ÃÛÌÒAPP

What is your title? 

Senior Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, ÃÛÌÒAPP School of Medicine

How many years have you worked at CWRU?

20 years, going on 21 this year. 

What does a typical day in your role look like?

The way my day unfolds depends entirely on the admissions cycle, but the bookends remain the same: I begin and end nearly every day walking my two labs—Winnie and Birdie. Those pre-dawn walks are my brain-booting time. It’s a quiet, serene window to think before the sun and the emails come up.

Once the workday begins, the pace shifts into high gear. Given my leadership role, my "typical" day is largely defined by working with people on our team. You’ll usually find me either in a steady stream of meetings or participating in admissions interview day activities—or both!

Lately, my big-picture work has been extending beyond CWRU as a national representative on the Association of American Medical Colleges Committee on Admissions. I spend a significant portion of my time collaborating with colleagues across the country. We’re often tackling the evolving landscape of medical school admissions, which makes for a fascinating (and busy!) calendar.

What drew you to CWRU School of Medicine?

I was co-teaching an elective that I created for first- and second-year medical students on organ donation and transplantation for about three years, which gave me a front-row seat to the school’s energy and culture. I suppose you could call it serendipity when this position opened up, but I think it was a mixture of luck and making my own luck. I applied and, thankfully, the rest is history. 

What do you enjoy most about working here?

This is very gratifying, fulfilling and meaningful work. I feel privileged to be able to play a role in helping our students achieve their dreams and goals. Additionally, we have a small but highly efficient, experienced and mighty team that makes all of this really fun. Most days, it doesn’t even feel like work. 

Tell me about the podcast.

Ah, the podcast. In the pre-COVID days, we did more in-person recruiting, and I recall visiting a well-resourced university for a massive pre-med fair. It was an impressive atmosphere—medical school admissions colleagues from across the country gathered in one place, providing students with total, direct access to the institutions they dreamed of attending. As I was driving home, I couldn't shake a question I had: What about the students who don’t have access to these massive fairs? Because I think I would have been one of those students when I was in college. I wanted to try to bridge that gap, and I realized a podcast could be an equalizer. 

Since this was well before the "everyone has a podcast" era, it took a fair amount of convincing and creative diplomacy to get the project off the ground, but I had a strong gut feeling the potential for impact was there. After I got everyone’s buy-in, I had to do the work to learn how to actually create a podcast, which took me hours of YouTube videos and reading blogs, but I figured it out! At the time, I had no idea that it would actually become a thing, but to my surprise, it has. Since 2019, my episodes have been listened to over 800,000 times in over 150 countries. It kind of freaks me out, actually. 

The positive feedback I’ve received always catches me off guard. I’ve had listeners ask to take pictures with me (which really threw me off), interviewees will DM me on Zoom to tell me they are big fans, I receive emails of gratitude, and it even came up during our recent School of Medicine Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation visit by one of the site team reviewers!

More recently, it has been showing up in some applicants’ essay responses, like this: "I want to thank Christian Essman and whoever helps produce the All Access: Medical School Admissions podcast. In a time of panic and stress over applying and not knowing how to navigate this process, finding this podcast truly provided a sense of comfort in that medical institutions are comprised of real people. These efforts reflect CWRU’s commitment to improving global health by helping to produce knowledgeable, comprehensive physicians from CWRU and everywhere else. Furthermore, it highlights the supportive atmosphere and collaborative nature at CWRU."

What are some hobbies you have outside of work?

I loooove music—I love listening to music and playing music. Fun fact: I was one of the first people in the U.S. to be a Spotify user. In 2013, you had to be invited by Spotify to be a beta user, and I’ve been a Spotify user since. I listen to all kinds of music almost every day. As a musician, I have played drums since I was in 5th grade, was in marching band drumline through college, and have played in various garage bands. While my drum kit is still ready for action, I’ve spent the last couple of years pivoting to the electric guitar. I stick to playing with tablature, which allows me to play just well enough to feel like a rock star—at least in my own head. 

I also really enjoy watching sports. While my favorites are college/pro baseball and college football, I can get swept up in the energy of almost any sport, from F1 to Premier League.

Finally, now that our kids are off to college, I’ve taken on a surprising (and completely random) side gig: trivia host! You can find me every Tuesday night at Western Reserve Distillers in Lakewood (given the name, fate definitely played a role in that venue choice). It’s essentially a weekly production where I get to run the show, curate the playlist, and keep the energy high. It’s always a highlight when our own med students show up to test their knowledge!