Pediatric endocrinologist, mentor, and co-founder of NextGen Pediatricians, Dr. Chineze Ebo joins Dr. Ned Palmer to share how early exposure to medicine through her mother, an OB-GYN doctor, sparked a career dedicated to long-term patient care. She opens up about the moment she knew pediatric endocrinology was the right path, the joy of seeing patients thrive, and the unique challenges facing this small but vital specialty.

How can mentorship completely shift the trajectory of a young doctor’s career? And what happens when diversity in medicine goes from a talking point to a reality? They dig into how mentorship can transform opportunities for underrepresented minority physicians, why diversity is a driver of better patient outcomes, and the systemic shifts needed to attract more specialists to pediatric care.

From swapping career-shaping stories to throwing out bold ideas for the future of medicine and bonding over their shared (and admittedly controversial) dislike of Cincinnati chili; this conversation is as real as it gets. Whether you’re a doctor, med student, or just curious , you’ll leave inspired, informed, and maybe a little hungry… just not for chili.

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Here are five takeaways from the conversation with Dr. Chineze Ebo:

1. The Journey to Pediatric Endocrinology

Dr. Chineze Ebo shares her journey from initially considering OB-GYN to finding her passion in pediatric endocrinology. Her interest was piqued during a rotation that combined nephrology and endocrinology, where she appreciated the long-term relationships formed with patients and the ability to manage chronic conditions like diabetes.

2. Mentorship and Representation

The importance of mentorship, especially for underrepresented minority physicians, is highlighted. Dr. Ebo discusses how having mentors who share similar backgrounds can provide a safe space and relatable guidance, which is crucial for personal and professional growth.

3. NextGen Pediatricians Initiative

Dr. Ebo co-founded NextGen Pediatricians to support underrepresented minority applicants in medicine. The initiative started as a response to the challenges posed by virtual residency interviews during the pandemic and has grown into a mentorship program that pairs applicants with mentors across the country.

4. Challenges in Pediatric Endocrinology

The episode touches on the financial and professional challenges within pediatric endocrinology, including the shortage of specialists and the need for better compensation to attract more professionals to the field.

5. Work-Life Balance in Medicine

Dr. Ebo emphasizes the importance of finding joy and balance in one’s career. She discusses the misconception that life becomes easier after training and stresses the need for ongoing self-care and community support to maintain well-being throughout a medical career.

Transcript

Dr. Chineze Ebo
I think that academic medicine can be more fulfilling than private practice, and that might be unpopular.

Dr. Ned Palmer
Welcome back to another episode of The Podcast for Doctors (By Doctors) brought to you by Panacea Financial. My name is Dr. Ned Palmer. I’m going to be solo hosting this today. I’m incredibly excited to be here talking to Dr. Chineze Ebo. We’re going to be talking about all things pediatric endocrinology, what it’s like being an underrepresented minority physician in medicine, our shared training experiences in the great city of Cincinnati and at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and really why and how we can get the price of insulin cheaper for everybody. I think we’re really onto something here.

I’m incredibly excited that we’re going to be talking about her path in medicine—what really drove her into pediatric endocrinology, something I think we’re all familiar with but maybe don’t really know the ins and outs of. And then how we can continue to support future generations in medicine through her organization, NextGen Pediatricians. She’s working to support the next generation behind her.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Chineze Ebo to The Podcast for Doctors (By Doctors). Good afternoon. I’m here with Dr. Ebo, a pediatric endocrinology fellow currently at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She’s originally from the Philadelphia area and completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell before attending medical school at Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. She completed her pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 2022. Shared alumni—I love it.

Her interests include advancing health equity in pediatric endocrinology with a focus on reducing health disparities and expanding access to care for marginalized communities. She’s also dedicated to enhancing medical education on health disparities and endocrine care for trainees, as well as advocating for physician wellness. Passionate about mentorship and diversity in medicine, she co-founded NextGen Pediatricians, a national mentorship organization supporting underrepresented minority pediatric residency applicants.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her loved ones, traveling, hosting game nights, and exploring new restaurants. Dr. Ebo, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?

CE:
Doing great. Thanks so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

NP:
I’m really excited too. I cannot wait to dive in and nerd out on all things pediatric endocrinology, health inequities, and disparities, and how we can find a way to make insulin free for everybody whenever they need it. I think we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. I’d love to hear your story and how you became interested in medicine. How’d you get from Philly to Chicago to Cincinnati—and that whole journey?

CE:
I’ve been all over the place. Thinking back at it now as rising faculty, it’s like—my gosh, I’ve been 10 years in the game. But really, I think my first interest in medicine started with my mom. She’s a physician herself, an OB-GYN. She lives in Philadelphia but actually works in New York. Growing up, I saw medicine through the actual lifestyle of having a parent in medicine—the long hours, especially when she was on call and how busy she was.

I also had the opportunity to see things from the medical side: volunteering at hospitals, shadowing her, seeing how she interacted with patients, and the cool pathology she saw.

That was my initial exposure to medicine. Because of that, I got more involved in volunteer work. I loved working with children. I’m the oldest of four girls, so I grew up taking care of my younger siblings. There was always that nurture aspect—being around children and caring for them was something I loved.

I took some traditional but also not-so-traditional steps to get to medical school. In college, I was a psychology major, which I absolutely loved. It contributes a lot to how I function now as a physician. But I hadn’t taken all of the prereqs I needed, and the ones I did take I didn’t do so well in. So I did a post-bac program in Chicago for two years. That helped enhance my academic record, build confidence, and prepare me for medical school.

I started medical school shortly after at Chicago Med. I actually went in thinking I’d be OB-GYN because of my mom and my interest in deliveries. But on my OB rotation in third year, I was like—absolutely not. After a week I thought, how do I get out of this?

I realized my attention was always on the baby post-delivery rather than on the mom. That was a big sign that OB wasn’t for me. Then I did my pediatrics rotation and thought—this is where I feel comfortable. I had a wonderful residency experience and opted to stay in Cincinnati for the rest of my training and now my faculty career. It’s been a long, exciting, non-traditional journey, but it’s mine and I’ve enjoyed it.

NP:
We love talking to people with non-traditional paths. Myself, I was a Caribbean grad. Coming out of undergrad, I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been, so I did the baccalaureate path. I think you’re the first post-bac guest we’ve had here. I’d love to hear a little about your experience with that.

Obviously, we’ve heard mixed reviews. People have spicy opinions on whether it’s necessary or not. It sounded like a really positive experience for you—something maybe not a lot of our listeners have heard of firsthand.

CE:
Yes, absolutely. My post-bac program experience was phenomenal. It was exactly what I needed at the time. I needed to retake classes, take upper-level sciences, and show an upward academic trajectory so med schools could trust I’d handle the course load.

I was intentional about the program I chose. Mine gave you a second bachelor’s degree in medical science, which I wanted—I figured if I was paying all this money, I was leaving with something. It was also in Chicago, and I’d never been to the Midwest, so it was a new experience.

I loved that I not only took classes but also got involved in organizations. I joined MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students), MedLife, and even traveled to Lima, Peru. I got my first research publication, which was huge.

So it wasn’t just academics—it gave me experiences to build as a physician.

NP:
That’s incredible. Like you said, going from undergrad to med school is a huge level shift. Everybody says it’s like drinking from a fire hose. You need systems and structures to succeed, and you need to know how to learn. Your program gave you both the academics and the professional development, which is fantastic.

You mentioned mentorship—we’ll come back to that later. But first, during your pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children’s, what led you specifically into pediatric endocrinology? What was it about the glands and hormones that pulled you in?

CE:
Honestly, endocrinology wasn’t even on my radar when I started residency. I thought I’d go into NICU or heme/onc. But during intern year, we had a combined nephrology and endocrinology rotation. On the inpatient side, endocrinology is largely diabetes management, seeing new diagnoses and helping families adjust to a lifelong condition.

CE:

I honestly loved the—obviously not for the families—but I loved the conversations and the approach to diabetes management, the longitudinal relationships that these patients are going to have with us, and the ability to provide reassurance. You know, this is a chronic lifelong disease, but we have ways to manage it. We are so advanced and you’re going to be all right. You’re going to be a kid who’s able to do whatever you want to do. Being able to see that in person during my rotation—I was like, I love this. This is what I went into medicine for. I want to be that family’s doctor. I want them to come to me. I want to form those relationships and provide that medical support.

Then I ended up doing some outpatient rotations in endocrinology to get the outpatient feel, which was amazing. There are so many cool pathologies, and I really love that for the majority of endocrinopathies, there’s a treatment. You don’t have that hormone? Great, I can give it back to you. You’re making too much of that? We have options for that too. While you’re dealing with patients with chronic diseases, most of the time we have solutions, and patients do really well when treated. You also get to see them continuously throughout their lives. I really enjoyed those aspects of it.

We’re going to talk about experiences in medicine and how impactful they are—when and where in your career you get access to these things. One of my favorite ways endocrinology is described is that it’s one of the few specialties where you do critical care at home. Every day, you could be sending kids home with home blood tests, home urine tests, multiple daily injections, multiple daily test points. When we start to talk about closed-loop systems or three-phase pumps, it’s literally distilling the IV pump off your pole in the ICU and sending it home with them. It’s one of the coolest specialties, though it’s often seen as just thyroid or pituitary work.

NP:

That’s so real. I want to talk about the experiential side of things because it sounds like you had that nephro-endocrinology rotation at a really meaningful point in your career. I always use the example that I didn’t know MedPeds existed until my fourth year of med school. I went through a rotation, and it was perfect—it completely changed my path. How were you able to find pediatric endocrinology exposure and nurture it through training, which is very structured and doesn’t always allow you to choose what’s important to you?

CE:

I think there are things I wish I had known at the time. I was blessed to be at a hospital with a very large pediatric endocrine division. It wasn’t hard to say, “I like what I saw inpatient—how do I get involved outpatient?” One of my mentors was an attending with me during my first rotation. I reached out and said, “I love endocrine, I want to know more. I want to get involved with some research if possible.” To this day, she’s my go-to mentor, helping me publish papers.

It’s about showing interest early. For those who might not have that luxury at their institution, the Pediatric Endocrine Society offers resources for students, medical students, residents, and fellows. There’s faculty on there, and the society sponsors students and residents to attend pediatric endocrine conferences, see presentations, and learn about groundbreaking work. One of the ways to learn more is through national organizations, and if you’re fortunate to have an endocrine division locally, just reaching out helps. I haven’t met a mean endocrinologist.

NP:

I have to agree. My division director in Boston is an endocrinologist, and I still tread lightly, but generally, it’s not a specialty that attracts bullheaded or difficult personalities. There’s a much more open-door policy. If you’re interested, look at your local pediatric endocrinologist—they can probably connect you.

I also love how you’ve emphasized mentorship at different phases of your career. It’s so important to have people to look up to, who can provide coaching and professional development. You reached out, which seems simple enough—what did you learn through that process, or what advice would you give to others looking for mentors, especially if it feels intimidating?

CE:

It’s a great question. People are often nervous to reach out, especially without a specific ask. One thing that helps is writing down what you’re actually looking for. Be intentional about what you want from a mentorship relationship. Are you interested in research? Write down your research goals. Mentors enhance your goals—they want to help you get where you want to go.

You might have different types of mentors: research mentors, clinical mentors, cheerleading mentors who help you celebrate successes or navigate challenges. Being intentional about what you want helps mentors be more productive for you. Sometimes you might just want someone in your corner for questions—that’s okay too.

Reach out—the worst that can happen is they say no or don’t respond. Having multiple mentors for different stages of your life and needs is important. One mentor rarely covers everything. A network of mentors has been most successful for me, and I would advise others to build one.

NP:

I love that model. It takes boldness and confidence to reach out. Sometimes people just don’t respond because they’re busy, not because they’re unkind. Have mentors introduced you to other mentors?

CE:

Absolutely. Sometimes you might not feel comfortable reaching out directly, so leverage your current network. Your program director, colleagues, or peers can connect you to mentors. Your network grows as you go through life—professionally, through conferences, and other opportunities. Sponsorships for conferences are especially helpful for students who might not have funds.

NP:

And that connects to your work with NextGen Pediatricians, lifting up the next generation and making sure they’re well-supported. I want to connect the conversation of mentorship to your experiences as an underrepresented minority physician, where mentorship is especially critical.

NP:

Either mentorship or its absence can be so impactful to careers, both positively and negatively. As you went through your own career, how important was mentorship in connecting you as an underrepresented minority physician?

CE:

It was incredibly impactful, and that’s why NextGen Pediatricians is so important to me. There’s something very deep in my heart about it. Mentors who are allies are wonderful, but there’s something about having a mentor who can relate to you on a level that’s very deep. As an underrepresented minority and a female in medicine, I’ve experienced things that are hard to put into words—microaggressions, inherent biases—and having people who understand that is crucial. It feels almost like a safe space.

Surrounding myself with people who look like me in important roles has been so meaningful. Not only does it give you someone to talk to and relate to, but it also allows you to envision yourself in the next stage of life. Seeing someone else in a role you aspire to who looks like you makes it palpable and genuine that you can pursue that too.

I also see it in those below me—pre-med students who want to be pediatricians or pediatric endocrinologists. Seeing someone like them do it shows them they can too. This even happens with my patients. I’m often the first Black doctor they’ve had, and little Black girls will say, “Oh, you’re a doctor? I want to be a doctor too.” Representation matters.

CE:

Representation matters because it sticks with you. Seeing your first Black program director, Black doctor, or Black pharmacist makes it tangible that you can also achieve that. The support from people who understand what that means is invaluable.

NP:

You mentioned patient representation, which is critically important. Data shows patient outcomes improve when patients see doctors who look like them and come from the same communities. I imagine that’s true in pediatric endocrinology too.

CE:

Absolutely. There’s a 360-degree importance—it matters to you, the community you serve, and the patients in front of you.

NP:

I’d love to hear more about NextGen Pediatricians. I looked into it beforehand, but I want our listeners to hear from you about what you’ve done to support underrepresented minority applicants in medicine.

CE:

NextGen Pediatricians started in 2020 around the start of the pandemic. It began because we saw a need, but we didn’t intend for it to become a mentorship program. Initially, we were just a GroupMe with fourth-year medical students identifying as underrepresented, applying to residency programs. Interviews were shifting to virtual, and students were freaking out.

Rebecca Fenton and I thought, this residency application process is already daunting. How can we support them? We just made a Zoom call, invited medical students, and talked through any questions about the process—personal statements, interviews, whatever they needed.

We had about 60 people on that first call, which was shocking. At the end, people asked if we could do it again. Rebecca and I realized we could provide this support—both as guidance for the application process and as a safe space to talk about very real experiences that could happen during the cycle.

We brought in a few more friends, and five of us started the organization. The intention was to host sessions, but we also paired mentees with mentors from across the country for one-on-one support. We built a mentor pool to match with our mentees. Sessions focused on personal statements, mock interviews, rank lists, finances, and even a mini intern boot camp. In the first year, 99% of our applicants matched into their residency programs.

CE:

Over five years, our board and mentor pool have grown. We have a well-oiled machine for sessions and mentorship. Being part of the founding of this organization has been one of the greatest joys—it’s so meaningful, especially now. It’s more important than ever to have organizations like this.

NP:

Many schools are stepping back on equity and inclusion, and over the last 20 years, the underrepresented minority population in medicine has decreased. Your five years of graduates must be incredibly rewarding to look back on.

CE:

It’s lovely to see them go all over the country. We also host panels with program leaders from across the U.S., giving mentees exposure to programs they might not have considered. That’s important because I, for example, never considered Cincinnati or Ohio initially. Exposure helps students understand large versus small programs.

CE:

Another aspect I love is that NGP alumni often join our board. They were mentees who had mentors and now function as mentors themselves, running the curriculum. People are inspired by NGP and want to give back, which is amazing.

NP:

That’s probably the most impactful thing—continuing to lift up the next generation. One question I want to try to tackle: how do we increase the representation of doctors who look like our patients, especially given the current political climate and lack of interest in solving it?

CE:

People need to acknowledge it’s an issue. Funding is key—programs need support to give underrepresented minorities exposure early, from high school to college to med school. Creating that pipeline effect is one of the best ways to increase representation.

NP:

That means doing things like school science days to excite students about medicine.

CE:

Exactly. Time and money are both critical. Especially in academics, you need time to do what you want to do, and funding is always a constraint. Programs that sponsor students for visiting rotations, covering housing or travel, can make a huge difference.

CE:

Just stay for that time. I think that’s a way to introduce people into your program, into the city, and get them used to it—especially in situations where they otherwise might not have been able to do that. It really comes down to giving people time and funding support to start early and get them interested.

CE:

And it’s important to call out that it’s not a lot of time or money. What you’re asking for isn’t going to solve government shortages or multi-billion-dollar healthcare issues. This is a week of visiting a hospital, on the scale of hundreds of dollars, that can really change someone’s professional trajectory. That opportunity is huge.

CE:

I’m super excited about NextGen Pediatricians and their continued support. But I also want to talk about your own academic career. Now that you’re a rising academic doctor, your fellowship is behind you, boards are coming up—November, right?

NP:

Yeah, November.

NP:

Now that your training is in the rearview, as you’ve negotiated your academic career, what was it like making sure that things outside traditional pediatric endocrinology were still represented in your academic life?

CE:

That’s a good question. I’m still working on it. Early on, I felt junior—can I ask for that? Am I allowed? Isn’t that too much? But I’ve always been interested in medical education and trainee education, especially health equity as it pertains to endocrinopathies. Right now, my focus is puberty education. For general pediatricians or trainees, puberty is something that must be discussed due to downstream effects of understanding normal puberty versus puberty disorders.

CE:

I’ve worked to promote that education and make it something everyone feels comfortable discussing. I get a lot of support at conferences, learning from others. Negotiating for more conference funding was key to establish myself with national organizations, continue learning, and share knowledge. I’ve also negotiated protected time for work outside the clinic. I’m a clinician at heart, but I want to do clinical research and education too.

CE:

I’m a big proponent of writing down your goals—what you want to do and what the next five years look like. Having support for that is crucial. When I was negotiating my contract, PANACIA helped me with contract negotiation services, which was great. Mentors in academic medicine also helped me navigate the process.

CE:

Big shoutout to Jillian Vestal at Fantasy Legal. I wish I’d had her in my corner at multiple stages. A funny story: I was part of a pediatric group negotiating, and the other side said, “But what about the children? If we give you more salary, we’ll have to take services away from the children.” It was a BS zero-sum argument. Eight pediatricians across the table said, “No, not the children.” It’s so easy to get distracted because we’re always focused on patients, and a trained negotiator knows that.

CE:

That’s so real! Somewhere there’s a screaming child, and we go fix it. We spend decades at 80-100 hour weeks; it’s every fiber of our being. Having third-party support is invaluable. I call out Jillian and Fantasy Legal because they protect physicians from being manipulated in negotiations.

CE:

Another tip: think beyond salary. Add CME money, extra conference attendance, or adjust your call schedule. People often get stuck on one number, but these things can be huge.

CE:

I also want to ask—a funny question for pediatricians—how much did the financial aspect impact your decision? Academic pediatrics is one of the lowest-paid specialties, and endocrinology isn’t the highest-paid either.

NP:

Well, finances play a role in decisions like staying in academics or doing a fellowship. Delaying entering the workforce affects your income.

CE:

I get this question a lot. For me, it came down to happiness. Money isn’t everything. Pediatric endocrinology makes me happy. I enjoy my patients, relationships, and the ability to teach and do research. Academic medicine allows me to do all of that, even if the pay isn’t as high.

CE:

I weighed making more money versus work-life balance, enjoying my job, having weekends off, and seeing friends and family. These factors were key in deciding my path.

CE:

I also think about advocating for better pay for pediatric endocrinologists. We’re seeing a shortage, partly because people ask, “Why do three more years of fellowship to make less than a general pediatrician?” We need to address this. Fellowship programs aren’t all filling; it’s tough out here in pediatric endocrinology.

CE:

Pediatric care has been underprioritized. For example, pediatric cardiology is the only pediatric subspecialty where you make more money. It shows you have to be in it for the love of the work, but financial realities still matter.

NP:

That brings us to a fun topic—what’s the most unpopular opinion you hold about your specialty?

CE:

Gosh… it could be about medicine in general. I think I’m unpopular because the ones I have are actually pretty popular. School’s too expensive, training’s too long, and you need to pay us more. Literally all of those. I also think academic medicine can be more fulfilling than private practice, and that might be an unpopular opinion.

NP:

I like that. That’s a great take. People might be like, “Absolutely not! Turning the podcast off. Never listen to Ken. Why would she say that? What’s wrong with her?” I’d like to think people will give us a little latitude here. That experience is informed by your own journey through healthcare. It’s obvious you’re attracted to academic medicine and the variability it allows. Private practice sends referrals when cases get complicated—you need academic medicine when you leave the textbook.

NP:

Another one: what’s the biggest lie we tell ourselves in medicine?

CE:

Literally!

CE:

Honestly, a lot of people feel like once you get to the top, the end of your training, and become an attending, everything is better. Everything is great. I haven’t started attending life fully, but if you’re not actively doing things to make life good for yourself—balance, staying involved in supportive communities—you’ll be miserable at every step. The idea that you just “get through residency, fellowship, and then you’re fine” is a lie. Not true.

CE:

Almost everybody I worked with as junior faculty worked harder than they did as a resident or fellow because there were no work hour restrictions. The first one to three years can be rough. Depending on where you are—small or large hospital—it can be just as tough as training.

NP:

I love that mantra. It focuses on you. You have to find ways to be happy, to bring joy into your life and clinical practice. You can’t wait for the field to give it to you.

NP:

Sounds like medicine has been part of you from an early age with your mother as an OB. But if you weren’t a doctor, what other profession would you have pursued?

CE:

That’s exactly it. I think I would be a teacher. My dad was a professor teaching communication and journalism, just retired this year. I’d probably lean toward teaching adolescents. Or maybe a travel blogger—getting paid to travel and be on someone’s beach.

NP:

Congratulations.

CE:

That one sounds nice, but I don’t know if I’d be good at it. Social media can be brutal. I’m good staying out of that.

NP:

We like to wrap up with a quick true/false lightning round. Snap judgment only. AI will help my patients manage chronic diseases better.

CE:

True.

NP:

Three years of med school is enough.

CE: False.

NP:

Pediatric endocrinology is fairly compensated as a specialty.

CE:

False.

NP:

Residency was harder than fellowship—Cincinnati way.

CE:

False. TPIATs are technically impressive but a nightmare to manage.

NP:

True, from a diabetes management standpoint. It’s tedious at first, especially in the ICU.

NP:

Lastly, for everyone in healthcare: counting carbs is unnecessary.

CE:

Not entirely. Technology has advanced; new pumps give coverage without exact carb counting. But it’s still important. We’re almost in a post-carb counting world.

NP:

Very cool.

NP:

Final question: what’s one thing you’ve recently changed your mind about?

CE:

In life and healthcare, I realized the flexibility and balance I can have as an attending. I used to think once you’re faculty, work-life balance would be worse, but speaking with current attendings, you can make it what you want. You can travel, have fun, and manage responsibilities. It’s empowering to realize you’re the architect of your own happiness.

NP:

Exactly. You’re in the driver’s seat. Amazing answer. CE, thank you so much for joining us. Fantastic discussion. We look forward to visiting you in Cincinnati—and maybe some Cincinnati chili.

CE:

Absolutely.

CE:

You’re a Cincinnati chili liker?

NP:

No, outsider. Never could. We’ll just drive past it.

NP:

Thank you again. This was fantastic.

CE:

Thank you so much for having me.

NP:

You can catch The Podcast for Doctors (By Doctors) on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all major platforms. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and subscribe. Next time you see a doctor, maybe prescribe this podcast. See you next time.

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