in European Urology Oncology.”

This year, Hopkins scientist Karen Sfanos, Ph.D., received a Department of Defense (DOD) Prostate Cancer Research Program Health Disparity Award to study the immune microenvironment and the microbiome on prostate cancer immunotherapy response in Black men. The grant reviewers cited the Schaufeld Program as a strength of Sfanos’s application, noting that the program is “enabling a statistically significant number of Black men to be included” in the clinical trial, and noted the Schaufeld Scholars Program “has the potential to diversify the biomedical workforce in the long term.”

Working in Sfanos’s lab is Schaufeld Scholar Shango Rich, a graduate of Norfolk State College who majored in biology and chemistry. Like all the program’s Scholars, he spent time in different labs and then picked a lab to join.

Mentoring And Shadowing

Rich plans on taking the MCAT (medical school admissions exam) in 2025, and Lotan and Allaf will make sure that he and the other Scholars are poised for success. “We fund an MCAT prep course, which lasts several months,” says Lotan. “We also provide mentoring. That’s one of the things I’m most proud of: we have a series of mentoring workshops and shadowing opportunities for the students. It can be a little bit isolating for someone to come fresh from college into a lab at a big university,” she continues, “to get plunked in amid mostly graduate students and residents. We tie them in with a network of people from underrepresented groups – junior faculty, residents, fellows, graduate students – who have an interest in helping our Scholars.” Twice a month, Scholars meet a “near-peer mentor, someone just a few years older. They can pick their brain about that person’s life story, medical school application, their career pathway.”

Lotan brings in people from many walks of medicine to talk to the Scholars about their jobs. “We’ve had people from the medical school come in,” with advice on navigating the admissions process. “We’ve also brought in financial aid people to talk about how to pay for medical school. That’s a very big piece of the puzzle.”

“That Makes It Worth It”

Recently, Rich and other Scholars participated in interactive surgical demonstrations at the Minimally Invasive Surgical Training and Innovation Center (MISTIC) Lab and in the operating room. “I really enjoyed shadowing Dr. Allaf. He was determined to make this a great learning experience even for someone with little experience in surgery. He constantly explained every move he made to his team and residents, but also well enough for me and my fellow scholars to understand. He is an exceptional surgeon, and he really shines as a mentor and teacher.”

Lotan says co-directing the Schaufeld Program is “one of the proudest accomplishments in my recent career. There is nothing more fun than watching people grow and be successful and accomplish their dreams.” Adds Rich: “This work that we’re doing is very important. Sometimes it feels to me, at least, that what I can contribute is very small.

But everything we know about medicine started from the small achievements of people like me contributing to something larger. That makes it worth it. It’s intellectually stimulating, but it also helps people. It’s actually going to mean something in the end.”