Last Updated on May 1, 2024 by Laura Turner
Dr. Frank L. Douglas, born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1943, overcame a challenging childhood marked by homelessness and hunger to excel academically and earn a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Lehigh University. Despite experiencing racial discrimination upon his arrival in the United States, he became a prominent figure in the pharmaceutical industry, leading teams that brought over 25 drugs to market. Now retired from his executive roles, Dr. Douglas focuses on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) as the CEO of Safe Haven Dialogues, LLC, where he uses his experience to combat systemic discrimination and improve workplace culture. A global thought leader and speaker, he has received numerous awards for his contributions to science and DEI, including the Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development Director of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.
Dr. Frank Douglas spoke to SDN about his experiences in academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and founding Safe Haven Dialogues.
Tell us about yourself.
Dr. Frank Douglas: I was born in British Guiana (Guyana), South America, and came to the United States in 1963 on A Fulbright Scholarship. I attended Lehigh University, where I received a BS in Chemistry. I completed a PhD in Physical Chemistry and an MD from Cornell University.
What led you to pursue both a Ph.D. and an MD?
After completing my PhD, I joined Xerox corporation as an assistant scientist. After having difficulty getting assigned to attractive projects, I decided to seek a postdoctoral position in Biophysics. During my interviews at the first two universities that I visited, I was asked whether I would be interested in getting an MD and focusing on research of medical interest. I thought that this was a reasonable path and I elected to accept the offer for admission to Weill Cornell Medical School.
How did you choose to attend Cornell University Medical School? Was it your top choice? What stood out to you about the school?
Since I had received my PhD in Physical Chemistry from Cornell University, and the medical school was in New York City, there was the advantage of familiarity with the institution and the city.
What surprised you the most about medical school?
The most challenging part of the first two years of medical school was the volume of material that one had to memorize. As a graduate student in the physical sciences, the focus was on understanding and solving problems. So, memorizing anatomical parts, their physiology, and pathophysiology, including circulatory and neuronal connections that determined normal versus abnormal function, was quite overwhelming.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in medical school?
Interestingly, the biggest challenge I faced in medical school was the not so obvious hostility to the presence of underrepresented minority students. Several things were done to discourage and actually deprive us of fulfilling our dream to become physicians.
Why did you decide to focus on neuroendocrinology? How did that shape your career path?
I was interested in the relationship between the brain and the cardiovascular system. Put simply, how did the brain control blood pressure? The key actors in this were neurotransmitters, and the measurement of these neuropeptides and amines offered a way to probe this relationship between the central nervous system and the peripheral circulation.
This focus on neuroendocrinology had an interesting impact on my career. During a visit to my lab at the University of Chicago Pritzker Medical School, the head of research of Ciba (now Novartis) was impressed that I was doing both animal as well as clinical research that was straddling the cardiovascular and neurosciences areas. These were two major areas of research at Ciba at that time, and that led to my leaving academia and joining the pharmaceutical industry.
Can you tell us about your research and/or teaching? What led you to pursue those interests? Was that difficult to balance? And how did it shape your career today?
My research involved the use of the HPLC, instead of the commonly used radioimmunoassay, to measure neuropeptides. The HPLC methods allowed the measurement of some of these neuropeptides and amine neurotransmitters in various brain areas. This provided insight into the role these played in the control of blood pressure.
In medical school, research and teaching are natural complements for some faculty members. I enjoyed the combination.
What pivotal moment or catalyst led you to pursue writing and your efforts toward DEI in the medical workforce?
In 2017, after the closure of the small Biotech firm that I was running, my cousin convinced me to write my memoirs. As he said, if people actually knew your humble beginnings, they would be amazed at what you have achieved. This led me to write my memoir, Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream. The title is significant in that it contains my name. Frank is Celtic and means “Free Man.” Douglas is Scottish and means “from a Black stream.” Although it was not my intent to address DEI issues in my memoir, my life is full of the challenges addressed in DEI.
Can you tell us about Safe Haven Dialogues and what inspired its founding?
On May 25th, 2020, as I watched the murder of George Floyd, two things occurred to me. First, I was impressed that in spite of the sympathetic onlookers, one individual was dying that day. The second was that I wondered whether there would have been a different outcome for George Floyd if he had known how to Reframe situations. I decided to establish Safe Haven Dialogues LLC to empower individuals by teaching them how to reframe situations and find productive solutions to problems of discrimination. This is contained in several online courses at: https://safehaven.mykajabi.com/courses.
Can you tell us about your books, their inspiration, and what you hope readers will take away from them?
Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream traces my life from growing up in poverty in Guyana to coming to America in 1963 on a Fulbright scholarship. The rest of the book traces how, in spite of episodes of discrimination, I succeeded in acquiring both a PhD and MD and became the first Black to be on the Board of Management of a top five global pharmaceutical company. I was also a 2007 Black History Maker Awardee. The book also subtly traces the influence of my mother on my life.
I hope readers will take away from this book that true grit, by which I mean, courage to maintain one’s core principles, will help you overcome.
Until You Walk in My Shoes: A Reframe Methodology to Overcome Systemic Discrimination describes the role of Equity and Inclusion in creating cultures that can be psychologically safe, unsafe, or even toxic to its employees. The book describes a Reframing Methodology that can empower individuals in psychologically unsafe or toxic cultures to find productive solutions. Seventeen cases are described, and the Reframing Method is applied to demonstrate ways to achieve productive solutions.
I hope readers will embrace trying to reframe, that is to find solutions that not only benefit them, but also benefit others.
If you had it to do all over again, would you still take the same path to where you are today? What, if anything, would you change?
My path had so many different twists and turns that I could not imagine it occurring the same way again. However, there is one thing that I would change. I would be more aware of individuals who wanted to mentor me and accept their help.
What is your proudest accomplishment/career moment? Why?
My proudest moment was being identified as a Black History Maker in 2007. The award was in recognition of my many innovative contributions to the pharmaceutical industry and the 25 drugs, such as Allegra and Lantus, whose innovation and/or market introduction I led. The award was also named in honor of Dr. Percy Julian, who first synthesized physostigmine and was a pioneer in synthesizing human hormones, such as progesterone and testosterone, on an industrial scale. He was the first African American to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.
Describe a typical workday in the life of Dr. Frank Douglas.
A typical workday includes one to two hours of review of projects with my team, three to four hours of work on present projects, one hour of general reading, and two hours for catching up on emails.
How do you spend your free time? Any hobbies?
My major hobby is playing with my grandkids and playing chess online.
In your position now, knowing what you do – what advice would you have given yourself at the beginning and/or middle of your career?
The advice I would have given myself at the beginning and also at the middle of my career would have been not to let discrimination alter my goals and aspirations.
From your perspective, what is the biggest problem in healthcare today? How do you think we solve it?
The biggest problem in healthcare is healthcare disparities. The disparities are driven by the low numbers of underrepresented minorities with respect to their population and the fact that socioeconomic conditions often make access to quality healthcare less than optimal. We need to increase the number of underrepresented minority physicians in all specialties and insist that new treatments and drugs are studied in the relevant demographic groups that need them. A third need is a greater focus on preventive medicine.
How do you envision the medical workforce in 10 years?
Unfortunately, given the attacks on DEI and the Supreme Court action on Affirmative Action, I expect the health situation to deteriorate for underrepresented minority providers and patients alike. Healthcare disparities will increase.
What advice would you offer students considering a health professional career or just starting health professional school?
The advice I would give students starting out would be at two ends of the health spectrum. It should pay more attention to preventive medicine and AI!