Health equity is defined as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people. Locally and globally, this noble goal is impeded by many factors of a social nature, including equitable access to education and job opportunities, health care, and science participation, among many others.
Established in 2020, the Office of Health Equity at the University of Massachusetts Chan (UMass Chan) works to mitigate some of these factors. Our office leads all aspects of the institution’s mission relating to health equity across all three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. Our activities and goals align with UMass Chan's strategic goals of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Community and Global Impact, as described in our institutional strategic plan, IMPACT 2025.
Strategic Goal: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The Office of Health Equity supports our institutional mission of excellence in education, research, and service by fostering diversity of thought, world views, and experiences within our clinical and scientific workforce and our teaching faculty. Diverse viewpoints promote academic and scientific excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, and patient care. Additionally, faculty from groups underrepresented in medicine and biomedical sciences serve as vital role models and mentors to all learners. Our work includes initiatives aimed at improving faculty representation from all social groups, with particular focus on those who have been traditionally underrepresented in medicine and the biomedical sciences. We seek to provide a rich and inclusive environment to our UMass Chan community and our learners, who comprise the next generation of clinicians, scientists, and educators.
Our office fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion in faculty recruitment and career advancement at UMass Chan through a portfolio of programs and strategies including pipeline initiatives, broad outreach, cluster hiring, and compensation for health equity contributions. Our office also supports equity and inclusion in advancement opportunities for all faculty through mentoring and structured programs such as the Investigator Career Advancement Program (iCAP).
Strategic Goal: Community and Global Impact: The Office of Health Equity is home to the emerging Collaborative for Health Equity, supporting the expansion and advancement of cross-disciplinary health equity research and scholarship across the three schools of UMass Chan. This collaborative, led by Dr. Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, seeks to coalesce our faculty, learners, and surrounding communities to reduce health disparities experienced by disadvantaged local and global populations through generation and dissemination of research. This collaborative was established to support the greater institutional commitment to improving health equity on a local and global scale, and was made possible due to a five million dollar institutional investment.
In sum, our office is a central hub for promoting UMass Chan’s institutional goals around diversity, inclusion, and health equity. We collaborate with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of Faculty Affairs, clinical and basic science departments, and the entire UMass Chan community to support a climate of inclusive excellence via programs, policies and practices that embrace and enrich all faculty, students, staff and administrators in accordance with our institution’s values and strategic plan.
Dr. Milagros C. Rosal
Vice Provost for Health Equity
Imoigele P. Aisiku, MD Chair in Health Equity&Diversity
Professor, Div. of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine,
Dept of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
UMass Chan Medical School
