For 7th Consecutive Year, IHP Recognized for Diversity Efforts

MGH Institute of Health Professions, for the seventh consecutive year, was recognized as a health professions college that demonstrates an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The Boston graduate school is the only higher education institution in Massachusetts to receive the 2023 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from Insight into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. 

“To continue being recognized annually shows that our efforts  to foster a welcoming and inclusive campus where students, faculty, staff, and alumni feel valued and supported during these continued challenging times is successful,” said MGH Institute President Paula Milone-Nuzzo. “Our commitment to equity and anti-oppressive practice serves as a pledge of our shared responsibility to challenge systemic barriers within our learning community and in the healthcare system.”

The MGH Institute was one of just 64 colleges to receive the award, which recognizes medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, nursing, and allied health schools in the United States. 

Dr. Kimberly A. Truong, the Institute’s Chief Equity Officer, said the Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) continues to work on making the IHP realize its mission of being a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization. She pointed to the JEDI Core Competencies, launched earlier this year, a set of foundational knowledge and skills that faculty, staff, and students are able to develop that is aligned with our institutional values. They are currently being rolled out through mapping activities and unit-level goalsetting.

“We continue to prepare health care leaders who can better serve marginalized and minoritized communities and advance care for a diverse society by engaging in equitable and anti-oppressive practices,” Truong said. “That’s what we’re doing here at the IHP.”

The Institute in recent years has also increased integrating anti-oppressive practices in pedagogy, clinical education, community engagement, research endeavors, administrative practices, and everyday interactions.  

It includes the school’s innovative JEDI Fellows initiative, in which students develop leadership skills and work with academic programs, leading workshops and dialogue throughout the campus while learning skills and experiences to provide patient-centered and holistic care. 

According to Insight publisher Lenore Pearlstein, the magazine’s process includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — and leadership support for campus diversity and inclusion. 

“Our standards are high, and we look for schools where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus,” said Perlstein.

The MGH Institute will be featured with the other recognized schools in the magazine’s December edition.

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