Footnotes Summer 2024 - 12

Black Women in Podiatry:
Interview with Dr. Carina Alexis
By Cassandra Saint-Louis, BUSPM Class of 2027
Dr. Carina Alexis was born and raised in the beautiful
island of Haiti. Her family lived comfortably in a palace,
but during her early childhood, she moved with her family
to Indianapolis, Indiana. You can imagine the initial culture
shock of being a minority and an immigrant. But this
would not deter Dr. Alexis. In fact, she would become very
resilient and ambitious. Dr. Alexis always had an aspiration
to become a physician. She set her heart out to move to
New York and studied at St. John University where she
earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology. She would then
move to Miami, FL to pursue her Master of Science in
Biomedical Science at Barry University. Shortly after, she
went on to obtain her Doctorate in Podiatric Medicine at
Barry University. She is currently a second year resident at
the Long Island Jewish North Shore Hospital. I not only
had the privilege of interviewing this ambitious podiatrist,
but I get to call her my friend.
Dr. Alexis, can you tell us a little about your
journey into podiatry? What initially attracted you
to the field?
My attraction to the field first started following the
earthquake of 2010 in Haiti. Multiple Haitians, including
one family member, who were trapped under buildings had
to have their legs amputated to be saved from the rumble.
This gave me a deeper insight into limb salvage as a lot of
complications stemmed from these amputation procedures.
Limb salvage or attempting to save a critically injured limb
is the basic call to action for a podiatrist.
I know that Long Island Jewish/ North Shore is one of the
toughest podiatric residency to land in New York, how did
you manage to obtain a spot in their residency? What were
some things you did to prepare for that interview?
I first did an externship, which I considered a month-long
interview. I liked the dynamics between residents, and the
camaraderie, but mostly I welcomed the challenges of being
part of such a busy program. This is where the best goes in
the East, and I wanted to be trained by the best. I was very
driven and motivated during my externship month which
did not go unnoticed. LIJ/NS was my last interview of the
day, so I was able to practice more in between interviews
thus becoming less nervous as time went by.
Working as a resident doctor at the Long Island
Jewish North Shore Hospital, what are some exciting
cases you get to see or work on while in surgical
residency?
We have a trauma call at LIJ. We also have multiple boardcertified
attendings with rearfoot privileges. We have an
attending who I consider to be the " Charcot Queen " and
another attending who lives and breathes scope procedures.
There are a variety of interesting cases that we get to see as
residents at LIJ/NS, so in truth I wouldn't be able to list all
of them.
I am curious to know what the working environment
is like. How would you describe the culture of
LIJ? Do colleagues get along? Is there a sense of
camaraderie?
12
SUMMER 2024
Footnotes Summer 2024

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