Raised a Sephardic Jew in a close and loving Spanish- and Ladino-speaking family, Misty Fils, MS ’14, PA-C, was mocked, bullied and ostracized as a school girl in the 1980s, an era of multiculturalism. She absorbed the lesson that “To be a minority means you’re the loser,” she said.

“I was a minority within a minority,” Ms. Fils told participants in 69ɫ��Ƭ’s Inaugural Diversity Retreat, “From the Ashes: The Rise of Inclusion and Belonging and the Decline of Exclusion and Hate,” held Jan. 20. “Throughout my teen years, I was always the other and seemed to be punished for being the other.”

The idea that differences in race, language, gender and religion steer social advantages and disadvantages crystallized for her as a young adult working as a paramedic in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“Advocating for and teaching tomorrow’s clinicians why and hopefully how to help create environments that are inclusive of others is what I’m passionate about.”

“In New Orleans, I started to understand that all those years of exclusion and discrimination had taught me really instinctively and protectively to hide or even actively deny that I might not be a member of the majority,” Ms. Fils said. “I vividly remember trying to forget my Ladino and my Spanish. I wanted to pass, and I could pass.”

She shared an “identity circle” revealing more than 30 aspects of her identity, including single mom/mother of a special needs baby, lifelong learner, physician assistant, American, white-appearing, cisgendered woman, able-bodied person and advocate. 

“Being our authentic selves builds trust in the classroom and in healthcare settings,” said Ms. Fils, a former member of the Illinois Academy of Physician Assistants Legislative Committee. She also leads the PA Department’s DEI Committee and sits on the university’s Employee DEI Committee. 

“Advocating for and teaching tomorrow’s clinicians why and hopefully how to help create environments that are inclusive of others is what I’m passionate about,” Ms. Fils said. “That means for my colleagues, for my students, for my son and daughter. I want others to feel that their experiences are valid, that their communities are respected and that they can claim their identities, whatever they are, without fear.”