There are some stories in life that are almost beyond belief. Amazing coincidences, chance encounters, happy accidents…stories that would make Hollywood producers say, “Nah, nobody would believe that!”
Then there’s the story of the department of pediatrics at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. Dr. Beverly Neyland, professor of pediatrics and Nevada’s first Black pediatrician, completed her pediatric residency training at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and then came to Las Vegas. She celebrated 50 years of serving our community as a pediatrician earlier this year. Yes, 50 years. That, in itself, is almost an unbelievable feat. But then, you must factor in her relationship with Dr. Rebecca Scherr, interim chair of the department of pediatrics. Scherr, born and raised in Las Vegas, was not only a patient of Neyland’s from birth, but a student of hers during her medical school training. She now works side-by-side with her former pediatrician, teacher, and inspiration.
“My mom worked for Dr. Neyland in her office when she first came to Las Vegas, and she really admired Dr. Neyland,” says Scherr, “and so when I was born, I started seeing Dr. Neyland.”
It was watching Neyland care for children that helped her decide as a little girl that she wanted to be a pediatrician. Getting to work with Neyland was truly a full circle moment for Scherr.
“It’s amazing…when I started 14 years ago, I was like, ‘Wow, I actually get to be her colleague now,’” Scherr says. “She was my pediatrician, then she was my teacher when I was in medical school, then I got to be her colleague. I was really proud of myself.”
She also notes that Neyland’s decades of service comes with something akin to rock star status.
“Dr. Neyland has a following,” she notes. “Generations of families come to Dr. Neyland and they’re upset if they don’t get to see her face.”
That’s something she can relate to as a former patient.
“I remember Dr. Neyland had a wall where everyone would bring their school pictures, Christmas pictures, and every time we would go, and I think my grandma used to go, too, and we would give her every picture my brother and sister and I had taken that year. It was big.”
The influence Neyland had on Scherr is but one of many stories of the impact this history-making physician has had on others. Several other physicians credit Neyland as their inspiration for a life in medicine.
“I don’t know if I realized that I was an influence or anything,” says Neyland. “When I first came here in live practice, I was amazed by the number of kids who were not interested in going to college and that bothered me. After I’d been here two or three years, we started this program called Minority Aptitude Program with [University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine] to interest minority students in medical school. It ran for about eight years with Reno, and I got a chance to talk to a lot of high school kids about medicine. I guess I didn’t see that as being an influence, but maybe it was.”
After decades caring for children, there are trends she sees that are troubling to her.
“One of the things I’m really concerned about is obesity,” she says, “because there’s been a 30 percent increase in obesity, even in the two to five-year-old group. I’m also concerned a lot about speech delay. Parents are putting their kids on laptops and, a lot of times, there’s no auditory sound and kids are just looking at the animated movements, and their expressive speech is really delayed.”
Scherr notes another concern. “I am a little fearful of the young age that people have started using cannabis. It seems like people think it’s OK for teenagers to be using cannabis. They think it’s this medical, healthy treatment, but in reality, it has a lot of side effects. The marijuana we have today is different than the marijuana we had in the `70s or `80s. It can be genetically engineered, so it can be a lot stronger, it can have a lot of different side effects. So, I feel marijuana has been normalized a lot, and I’m fearful for those teenagers who start so young.”
Concerns aside, the future looks bright for the department in the eyes of both physicians.
“For the next year,” notes Scherr, “we’re going to finish up our recruitment, especially for our general pediatricians and our sub-specialists. There is a nationwide shortage of some specialties in pediatrics including behavioral and development, infectious disease, even pulmonology now, endocrinology, adolescent medicine. So, we’ll be working on those.”
Scherr is also laser-focused on the school-based health clinics that the pediatrics department oversees in partnership with the Clark County School District.
“I’m really working on the general pediatrics department because, without them, the students wouldn’t have support, and so I’m really focused on making that a very efficient, functional unit. We have our school-based health clinics, and the family support center, which is for newly immigrated children who need services. For us, it means helping them get into the Clark County School District with their vaccines, their physicals for sports because we want them to be involved. We definitely feel like that’s part of our mission…to support the community.”
Neyland is positive about the future because of her former patient and student. “Rebecca is the person we need to guide our department with good, strong people here and make this function like it should function,” she says. “We’ve already seen positive moves taking place in our department. The morale is at the top now and that’s what we need. She’s the type of person who’s outspoken enough and who is willing to try things to make things better … that means we’re very much moving in the right direction.”
Scherr feels the full circle come into focus again. “In this role, I feel like I’m taking the burden off of people like Beverly who used to be me. Years and years ago, people turned to Beverly and said, ‘What do we do? We need a leader.’ And she was always there. So, now she’s passed it to me!”
