Joy Howell M.D., FAAP, FCCM
Assistant Dean of Diversity and Student Life
Professor of Pediatrics, Critical Care Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Friday November 7, 2025
5pm-6:30pm PST
Workshop Description:
Are you mapping your path to medicine and wondering what truly matters between prerequisites, experiences, and interviews? Join Joy Howell, MD, FAAP, FCCM—Assistant Dean of Diversity and Student Life and Professor of Pediatrics (Critical Care) at Weill Cornell Medicine—for a candid conversation on turning curiosity into sustained care. You’ll learn how to choose courses with intention, build meaningful clinical and service experiences, translate leadership into AAMC competencies, and develop reflective habits that power strong personal statements and interviews. Dr. Howell will share lessons from the pediatric ICU on communication, resilience, and decision-making, and show how those same skills help applicants stand out. We’ll also address common pitfalls for community college, transfer, first-gen, and nontraditional students, and how to frame setbacks as growth. You can come, ask your questions and get answers tailored to your situation. Most importantly, come hear directly from the source instead of second-hand or bad information or people that have no clue about the admission process. Leave with clear next steps, a planning checklist, and confidence to pursue medicine with purpose.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Joy D. Howell received her medical degree at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, completed her residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM). From 2001-2005 she was the Site Director for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the New York Hospital of Queens.
Throughout her career, she has engaged in fellow, resident and medical student education both at Weill Cornell as well as New York Hospital of Queens. Having served as the Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine Fellowship from 2005 through June of 2020, her teaching activities came to include interprofessional simulation education and teamwork training for pediatric residents, fellows, nurses, and physician assistants in the PICU. Her educational excellence has been acknowledged by several teaching awards including the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Pediatric Residency in 2006 and 2010; for team-based education, she was a recipient of the Physician-Of-The-Year Award in 2012; and the Excellence in Medical Education Award in June of 2019 for medical student simulation education.
In 2017, she was appointed as Vice Chair of Diversity in Pediatrics and leads work around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and climate; recruitment, retention and professional development; and community engagement and health equity. In March of 2020, she was appointed as Assistant Dean of Diversity and Student Life at WCM where she advises on antiracism curricular content, provides non-academic support to students from minoritized and marginalized backgrounds, and supports BIPOC student groups. In addition to work at the medical student and department level, she supports and collaborates on DEI at the institutional level and has collaborated with peers across institutions to organize and lead competitive workshops at national meetings.
Register for Free:
What: Curiosity to Care: A Weill Cornell Path for Pre-Meds
When: Friday, November 7, 2025, 5 PM (Pacific Standard Time)
You will receive an immediate email confirmation of your registration from Zoom. PLEASE check your SPAM or JUNK folder, as the email might be directed there. Additionally, you will receive an email reminder from Zoom ONE hour before the event, sent to the same email address you used for registration.
