The STFM Podcast is pleased to introduce our new hosts for the 2025 season. Please join us in welcoming Omari A. Hodge, MD, and Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, MD. Both hosts were instrumental in the success of STFM’s Underrepresented in Medicine Initiative. Dr Hodge served as co-host of the URM JAM Podcast, and Dr Allen Akambase developed a webinar series with the Scholarship Work Group.

To get things started, our hosts interview each other, discussing how they balance family dynamics, professional goals, and individual aspirations throughout their journey in academic family medicine.  

Resources

• The URM JAM Podcast hosted by Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MBA, and Omari A. Hodge, MD, and published by STFM

• URM Scholarship Webinar Series

• Millennial Health hosted by Dr Jay-Sheree Allen

Omari A. Hodge, MD

Omari A. Hodge, MD, is the founding program director for the AdventHealth Family Medicine Residency Program at Wesley Chapel in Tampa, FL. He has a mission to equip, educate, and encourage residents to use their talents in service to the community.

Dr. Hodge earned his medical degree at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, and completed his family medicine residency at Self Regional Hospital in Greenwood, SC. As a primary care physician, Dr Hodge has worked in a variety of roles, including campus medicine, urgent care, hospital medicine, and graduate medical education.

Previously, Dr Hodge served as associate program director with North Georgia Health System in Gainesville. He has also worked at Clarkston Refugee Clinic in Clarkston, GA, which underscores his philosophy of using the gift of medicine to serve others.

Dr Hodge serves on the board of trustees at Christian Medical & Dental Associations. He and his wife Kiera participate in both local and global medical aid relief trips. Additionally, Dr Hodge is a proud father to his four children.

Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, MD

Jay-Sheree Allen Akambase, MD, is a preventive medicine fellow in the Division of Public Health, Infectious Diseases, and Occupational Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She’s also pursuing an executive master’s degree in public health practice at the University of Minnesota. Dr Allen Akambase holds the rank of assistant professor of family medicine with the Mayo Clinic and previously served as a senior associate consultant and diversity leader in the Mayo Clinic Department of Family Medicine in Rochester. In that role, she created the first department-wide equity, inclusion, and diversity (EID) committee to lead the team through the department’s 2022–2024 EID priorities, including a faculty development program to promote leadership among women and underrepresented minorities in family medicine.

She is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation Board of Trustees and is slated to serve as the Foundation’s president in 2025. She previously chaired the workgroup responsible for the foundation’s humanitarian programs: Family Medicine Cares USA; and Family Medicine Cares International, where she has been instrumental in relaunching the global health program focused on equity.

Recognizing the power of media to deliver relevant and timely health messages, she has contributed to multiple health news and education outlets including ABC News Health, Minnesota Public Radio, Wall Street Journal, and the Primary Care Reviews and Perspectives Podcast. You can find her on X and Instagram at @drjaysheree.