UT Southwestern receives national excellence in diversity award
DALLAS – October 16, 2018 – UT Southwestern Medical Center has received the 2018 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
The annual Health Professions HEED Award is a national honor recognizing U.S. medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, nursing, veterinary, allied health, and other health schools and centers that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“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. “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.”
UT Southwestern’s commitment to improving diversity in medicine spans all facets of the organization – from student recruitment and retention programs and addressing multicultural and women’s health issues in the medical curriculum to leading community health outreach programs and offering employee business resource groups for African-American, Hispanic/Latino, veteran, and LGBTQ faculty and staff.
One of the institution’s top initiatives is the President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, chaired by UT Southwestern President Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky. The Council, comprised of senior leadership and executives, supports diversity and inclusion strategies across the institution to help foster an institutional culture that values staff, faculty, and students for the differences they bring to UT Southwestern.
In addition, groups such as UT Southwestern’s Offices of Student Diversity & Inclusion and Faculty Diversity & Development are responsible for recruiting and retaining the very best students and faculty to campus, while also implementing strategies to promote the growth and presence of women and underrepresented minorities.
The Medical Center, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, also has a long-standing commitment to investing in the next generation of physicians and scientists through the use of internship programs that provide students hands-on exposure. Since 1993, UT Southwestern has been a collaborating partner in the Dr. Emmett J. Conrad Leadership Program, an internship program sponsored by Texas State Sen. Royce West and named in honor of a renowned Dallas African-American physician and educational advocate, Dr. Emmett J. Conrad. Every summer, the program helps UT Southwestern hire historically underrepresented minority college students from North Texas to explore careers in the sciences and health professions.
“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. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a Health Professions HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for schools where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across their campus.”
UT Southwestern will be featured in the December 2018 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. Other 2018 HEED Award institutions include The Ohio State University College of Medicine, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 2.4 million outpatient visits a year.
