UT Southwestern Medical Center has received an award for their commitment to diversity and inclusion in high education. Earlier this week, the center won the 2018 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, a higher education publication focused on diversity.
“The Health Professions HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both; continued leadership support for diversity; and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine via media release.
The medical center has several initiatives to improve diversity on campus. UT Southwestern President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky chairs the President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, which is comprised of senior leadership and executives and supports diversity and inclusion throughout the institution. The Offices of Student Diversity and Inclusion and Faculty Diversity and Development help recruit and retain students and faculty while emphasizing increased presence of women and underrepresented minorities.
UT Southwestern collaborates with the Dr. Emmett J. Conrad Leadership Program, which is an internship named for the local African-American physician and educational advocate, who also has a Dallas ISD high school named for him. Since 1993, the program helps UT hire historically underrepresented local minority college students for summer internships in the sciences and health professions.
“Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to UT Southwestern’s commitment to excellence and to succeed in our mission to best serve the highly diverse communities in North Texas and beyond,” said Dr. Marc Nivet, Executive Vice President for Institutional Advancement via media release. “It serves as a catalyst for innovation in fulfilling our mission to deliver excellence in patient care, to conduct breakthrough research that leads to advances in the prevention and cure of disease, and to educate physicians, scientists, and health care professionals for the future.”
The December issue of INSIGHT will feature UT Southwestern as well as other winners, the Ohio State University College of Medicine, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
