Charles Modlin, MD, MBA, will deliver the keynote address at the Case Western Reserve University Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies commencement ceremony on Aug. 21, 2022, at 11 a.m. at the Amasa Stone Chapel. The graduating class joined the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies program in the School of Medicine in May 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and weathered unparalleled challenges during this unconventional time. With more than 275 family and friends in attendance, Vice Dean of Medical Education, Lia Logio, MD, will also offer farewell words to the graduates.
Keynote Speaker: Charles Modlin, MD, MBA
Charles Modlin, M.D., MBA, serves as Medical Director of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity (EID) at MetroHealth, where he provides thought leadership, perspective, vision and implementation on the multi-dimensional matters of health equity, inclusion and diversity through the lens of a clinician. His role is key to the development of health equity clinical programs and to promoting and strengthening an inclusive and diverse culture at MetroHealth. He also practices urology at MetroHealth.
Dr. Modlin’s 27-year tenure as a member of the Cleveland Clinic surgical staff included serving as a Kidney Transplant Surgery and Urologist, a member of the Cleveland Clinic’s board of Governors, Board of Directors, and Board of Trustees, as well as serving at the President of the Medical Staff of the Cleveland Clinic.
He founded Cleveland Clinic’s Minority Men’s Health Center (MMHC). In 2003, he established Cleveland Clinic’s famed Annual Minority Men’s Health Fair. This event has provided free health screenings, health examinations, and health education to nearly 30,000 predominantly African American males for the early detection of disease to save lives. In 2022, he established the MetroHealth Minority Men’s Health Fair. In 2011, he was named by The Atlanta Post as one of the Top 21 Black Doctors in America. Dr. Modlin was the First African American Staff Urologist in the History of Cleveland Clinic and the first and only ever Black transplant surgeon in the history of the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Modlin graduated from Northwestern University and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, completed a six-year residency in Urologic Surgery at New York University, a three-year fellowship in kidney transplantation and renovascular surgery at Cleveland Clinic, and joined the Cleveland Clinic Staff in 1996. He has completed organizational leadership development training certification at the Harvard Business School.
He is a noted national leader in eliminating health disparities and promoting health equity. Honors include appointment to the Ohio Commission on Minority Health by two Ohio Governors, Northwestern University Presidential Alumni Medal, the Inaugural 2009 Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Distinguished Humanitarianism in Medicine Award, 2007 MLK Greater Cleveland Partnership Community Service Award, Call & Post 100 Top Influential Leaders, numerous Cleveland Magazine Best Doctors recognitions, recognition in the Inaugural Edition of Who’s Who in Black Cleveland as One of Cleveland’s Most Interesting, and the prestigious 2015 Black Professional Association Black Professional of the Year recognition, The Soul of Philanthropy Award in 2021, among many other recognitions and awards. Governor Mike DeWine appointed Dr. Modlin in March 2020 to serve on the Ohio Governor’s Minority Covid-19 Strike Force (MSF) where he chaired the Education, Communications & Outreach Subcommittee.
Dr. Modlin has also dedicated his life to mentoring the younger generation who aspire to achieve their goals in life. As such, he is a published author of a success navigation and mentorship book, It Isn’t Difficult To Do It If You Know How To Do It, in which he provides practical and advanced advice, wisdom, guidance and success navigation guidance based upon his lived experiences, and lessons passed to him from others which he learned growing up and in becoming a transplant surgeon, in order to help facilitate the younger generation in successfully navigating their own success journeys.