LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — One Arkansas woman's list of achievements has continued to grow.
Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman is a professor in the surgery department at UAMS and Chief of Breast Oncology at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute— but that's only part of her day job.
Dr. Henry-Tillman's childhood started right here in Arkansas.
"I grew up in Mississippi County, Blytheville Arkansas, and at the age of 16, I moved to California where I completed high school there and went on to medical school at the University of California in San Diego," she said.
After graduating from medical school, Dr. Henry-Tillman found herself back in Arkansas for her residency at UAMS in 1998.
When asked why she chose breast cancer treatment as her focus, she explained how she felt she could make a difference.
"Caring for patients makes me want to come to work, and specializing in the disease of breasts took me to a place to care for women or men, with disease of the breast," she explained. "That was a specialty that was important to me, and I felt that I could make a difference."
During a 2017 ceremony, Dr. Henry-Tillman was invested as a recipient of the prestigious Muriel Balsam Kohn chair in breast surgical oncology at UAMS.
Such an endowed chair is said to be one of the highest academic honors that a university can grant to a faculty member
Dr. Henry-Tillman was joined by former NBA basketball star Dikembe Mutombo, who spoke at the event.
The two became friends by chance — and when Mutombo later opened a hpos[pital in his native Republic of Congo, he asked Dr. Henry-Tillman to train the all-male surgeons in more modern techniques.
"I go there to teach surgeons how to manage cancer disease. And I go with a team of doctors that does women's cancer. So we develop cancer programs that deal with breast cancer and gynecologic malignancies," she described.
Anyone who knows Dr. Henry-Tillman will tell you the same thing— she is compassionate about access.
She even spearheaded the start of the Health Initiative Disparities Research Team with the goal of bringing awareness to every county in the state.
"We try to spread the word not just about breast cancer, but cancer education and medical conditions overall. That's so important. You can't just take one message to a community," Dr. Henry-Tillman said. "You need to take the whole message to the community, about healthcare, and about access and resources that are available to you."