George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

The DC Health and Academic Prep Program (DC HAPP) is a “pipeline program coordinated by the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Office of Diversity and Inclusion to increase access to healthcare careers and foster diversity in the medical field.”

The GW Diversity Network at GW SMHS “is a multicultural group of GW residents and faculty from various departments” that promotes “diversity and inclusion by recruiting outstanding trainees from underrepresented minority groups and supporting these trainees through residency into their fellowship or career.”

On June 29, 2023, the school published its response to the Supreme Court's decision regarding race-conscious admission policies and stated the following: “we continue to affirm the critical importance of representation in the health care workforce to optimize the quality of care we provide to our patients and communities. Our GW SMHS and GW Medical Faculty Associates commitments to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes are founded on our ability to expand the cohort of learners who are currently underrepresented in health and medicine. While we are disappointed with this decision, we remain steadfast in our mission and will work diligently to achieve the goal of equity in health care despite the new challenges presented by this ruling today."

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences prioritizes "diversity in admissions." The school states, "We promote diversity by recruiting students who appreciate and learn from each other’s differences and broad range of experiences and backgrounds." The school has several programs and partnerships to promote diversity in admissions.

The 2023-2026 SMHS Strategic Plan's third goal is to "support equity" by increasing "the representational diversity of students, faculty, and staff" through "enhanced recruitment, retention, and leadership development of individuals from marginalized and underrepresented groups." The school considers Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Women, Socioeconomically Disadvantaged, and First Generation College as "diversity categories" that it seeks to increase in admissions and employment.

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences' "CORE Health" functions as a "multidisciplinary student research lab that relies on reciprocal university community partnerships by meeting the aims of the Anti Racism Coalition within GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences."

CORE Health offers professional development courses on topics such as "Moving Beyond Bystanding to Disrupting Racism," "Do I Have the Capacity to be Anti-racist?" and "Equitably Engaging Priority Populations in Pediatric Clinical Research."

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences' "Diversity and Inclusion Policy" states that it has an "educational program to heighten the awareness of bias in the recruitment, hiring, and promotions process" and "will perform periodic assessment[s] of these efforts and their impact."

The Med Program offers a course titled "Exploring Implicit Bias in Medicine." The elective class exposes "students to implicit bias and bystander intervention literature, introduces examples of how implicit bias may affect the clinical setting, and allows students to apply knowledge learned through the development of an implicit bias intervention presentation." The class prerequisite includes the "third year Implicit Bias session."

The Fundamentals of Medicine phase of the curriculum is organized into several blocks, and "important theme material (human behavior and development, ethics, diversity and equity, teamwork) are interwoven throughout."

The school provides "guidelines for the use of race, ethnicity and other cultural groups when teaching in the medical curriculum." The guidelines recommend "minimizing the use of race and ethnicity in a summary statement of a case." It also states that faculty and students should "ensure that case scenarios that involve social or behavioral risk factors are not inferred from broad racial, cultural, and/or sexual/gender minority (LGBTQI) stereotypes." Lastly, it states that "case vignettes should be reviewed for implicit bias."

The School of Medicine states that its curriculum is built on a foundation of "equity and inclusion." It also states, "We will continue [the] tradition through an innovative curriculum, an emphasis on population health, health equity and antiracism."

The school has a system for reporting "bias or mistreatment." Regarding bias incidents, it states that "some bias-related acts are not university policy violations or hate crimes" and "even when offenders are not aware of bias, do not intend to offend others, or do not violate law or university policy, bias may be revealed that is worthy of a response and/or an opportunity for education." The SMHS commits to "successfully address" bias-related acts because they "are antithetical to the university's values."

The school will “establish Faculty mentoring committees and department equity leaders in clinical departments.”

On June 29, 2023, the school released a statement in response to the Supreme Court decision, stating, “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that using racial considerations in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution, a decision that will impact the way that colleges and universities in the United States select their students. In response, George Washington University President Mark S. Wrighton and President-elect Ellen M. Granberg released a joint statement to the university community expressing their disappointment in the court’s ruling, strongly reaffirming GW’s commitment to inclusive excellence and reiterating the educational benefits of a diverse student body.”

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion at GW SMHS has a number of DEI Programs that seek to “develop and support the next generation of diverse healthcare professionals by providing opportunities for education, development, and mentorship.”

On April 13, 2023, the school highlighted a student who was awarded the Anti-Racism Coalition Scholarship.

The SMHS promotes "community-sensitive research" because "not all investigators have a common understanding of the social determinants of health or specific training in engaging individuals from diverse populations." The school does this through several programs, such as the "See the City you Serve and CTSI-CN Health Equity bus trips" which "increase understanding of disparities and comfort in addressing social determinants of health." It also hosts "health equity" lectures.

The Population Health and Health Services Research Scholars Program supports "the research careers of GW SMHS junior and mid-career faculty with research interest in the areas of population health, health services research, and health equity." The program offers up to 10% of Full Time Equivalent effort funding for up to 2 years.

The Center for Research states that it is committed to "Promoting diversity and achieving inclusion throughout the research workforce." There are several programs that "enhance diversity" such as  "GW-SPARC, METEOR, and Internal Medicine Diversity Network" among others.

The ARC has an Educational Series which offers the Spring 2022 Anti-Racism Book Club.

As part of the Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Week Lecture Series, GW SMHS hosted a lecture on Confronting Structural Racism with Wendy Ellis as the Keynote Speaker.

On January 11, 2023, the GW SMHS Office of Diversity and Inclusion presented a discussion on “Confronting US History: We Must End RACISM to End Health Disparities.”

The 2023-2026 Strategic Plan [most recently updated in 07/2024] for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) and the Medical Faculty Associates (MFA) includes "Population Health and Health Equity" as a core pillar. The plan outlines several initiatives that pursue "health equity."

There are resources on "Applying Anti-Racist Principles in Teaching" for faculty teaching at SMHS. It includes a checklist and states "it is our responsibility to incorporate anti-racist principles in our teaching."

The school founded an Anti-Racism Coalition which "aims to help students, faculty, and staff better understand concepts such as anti-racism and structural racism."

The Physician Assistant Program at GWU SMHS “believes diversity, equity and inclusion are fundamental to both improving students' experiences and broadening perspectives. Recruiting faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds supports the mission of the department to educate future clinicians who will represent and serve their communities. Consistent with the School of Medicine and Health Sciences definition, diversity is defined broadly to include individuals with unique work and life experiences, talents and traits, as well as gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.”

The Rodham Institute at GWU SMHS “believes that academic medical centers can and should be an active part of the solution to eliminate health disparities, and to achieve health equity in our nation’s capital.”

As part of the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences commits to working to “actively diversify future faculty through leadership development programs and enhance opportunities for those underrepresented in medicine.”

Within the strategic plan, the school will establish a “faculty committee on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).”