FEATURE
‘A communal mindset’
In challenging times, Harpeth Hall almuna builds connections through empathy and understanding PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG JOHNSON
Devin Graham’s work in healthcare began with autopsies. In her senior year at Harpeth Hall, she interned in the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s office during Winterim. As she learned alongside a team of pathologists and technicians, she developed a respect for the vocation and those called to it. “We were life's last responders,” she said, “charged with the duty of caring for those at their most vulnerable, whether they were deceased or mourning the loss of a loved one.” Through her Winterim experiences, Ms. Graham, a graduate of the Harpeth Hall Class of 2015, felt connected to that mission. After high school, she attended Brown University and continued her work in the medical examiner’s office during the summers. She spent months at a time behind the locked doors of an otherwise ordinary office, only resurfacing to return to her undergraduate studies. Through the work, she felt compassion for her community in a way she never had before. Over the last year, that role became more salient. For Ms. Graham, the pandemic underscored the importance of connection — of coming together to care for one another and lift each other up. When March of 2020 came, she watched along with the rest of the world as news reports showed refrigerated trucks pulling up to New York’s 32 | HARPETH HALL HALLWAYS
morgues. The images left her feeling that we, as a country, were not prepared for the pain and loss about to come. “We weren’t ready structurally, emotionally, or mentally,” she said. At the time, Ms. Graham was living at home in Nashville — her travel plans to Morocco canceled because of the emerging pandemic. With the support of her mother, Dr. Cherise Felix, Ms. Graham decided to volunteer her time as an assistant at the COVID-19 testing site at Nissan Stadium. “I tend to run towards a disaster rather than away from it,” she said. She began by directing traffic and was soon recruited under the management of Meharry Medical to screen patients. She continued to volunteer nearly every day until the testing center officially hired her in July 2020. She not only directed traffic but also triaged, co-managed logistics, and swabbed the inside of patients’ noses for COVID-19. More than anything, she became a source of reassurance for patients seeking answers. As cars pulled across to the asphalt and drivers stopped to meet Ms. Graham, their questions usually started with standard logistics: “How does testing work?” “When do I get my results?” “How long do I have to quarantine?” Then, there often came a pause — a silence prompted by fear and incomprehension.
