Khaalisha Ajala is an assistant professor of medicine, Emory University School of Medicine and a hospital medicine faculty physician at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She is a Small Group Advisor within the Semmelweis Society of the School of Medicine and Assistant Site Director of Education of Emory at Grady Hospital Medicine. She is also a health justice advocate, global health physician , mentor, DJ and founder of health education non-profit organisation, ‘A Tribe Called Health/ Heartbeats & HipHop, Inc.’
A Tribe Called Health focuses on utilising the global language of Hip-Hop culture to address health inequity and health disparity in historically underserved communities. As a DJ and lover of music, she has found the importance of identifying hip-hop culture to connect with various communities and age groups in order to promote healthy practices.
She is a clinical educator of global health and has served as a faculty physician of the medical student group Emory Health Against Human Trafficking (E.H.A.H.T.) which visits Chiang Rai, Thailand to provide health screening to the local community and the children of with Ban Kru Nam Home. She has also served as faculty for the Emory Global Health Scholars Residency Programme in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Currently, she is the chair of the Global Hospital Medicine Special Interest Group of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
As an advocate for health justice and anti-racism in medicine, Ajala has given international talks such as ‘Rounding While Black: Examining the Evidence of Structural Racism in Everyday Clinical Practice’ and curriculum development around the history of racism in health and public policy. She serves on the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Racial Advocacy (DEIRA) faculty advisory committee at Emory. Ajala is the inaugural DEI chair of Society of General Internal Medicine’s Southern Region and has developed multiple initiatives geared toward increasing the presence of underrepresented learners in medicine. Her international talk “Rounding While Black” has led to a more in-depth discussion about the impact of racism in medicine.
Khaalisha Ajala is a member of The Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). It is the professional home for people working in academic general internal medicine. SGIM is made up of more than 3,300 of the world’s leading academic general internists, all of whom are dedicated to improving access to care for all populations, eliminating healthcare disparities, and enhancing medical education. Their mission is to cultivate the next generation of educators, researchers, and clinicians in academic general internal medicine, leading the way to better health for everyone.
