Baldwin Times

Historically, men of color—particularly African American/Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Hispanic/LatinX and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander men—are woefully underrepresented in the health professions, not even coming close to their representation in the general U.S. population. This underrepresentation can be attributed to many factors, including structural racism, biased institutions, health inequities and health disparities.

Even though there have been initiatives and pathway programs to help increase applicants, the enrollment and graduation of these historically underrepresented men in the health professions since the 1970s has changed little. For example, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges report Altering the Course: Black Males in Medicine, while many initiatives and programs supported by foundations, medical schools and government have contributed to increasing diversity in the physician pool, the number of applicants from one major demographic group—Black males—has stayed the same since 1978.

Some leaders in the health professions believe these low numbers call for a reexamination of what is working, what isn’t and what steps can be taken to bring about more substantial and long-term change for historically underrepresented men of color in the health professions. In an effort to “move the needle forward,” ADEA has convened two Men of Color in the Health Professions events, the second of which took place at its Washington, DC, headquarters on Aug. 10-11, 2022. Both events were held with the generous financial support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The ADEA Men of Color in the Health Professions Summit in August brought together representatives from the academic health profession associations, health professions schools, health-related research associations and other organizations. Experts and leaders in dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, nursing, social work, public health, optometry and biomedical research came together in order to discuss collective strategies and action items “to increase the academic participation of men of color in the health professions,” said Karen P. West, D.M.D., M.P.H., ADEA President and CEO.

“As a man of color, myself, in the health profession, this conversation is very important to me, and I’m excited about the next two days,” said Nader A. Nadershahi, D.D.S., M.B.A., Ed.D., Chair of the ADEA Board of Directors and Dean of the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry during his opening remarks.

Dr. West highlighted previous efforts that ADEA has taken to help diversify both the dental education student body and faculty during her tenure as ADEA President and CEO, including the release of the ADEA Faculty Diversity Toolkit, the Slow to Change: HURE Groups in Dental Education report, the ADEA President’s Symposium on Men of Color in the Health Professions at the March 2022 Annual Session & Exhibition and outreach to health career advisors at minority-serving institutions.

More than 80 people assembled at the ADEA headquarters in Washington, DC, on Aug. 10-11, for the Men of Color in the Health Professions Summit to watch presentations and participate in workshops to brainstorm ways to increase the academic participation of men of color in the health professions. ADEA President and CEO Karen P. West, D.M.D., M.P.H., began the event by introducing the health professions organizations in attendance.

In discussing a follow-up Summit as a next step, Dr. West said, “We tried to do this for many years, but the time wasn’t right. It all had to line up. We needed the right time and the right people.”

“We put out the bat signal and you all are the heroes that responded to our call,” Ryan Quock, D.D.S., Distinguished Teacher Professor at University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston and one of the Summit moderators said while looking around the room of the more than 80 people assembled. “We’re here to get into some ‘good trouble’,” said Todd Ester, D.D.S., Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry who also served as a moderator.

Original source can be found here.