WASHINGTON, (December 8, 2022) — The Beyond Flexner Alliance, part of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity, based at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health announced today that it has changed its name to the Social Mission Alliance.
Informed by two years of focus groups and discussions by members of the alliance community, the Social Mission Alliance is excited to unveil its transformation and new, inclusive and relevant name, Toyese Oyeyemi, director of the Social Mission Alliance, said.
“The change represents so much more than a name; it signifies a call to all of us to move health professions education beyond the legacy of Flexner and towards a fairer, more just system,” Oyeyemi said. “It signifies elevating our Alliance's interprofessionalism, one of the strongest assets of our movement. And it signifies a commitment to transform not only health professions education as a system, but also ourselves as an evolving organization.”
The Beyond Flexner Alliance was created in 2015 with the mission to elevate social mission in health professions education by mobilizing and amplifying learners, teachers, community leaders, policymakers, and their organizations to advance equity in education, research, service, policy, and practice. The social mission of a health professions school is the contribution of the school in its mission, programs, and the performance of its graduates, faculty and leadership in advancing health equity and addressing the health disparities of the society in which it exists.
Flexner is a reference Abraham Flexner, author of a 1910 report highly critical of medical schools calling for adherence to science and quality standards in medical education. The concept was to go beyond those precepts to create a philosophy and curriculum that promotes health equity and the challenges that health professionals face in working toward it.
The core of the mission remains the same — support health profession schools to wholeheartedly commit to the role they can play in addressing inequities within the learning environment, the communities they serve and the broader context of society. The new name represents the commitment to social mission in health professions education, and importantly, it represents all health professions, Oyeyemi said..
In the future, the Social Mission Alliance plans to rethink how to combine social mission data with personal and community narrative. In addition, the Alliance will craft toolkits to support advocates in their institutional change, and spotlight policies that influence social mission.
"Since its inception, the Beyond Flexner Alliance has played a critical role in supporting people who deliver health services and health promotion to advance health equity," Patricia (Polly) Pittman, director of the Mullan Institute, said. "This incredible work will continue with the Social Mission Alliance supporting educators and students to become agents of more equitable health care."
For more information about Social Mission Alliance, visit the alliance website at www.socialmission.org or attend the upcoming "State of the Social Mission Alliance" webinar on January 19, 2023 to learn about and inform the strategic direction of the Alliance.
Learn more by watching this video.
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