Cuyahoga Community College
Cuyahoga Community CollegeCuyahoga Community College
  • Getting Started
  • Paying for College
  • Classes, Programs & Certificates
  • Student Resources
  • Community
  • Alumni
  • Give
  • my Tri-C space
  • Workforce Training
  • Community Education
  • Corporate College
  • News & Events
  • About Tri-C

Categories

  • All Categories
  • Tri-C
  • Eastern Campus
  • Metropolitan Campus
  • Western Campus
  • Westshore Campus
  • Creative Arts
  • Health Careers
  • Hospitality
  • Information Technology
  • Manufacturing
  • Public Safety
  • Events
  • JazzFest
  • Alumni
  • Athletics
  • Faculty
  • #mytricstory
  • Tri-C Famous
  • Student Success
  • Veterans
  • Community Involvement
  • Corporate College
  • Equity In Outcomes
  • Gifts and Grants
  • Pathway Programs
  • Workforce Impact
  • Tri-C Home
  • »
  • News and Events
  • »
  • news
  • »
  • Carl Allamby article 7-29-19

From Mechanic to Doctor: Tri-C Assists Carl Allamby's Improbable Career Change

After decades working on cars, Allamby switched careers at 47, helping address the major shortage of black doctors

Doctor tools on green backgroundMost people wouldn’t look under a car hood to find America’s future doctors. But those people haven’t met Carl Allamby.

For the past seven years, Allamby, 47, has been authoring one of the most unlikely career changes imaginable. After working in auto parts shops and service garages for nearly 30 years, the East Cleveland native is now a medical school graduate and emergency medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic Akron General.

Cuyahoga Community College played an integral role in helping Allamby make his improbable move.

As the owner of an auto service center and used car dealership, Allamby enrolled in college in his late 30s to study business. But a biology class at Ursuline College changed his entire outlook.

“After the first hour of class, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do. I have to go into medicine.’ It was like a light switched on,” Allamby said in a recent cleveland.com feature.

After earning a business degree from Ursuline, Allamby enrolled at Tri-C to take basic courses in anatomy and physiology, chemistry, biology and microbiology. He gained a reputation as a standout student, receiving an A in almost every course.

Ormond Braithwaite, dean of STEM at Tri-C and Allamby’s Chemistry II professor, was so impressed by Allamby’s talent and work ethic that he gave him books and study materials from his own daughter, a recent medical school graduate.

“It was a steep climb, but he had the intellect,” Braithwaite told cleveland.com.

Allamby moved on to Cleveland State University, and then to Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in Rootstown, through the Partnerships for Urban Health — a program that seeks to provide career pathways for underrepresented minorities in the medical field.

The numbers bear out the need: When Allamby graduated from NEOMED, he joined a profession in which less than 6% of doctors are black. According to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the number of black males enrolling in medical schools nationwide declined slightly from 1978 to 2014 — and that number was low to begin with. In 1978, 542 black males matriculated at M.D.-granting institutions; 36 years later, the number had dropped to 515.

July 29, 2019

Erik Cassano, 216-987-3577 or erik.cassano@tri-c.edu

Ask TRI-C

Welcome to Cuyahoga Community College's online knowledge base of frequently asked questions and answers.

Visit Ask Tri-C

Live Chat

Welcome to the Online Service Center @ Cuyahoga Community College! Live Chat provides users with general information about the enrollment processes at Tri-C

Chat Now

Contact Us

Tri-C
216-987-6000
Corporate College
216-987-2800
Phone Directory Tri-C 24/7 Ask Us a Question

Campuses & Locations

Parking Visit Tri-C Request More Information

Connect With Us

  • Like Us On Facebook
  • Follow Us On Twitter
  • Connected With Us On LinkedIn
  • Follow Us On Instagram
  • Subscribe to Us On Youtube
my TRI-C space Blackboard Employment Accreditation

© 2014 Cuyahoga Community College 700 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115Privacy PolicyAdministrative DepartmentsCampus Police