Meet Nerone

Nerone Douglas was born and spent the formative years of my life growing up in St. Lucia and spent the majority of his teenage years in New York. He went to college at SUNY Stony Brook University on Long Island majoring in Biochemistry and minoring in Chemistry. He then went on to move to Pittsburgh and joined the workforce before deciding to pursue my master’s degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. His thesis for his masters focused on drug repurposing and novel targeted therapies against metastatic osteosarcoma. Nerone couldn't get enough of Pittsburgh and being involved with the underserved communities and decided to stay for medical school at Pitt to continue his involvement and build something sustainable that he could contribute to the community throughout medical school. He has many interests that center around community-based medicine and increasing the representation of black and African American men and women in the future physician workforce. He is very passionate about mentorship and wants to be an integral piece for students and community members to feel empowered and charged to invest in themselves and their futures. He hopes to one day pursue beyond the US borders to provide care and build community infrastructures back in his home country and others. He currently is enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and will be pursuing a residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 

Nerone strove to be active during his medical school training and wore many hats. He recently finished up a research fellowship with the University of Pittsburgh Department of Plastic Surgery and was the curriculum lead for the Department’s Cultural Complication Curriculum. In this position he presented at the department's monthly grand rounds discussing topics that encompass one of the 12 core DEI concepts in the curriculum; this curriculum is focused on understanding how social determinants of health impact our surgical complications. Nerone is also a Medical Student Ambassador and Mentor with a Non-Profit, Patients R Waiting. In this position, he has been able to have a direct hand in bolstering the pipeline for black and brown learners interested in a career in medicine. Lastly, Nerone is a Social Medicine Fellow at my medical school which has allowed him to take on numerous leadership roles in different community outreach programs. This includes Homewood Visits, Street Medicine Pittsburgh, the CATCH program, and the Birmingham Free Clinic. As a social medicine fellow, he is training to be a leader committed to bridging the gap between academic medical institutions and traditionally underserved local communities.

Outside of the hospital, Nerone loves the outdoors, especially Paddleboarding on the Pittsburgh rivers and lakes. Nerone also loves to explore the mysteries hidden 50 feet below our oceans as a recreational Scuba Diver and has future plans to venture into Wreck Diving and Rescue Diving. He also has 15+ years of experience training in Japanese Jujitsu for which I have earned a black belt and frequently competed in Judo competitions earning 1st and 2nd place. He is also a tennis player and in the past 2 years has become a volunteer coach at my local non-profit tennis club community's youth free clinic. He is also a volunteer Adaptive Tennis coach for Blind/Visually Impaired Tennis players. Pittsburgh is one of the first places in the US to establish a Blind/Visually Impaired Tennis program and we had the awesome honor of some of my athletes debuting at the 2023 US Open. This has been a truly humbling experience for Nerone, being a tennis coach for these athletes. Lastly, Nerone is a very avid cologne collector and has a current collection of about 30+ scents. To him cologne is like art!