Core IM | Internal Medicine Podcast #196 Stories of Courage and Career Development with Horn Award
Dec 17, 2025
Dr. Tyra Feinstadt, a primary care internal medicine physician, shares her transformative journey through the challenges of early parenting and professional identity. She describes how the Horn Award catalyzed her career growth and introduced her to coaching. Dr. Hilit Mechaber, a general internist and dean, reflects on her own Horn Award application experience, highlighting the validation it brought and how it influenced her approach to leadership and career flexibility. Together, they explore the duality of pursuing professional purpose while managing personal life.
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From Validation Loss To Transformative Coaching
- Tyra Feinstadt recounts feeling lost after training ended and validation disappeared, compounded by early motherhood and an inner critic.
- Coaching shifted her thinking quickly and reignited love for medicine and parenting, sparking the idea for trainee coaching programs.
Valuing Life-Stage Tension As Academic Strength
- The Horn Award values people in demanding life phases by treating those tensions as strengths rather than liabilities.
- That perspective allowed Tyra to propose an idea without a long academic track record and receive institutional backing.
Ask For Backing Before Proven Success
- Apply for grants that let you define scholarly output and protect time to think rather than forcing specific deliverables.
- Ask mentors and your institution for backing even if you lack a traditional publication record.