Holden, who is a professor of emergency medicine at Einstein and an attending physician at  Montefiore Health System, has worked extensively with medical students, residents, and faculty at the College of Medicine. In recognition of her teaching excellence, she was elected to the Leo M. Davidoff Society, which honors teachers who have made significant contributions to the education of Einstein medical students.

In addition, she has served as a co-chair of the admissions committee, taught in the “Introduction to Clinical Medicine” course for first-year medical students, and has held the position of associate residency director/site director at Montefiore. She continues to serve on the emergency medicine residency admissions committee.

As vice-chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the department of emergency medicine, Holden spearheaded the development of the social emergency medicine program, which fosters activities that expose residents to the social determinants of health in The Bronx and empowers them to create empathetic solutions through research and community service.

Since 2006, she has directed the “emergency department clinical exposure and mentoring program,” which has provided educational and experiential learning through volunteering and shadowing for 1,800 New York City undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students.

Holden said she was honored to take on her new role. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to help increase diversity, enhance inclusion, and advance equity for our current and prospective students, staff, postdocs, and faculty, as well as our community members,” she said.

Holden is also co-founder and president of Mentoring in Medicine, Inc., (MIM), a national non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing students to become healthcare and science professionals in order to help eliminate health disparities. Since its establishment, MIM has reached more than 58,000 students from elementary age through medical school, along with parents and educators.

MIM alumni include 478 physicians from diverse backgrounds. The organization has also introduced 8,000 students, kindergarten through 12th grade, to biomedical and healthcare careers through class presentations, stage plays, and workshops.

Holden’s numerous honors include a 2007 Maybelline NY-Essence Empowerment through Education Award, a 2009 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader award, and the 2019 Distinguished Community Service Award from the United Hospital Fund. She has published the results of her work extensively and has appeared widely in the media as an expert in mentoring and diversity in medicine.

In addition, on the national level, Holden is active with the American Board of Emergency Medicine as a senior national oral board examiner and as the National Medical Association’s (NMA) immediate past section chair for emergency medicine.

She serves on several national committees that address workforce diversity in medicine, including the American Association of Medical Colleges’ Action Collaborative for Black Men in Medicine (in partnership with the NMA) and the American Association of Medical Colleges Pathways Program Advisory Group. She is chair of the K-Grad Working Group within the Roundtable on Black Men and Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She is also a board member and on the education committee of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine.

Holden is a graduate of Howard University and of Temple University School of Medicine. Following an internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, she began her residency in emergency medicine at Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx, and later served as chief resident.

After a brief stint as an attending physician at Kings County Hospital, and as assistant clinical professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, both located in Brooklyn, Holden returned to The Bronx to join Einstein and serve as an attending physician at Jacobi and Montefiore. She rose through the academic ranks at Einstein to become a full professor in emergency medicine, the fifth African American woman in the United States to achieve this distinction at an academic medical center.