24 June 2007 05:34 -06:00 GMT

I glanced in my rearview mirror, and  I saw a woman with almost shoulder length brown straight hair against her pale skin. She was wearing glasses that were more functional than fashionable. Just as I looked, she flinched to her left, as if a spectre had suddenly appeared in the passenger seat. As I continued to stare at her through the mirror, she continued to look to her right, in the empty space of her car. She was pressed straight against her door. It was as if a stinging insect had slipped through an open window and lighted a phobia that would persist for all of her drive home.

The light changed green, and that will be the last I ever see of her.

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As I said in the beginning of my blogging, some time back in '04, this is a narcissistic exercise. In the end, my blog is all about me. This is almost a concession. For me, in fact, I am not all about me. If you know me, you know this is true.  However, I do have a streak that feeds on attention. Hence I write a blog, and I semi-secretly hope that a hundred people will read what I have to say. In the four years of writing here, it's evidently less than that number, but I am still pleased. And that - me being pleased - is what makes the best writing.

Note that, will you?

I just said two very important things that provide the key to writing well. Here they are:

1) The best writing is true to the writer, and thus pleases the writer. A corollary to this is that if the writer is truly, honestly pleased or moved, then chances are the reader will be equally pleased or moved.

2) Writing is a paradox. One writes to feed one's own ego, and effective writing must satisfy the writer him/her-self. By writing selfishly - only to satisfy one's self - one reaches the largest audience. The antithesis to this is that the more one tries to write to others, as opposed to oneself, the shorter one falls in crossing the pond.

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I'm not sure where all that writing preaching came from, but there it is.

Now I remember. I just wrote out my CV, in preparation for my application to medical training programs in the United States. As a result of writing this CV, I was thinking that I could post it here. 

And sometimes I have to write about writing to get the juices flowing.

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So here is my CV, current as of 13 July 2007.  If you have visited this page before, this is different now.

NAME

address

phone

email

EDUCATION

2008             M.D., anticipated, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham AL

1997             M.B.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

1997             M.P.H., University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health

1992             B.S., Biological Sciences, University of California at Irvine

1992             B.A., Linguistics, University of California at Irvine

HONORS

2007             John Holt Memorial Scholarship

2007                          Larry Mayes Memorial Scholarship Award

2007                          Southern Medical Association Scholarship Award

2006                          Argus Award: Paul Farmer Humanitarian Award

2006                          Jefferson County Medical Society Alliance Award

2006                          Turner W. Hudson Medical Endowment

2006                          John Holt Memorial Scholarship

2005             Medical Student Enrichment Program Scholarship - Zambia

2005-08        Gold Humanism Honor Society

LEADERSHIP

2007             Co-founder, The Kalingalinga Foundation

2007             Speaker, University of Alabama School of Medicine Scholarship Dinner

2006-07        Student Representative, University of Alabama System Board of Trustees

2006             Speaker, HIV/AIDS summit, Atlanta, GA

2005-06        Student Representative, Medical Education Committee, UAB School of Medicine

2005             Speaker, Physicians for Human Rights Conference, Birmingham, AL

2004-08        AIDS Advocate, UAB School of Medicine

2004-08        Class President, University of Alabama School of Medicine

2004-05        Community Representative, HVTN 065 Protocol Team

2002-04        Member, Alabama Governor’s Commission on HIV/AIDS in women in Children

2002-04        Chair, UAB Community Advisory Board, 1917 Clinic

1999-00        President, UAB School of Public Health Alumni Society

1995-07        Senator, UAB School of Public Health Student Government

PUBLICATIONS / POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Perry, R.T., Collins, J.S., McDonald, R.W., Acton, R., Sharrow, L.A., Harrell, R.T., Acton, R., Go, R.C.P., Evidence for APO E4 association and E4E4/ACT-AA double homozygote interaction in a population of southeastern African-American AD Patients NIMH Initiative. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 59, No. 4, p. 1554. Oct. 1996

Acton, R., Bell, D., Collins, J., Go, R., McDonald, R.W., Rivers, C., Roseman, J. Genes within and flanking the major histocompatability region are risk factors for diabetes, insulin resistance, hypertension, and microalbuminuria in African-American women. Transplantation Proceedings, 229 (8): 3710-2.

McDonald, R.W., Sinkala, M., Gottlieb, D., Kasonde, P., Ahmed, Y., Luo, C., Allen, S. Planning for mother-to-child HIV transmission risk reduction interventions in Africa: surmountable barriers to implementation. International AIDS Society (IAS), Paris, 2003. (Poster Presentation, Supported by International AIDS Society Scholarship)

EMPLOYMENT

1999-04        Administrator, University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research Management of day-to-day operation of this research center at UAB. Grant-writing, identification and coordination of opportunities for collaborative, interdisciplinary research, developmental grant program for junior investigators.

1997-9                   Administrator, Project San Francisco, Lusaka, Zambia

Managed $8oo,ooo annual budget and 60-100 personnel for a UAB-affiliated HIV research clinic in sub-Saharan Africa. Second year included expanded duties: medical and laboratory quality control.

1995-7                   Research Assistant, University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology

50% laboratory techniques, 50% data analysis and reporting

1992-5                   Senior Trauma Technician (licensed EMT-1A, State of California), University of California at Irvine Medical Center

Patient care assistant for trauma services and emergency medicine

1989-2                   Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of California at Irvine Department of Neurosciences. Laboratory technical assistant.

Extracurricular activities

2007-8             Tinsley Harrison Research Society

2008          anticipated, three months of elective rotations, urban and rural Zambia

2005-6             Intramural Basketball: champions 2005, runners-up 2006

FOREIGN Languages

Spanish fluency

French adequacy

INTERESTS

Reading, Writing, Chess, Basketball, Travel, Family