Oct. 16, 2023 — With new tools and skills to learn, Makesha Miggins, M.D., knew early in her surgery residency that she had to adapt her way of thinking to create the ideal conditions for a successful surgery with her patients.

“I was trying to put together a whole new set of skills in a hyperintense, hyperfocused environment,” she said. “I learned to be very calm and relaxed because you do so much under pressure.”

Miggins, now an associate professor of breast surgical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, completed her residency training in 2014 at the UF College of Medicine, where she developed a passion for not only the tactical aspects of surgery, but also the ability to provide long-term care for patients, from diagnosis to postoperative recovery. As the first Black woman to complete UF’s surgery residency program and the first to complete a breast surgery oncology fellowship, Miggins said it was being open to new experiences and remaining honest with herself that set her on the path for a successful career.

During her training, Miggins always found herself most passionate about the breast surgery patients with whom she worked.

“I realized a lot of people around me didn’t favor breast surgery because it’s not as technologically challenging as something like a pancreatectomy or a liver resection,” Miggins said. “I decided I wasn’t going to be swayed by that. I had to stay true to myself and follow the path that made sense to me.”

After her residency, she completed a one-year breast surgical oncology fellowship at her top choice of  University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she still practices.

In her current roles, Miggins balances her time between clinical and administrative work. She was recently named an associate chief of patient experiences for MD Anderson and is the medical director for the Sugar Land-Houston area location.

“That gave me a look at a whole different avenue of medicine, and how you manage it, how you coordinate teams working together,” she said. “I also have then been able to identify other areas I have a strong interest in, like patient experience.”

Above all else, Miggins said, she still looks forward to caring for patients in the clinic.

“When you start out, you think, ‘Oh, yes, I’m going to impact so many people, I’m going to save lives,’” she said. “But what you really learn is that, yes, you are hopefully saving some lives and you’re really impacting them, but I’m 100% certain that my patients have more of an effect on me than I have on them. They teach you so much about perspective, how to overcome, how to literally survive and how to manage life when obstacles get in the way. It has helped me put my own life in perspective.”