Florida State University College of Medicine

The School's 2023 Strategic Plan states it has the goal to "achieve a high level of vertically proportionate diversity (recruiting/retaining/promoting at all levels of student/staff/faculty/leadership)." It states it will do this through pipeline programs, utilize staff surveys, and adopt a "Diversity Policy that requires annual monitoring of the diversity of students, faculty, and administration, as well as focused efforts to sustain and broaden diversity through recruitment and retention efforts."

The College of Medicine states that it utilizes a "holistic admissions review process;" however, the admissions committee is particularly interested in "applicants from underrepresented minority groups, applicants from rural and inner-city backgrounds, women, and non-traditional applicants."

In January 2022, the Racism Awareness Week (RAW) Committee invited The Florida State University College of Medicine to its annual RAW. This "week-long series of events [was] created to raise awareness about racism and highlighting themes surrounding racial disparities, injustice, and inequalities, while relating these issues to the realm of medicine and healthcare." RAW is run by a group of medical students who were "concerned with 'racial flares' and wanted to have conversations regarding racism and its impact in medicine as they were 'unsure how to be change agents.' " The first event of the week discussed "COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the Community."

The school previously had a "Council on Diversity and Inclusion" which had initiatives to, "Provide diversity and inclusion orientation sessions for new FSU COM students and employees" and "Develop diversity and inclusion training and education opportunities for FSU COM."

The College of Medicine "Education Program Objectives" for medical students includes several competencies such as the ability to identify "factors contributing to racial and social justice in medicine" and "demonstrate knowledge of the ways intersectionality, implicit and explicit bias relate to clinical decisions and quality care." Students must be able to identify "social determinants of health and how they create opportunities for and barriers to wellness for underserved populations."

The 2023 Strategic Plan includes the goal to "assure that the COM curriculum teaches students to be effective in providing equitable care in diverse populations and to effectively address factors contributing to racial and social justice in medicine, including systems of power, privilege, and oppression, and their impacts on social determinants of health." It states this will be achieved through adopting a new new "Educational Program Objective" to assure the goal is reflected in the curriculum.

In order to "provide an inclusive environment that supports the diverse population of students, staff and faculty throughout their training or career path" the College of Medicine plans to "develop and sustain systems, policies, and procedures both for addressing negative experiences (micro and macro aggressions plus episodes of bias and discrimination), and for providing nurturing experiences, support groups, role models, and mentors for under-represented minority (broadly defined)" members of the COM.

Florida State University President John Thrasher created the President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism, Equity & Inclusion for the 2020-2021 academic year. He appointed 30 members of the university community to serve on it. He tasked the group with "identifyi[ng] racial and ethnic disparities on campus and to implement a range of initiatives, such as developing mandatory diversity and inclusivity training for all campus employees and students and fostering the recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff from underserved groups." They will also provide a bimonthly progress report.

The Office of Research Development and The President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion released a "Collaborative Collison @ FSU" zoom presentation. This was comprised of a brief biography of 37 individuals who have an interest in Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion and who are involved in this project. There are three faculty members from the FSU College of Medicine who are actively involved, including Xan Nowakowski, Vice Chair of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion at FSU College of Medicine.

In October 2021, a team of Florida State University researchers at the College of Medicine received a National Institutes of Health Director’s Transformative Research Award worth $3.1 million to investigate racial inequities in the nation’s health-care system. This is the first award of is kind administered by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. FSU College of Medicine Distinguished Endowed Professor Sylvie Naar is the first and foremost investigator for the five-year grant. She is working with Assistant Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs Norman Anderson and College of Social Work Associate Professor Carrie Pettus.

The Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity is primarily a research center with the mission "to promote health equity and reduce health disparities among marginalized, underserved, and vulnerable populations." It also has several programs focused on health equity.

The Council on Diversity and Inclusion had compiled a list of resources for Black Lives Matter.

In May 2022, the College of Medicine adopted DEI as the fifth pillar of its strategic plan. Its four original pillars are "Education Excellence, Research Excellence, Clinical Care and Service Excellence and Community Partnership Excellence."

Until 2023, the school's Council on Diversity and Inclusion homepage linked to "Black Lives Matter Resources" and describes it as "Resources in support of racial justice and education."

The school's Council on Diversity and Inclusion held a "Racism Awareness Week," that took place January 9-13, 2023. The week-long series of events was created to "raise awareness about racism and highlighting themes surrounding racial disparities, injustice, and inequalities, while relating these issues to the realm of medicine and healthcare. We strongly believe racism is an important topic to be discussed year-round."

The FSU College of Medicine Undergraduate Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity & Excellence, or USSTRIDE, is a group of pre-med students interested in working with rural, minority or underserved communities by offering resources such as MCAT preparation, medical training, and networking opportunities.

The College of Medicine hosts the "Center for Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Medicine." The center was established "to facilitate longevity and career advancement in academic medicine for traditionally underrepresented minorities in medicine faculty." The center provides resources and publications from faculty.

In December 2020, Florida State University President John Thrasher responded to the recommendations submitted to him by members of the President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion. Recommendations included removing slave-owner Francis W. Eppes’ name from the College of Criminology building and permanently removing the Eppes statue from open-air display on campus, as well as continuing to pursue legislative action to remove B.K. Roberts’ name from a College of Law building.  

The mission statement of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion is to "ensure that diversity and inclusion are upheld as core institutional values." They "seek to increase awareness of the importance of diversity among faculty, staff, and students." Lastly, they "wish to provide a safe place where individual differences are appreciated and uniqueness supported and nurtured."

The Council on Diversity and Inclusion previously provided suggested readings and websites for DEI resources. It also promoted its "all-gender" restrooms and lactation facilities.

In 2021, FSU and the College of Medicine were recognized as top colleges for diversity from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. For the eighth consecutive year, the university received a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award.

On June 8, 2020, the school's Deans, Chairs and Administrators published a "Message About Racism From College Leadership" (in response to the death of George Floyd) which stated in part that "We are committed to making sure all of us understand the impacts of racism on the health of minority populations and how it has influenced economic, cultural and social circumstances in this country. Further, our commitment goes beyond understanding to being actively anti-racism."

In October 2022, Florida State University has again been recognized by INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine as one of the top institutions in the nation for its commitment to diversity and inclusion. President Richard McCullough accepted the university’s ninth consecutive Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award from Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, during FSU’s fourth annual Latinx Cultural Celebration at the Askew Student Life Center.