Geovonni Bell, M.D. spent his childhood watching his mother, a pediatric nurse, care for children with calm confidence. Now a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Dell Medical School and Ascension Seton, Bell is carrying that legacy forward both inside and outside the clinic.
He credits both of his parents for shaping his approach: His mother’s compassion taught him to care for each patient as an individual, while his father’s military service instilled the discipline needed to navigate years of rigorous training. “You need both to be an effective physician,” Bell says. “Medicine is a science that requires focus and attention to detail, but it’s also an art that calls for empathy and understanding.”
That balance also influenced Bell to commission as an officer in the United States Air Force when he entered medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Before pursuing his pediatric subspecialty, he served as an emergency medicine attending at Brooke Army Medical Center, where he trained residents and students in the challenges of delivering care in low-resource environments.
Now, as a fellow in the Texas Leadership and Advocacy Fellowship, Bell is beginning to see how advocacy can extend what he does in the emergency room and help advance care for those who need it most.
Q&A with Bell:
What path brought you to medicine, and what about that journey still shapes the way you show up in your training today?
Because my dad was often deployed with the Navy during my youngest years of childhood, when no one could babysit, I would have to go to work with my mom, a pediatric nurse. Her patient care left a lasting impression on me. I was captivated how the science and logic of medicine could be used to compassionately care for people who don’t understand health care or cannot care for themselves. From early on, I knew I wanted to help people in that same way.
That pull toward caring for those who are potentially having the worst day of their life is what ultimately led me to emergency medicine, the safety net for all, and to pediatrics, where the smallest patients depend most on the compassion of others since they sometimes cannot speak for themselves.
What drew you to the Texas Leadership and Advocacy Fellowship — and how is it shaping the way you think about your role as a physician?
While it’s rewarding to help individual patients, I realized real impact often happens at a larger scale through public health and advocacy. My pediatric emergency medicine fellowship mentor, Ricky Thompson, D.O., completed the Texas Leadership and Advocacy Fellowship program and recommended it as a good fit for my goals and a way to give advocacy a trial run.
I’m still early in the program, but I’ve already seen how much red tape there is in trying to influence the systems that shape patient care. We advocate not only at the state level but also through a larger advocacy group that represents national emergency medicine practice. I’m learning that advocacy can mean a lot of things — from joining a collective push for a policy change to simply being a familiar, trusted voice when lawmakers or the public need to understand what’s happening in emergency departments.
Looking ahead, I’m still learning the ropes, but I hope to advocate for policy that moves care forward — not backward — especially as trust in health care is being tested. Children can’t advocate for themselves, so it’s important that physicians help protect and promote their well-being at the bedside and beyond.
What about Dell Medical School sets a unique stage for your work?
The Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship not only prepares me for my career but also allows me to tailor training to my individual goals. Through opportunities like the Texas Leadership and Advocacy Fellowship, I can pursue my passion for advocating for vulnerable populations while still developing the full scope of skills required to be an effective pediatric emergency physician. Rather than forcing me into a rigid training mold, the program is built to fulfill my needs.
If your medical journey were a playlist, what would the title track be, and what story does it tell?
Perhaps it’s the pediatrician in me, but “Go the Distance” from Hercules feels like my title track. It speaks to the perseverance and sacrifice required to pursue a calling greater than myself, echoing both the moments of self-doubt and the profound fulfillment I’ve found in pediatric emergency medicine. Though the path has been arduous, there is joy in discovering my place in medicine in addition to the promise to always go the extra mile for my patients.
Graduate medical education, or GME, refers to the period of education in a particular specialty or subspecialty following completion of medical school. This continuation of training through residency and fellowship programs provides the clinical and educational experience needed for physicians to achieve autonomy, deliver high-quality patient care, and prepare for challenges in an evolving health care landscape.
Dell Med serves as the academic home and Ascension Seton as the clinical home for 494 resident and fellow physicians within more than 45 residency and fellowship programs ranging from family medicine and neurology to pediatric emergency medicine and cardiovascular disease.