Former Project Rex associate and Hangout creator Melanie Wiley Gail is the subject of a feature article in the Post and Courier.
Tests in medical school are trying for everyone but especially so for Melanie Wiley Gail as she struggles with sounds and smells her fellow students don’t seem to notice.
“Imagine taking the exam in a room full of skunks with rock music playing,” she likes to say.
It wasn’t until after her first year at the Medical University of South Carolina — where Gail is pursuing both her medical degree and a doctorate in neuroscience — that she was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. While she is open about it and serves as chair of the Autism Society of South Carolina, many in medicine have privately told her they are keeping their condition private because they fear the public exposure.
It is a stigma Gail would like to see changed.
