2020 “Sheroes” Named at MetroHealth

Mary E. Massie-Story, M.D., has been named a 2020 MetroHealth Shero – an ideal provider who is “competent, caring and always willing to share knowledge with peers, patients and students.”

Dr. Massie-Story, clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine, is one of eight women honored this year by MetroHealth Medical Center’s Women@Metro Employee Business Resource Group (EBRG), which created the Shero award in 2018 to honor women leaders who advocate for the advancement of women and girls. 

According to Dr. Massie-Story’s nominator, she is “exceptional in her care for patients, educating the community while showing compassion.”

The ERBG’s Community-Focused and Recruitment, Retention and Recognition committees honored both community members and MetroHealth employees this year. MetroHealth will make a donation in the name of each Shero to their preferred non-profit.

The family medicine physician recently joined NEOMED, where she is an Academic Medicine Fellow of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and provides care in the new student health services operation. 

Dr. Massie-Story, who has worked at MetroHealth for more than two decades, serves in Metro ExpressCare clinics. “Because I’ve been at MetroHealth so long, administration always asks me to help with onboarding new providers as they become acclimated to the pace and the acuity of the clinic — and to Cleveland,” Dr. Massie-Story said recently.

Bridge builder

Described by her nominator as an advocate for minority providers and students, Dr. Massie-Story sees herself as a bridge builder by nature. When she meets with a patient, the first thing she does is to “remove the intimidation of hierarchy,“ she says. Out of respect, she never calls patients by their first name. When she enters the examination room, she positions herself so her whole body is facing the patient and she can look at them while engaging them, showing them that they have her full attention.

Each new patient has a story to tell, but hearing it requires being open to it. And openness includes having the humility to set aside your own assumptions, says Dr. Massie-Story. Her advice to her students at NEOMED mirrors these actions: If you listen more than you talk, you’ll hear the journey.