Curiosity and care

When Kala Seawright, M.D., OUWB ’21, was 9 years old, she recalls trying to fight anesthesia before having surgery for a sports injury because she wanted to see what the operating room looked like.

"I've always been someone who's interested in the why," she says. "I wanted to know why I needed surgery. I wanted to know why my body wasn't working the same way it used to anymore."

That fascination persisted for Seawright, not just through her follow-up surgeries but into her adult career. Today, she’s in the fourth year of an obstetrics and gynecology residency at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak. In addition to her general curiosity about the workings of the human body, she says caring for her mom and aunt through their battles with breast cancer made her feel "called" to her profession. 

Born in Pontiac and raised in Oxford, Seawright was drawn to OUWB for its proximity to her home. But she also saw the potential to continue work she'd begun in her undergraduate years at Oakland University as president of the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students (MAPS). OUWB’s Department of Diversity & Inclusion inspired Seawright to become involved in empowering other people of color to pursue medical careers.

"I was able to foresee my future and see that I was going to be able to participate in those things as a medical student, to allow me to maintain activities that I was passionate about in medical school," Seawright says.

At OUWB, Seawright became a diversity ambassador and served as president of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), which organizes the annual Chandler Park Academy Health Fair that’s held in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Throughout her residency, she's continued to serve as a mentor to medical students from underserved and underrepresented communities. She also served as OUWB alumni speaker at the school’s 2023 commencement.

A first-generation college graduate and the first female doctor in her family, Seawright says she knows what it's like to feel like you "don't really have the manual handed to you when it comes to how to do this thing called medicine." 

She says mentors were hugely important to her along the way, and she hopes to provide similar support to others.

"No matter if you're in a helping profession or if altruism is something that you are passionate about, you need to know about who you're serving," she says. "And I think it's also very important to always know that you will run into somebody who is different than you, and you need to know how to approach that situation, whether you're uncomfortable or not. And education is where you start."

Seawright has continued to advocate for underserved populations through OUWB's Residents as Teachers program, which is designed to help residents and fellows become better instructors. Through the program, Seawright has given lectures to participating residents on racial inequities in medicine. She says she appreciates the opportunity to interact with fellow residents in a different way, "sitting and learning together."

"I like to hopefully provide a safe space to ask questions, even the hard ones, especially when it's surrounding race and inequities in medicine," she says. "I like to hopefully give them a resource to reach out and ask those hard questions and kind of work through the thought process of learning about themselves and other populations."

Over the course of her residency, Seawright says she's appreciated that OUWB has given her "more than enough medical education and clinical education to become a great physician." She says she still maintains close ties with many of her OUWB classmates and mentors.

"I've had so many people make sure I was OK as a whole: medically, academically, mentally, spiritually, everything," she says. "I've had all of that support."

As Seawright nears the end of her residency, she plans to pursue a gynecologic oncology fellowship. She says she relishes the opportunity to "care for the patient as a whole," viewing it as "more of a calling than a job."

"I really found purpose in end-of-life care and end-of-life conversations," she says. "You really get to know a patient at that time in life. Guiding them through those conversations is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but then also one of the most rewarding things, because I've learned a lot about life and what is valued in life and what to pay attention to when I am living my life."

Seawright believes the OB-GYN field represents a perfect intersection of her interests. She was introduced to the operating room in her third and fourth year of medical school and says she found "a slight obsession" with the environment. She says being an OB/GYN allows her both to "truly know" her patients and engage in the continuity of care, but also to work with her hands in the operating room.

And fortunately, she no longer must fight anesthesia to be there.

"[The OR] was a way for me to physically do something for my patient," she says. "It felt like I was either helping them feel better or helping play a part in curing them of their disease. Although I know not every outcome is good and I can't always fix the patient with my hands, it felt as if I was doing something meaningful in the operating room."