WASHINGTON, DC (February 28, 2022) —The Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University and the Beyond Flexner Alliance today announced the selection of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Awards for Excellence in Social Mission in Health Professions Education.
The purpose of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Awards is to recognize outstanding leadership in promoting social mission in health professions education. Social mission is defined as activities or initiatives that teach, model, or improve community engagement, diversity, disparities reduction, value-based care, or engagement with the social determinants of health. Social mission enhancement means making programs not only better, but fairer.
This year’s nomination process was highly competitive. The awards will be presented in four categories: individual excellence, institutional excellence, lifetime achievement and a newly named award, the Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star Award, recognizing an early career individual.
2022 Awardees
Individual Excellence
Brigit M. Carter, PhD, MSN, RN, CCRN
For nearly a decade, Dr. Brigit Carter has served as the Project Director for three major federally funded Health Resources and Services Administration initiatives at Duke University, Make a Difference in Nursing and the Health Equity Academy 1 and 2, which recruited, admitted, retained and supported under-represented nursing students to Duke. As program director, she ushered in holistic admission processes and, once appointed to the Associate Dean position in 2018, accelerated diversity and inclusion efforts across all academic programs while engaging clinical partnerships across the health system and executive councils across campus. Humbly but with clear conviction, she continues to be a transformational service-leader, bringing students and professionals to the forefront of positive change among the healthcare workforce.
Institutional Excellence
East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine
The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine and its model of eight community service learning centers situated across North Carolina were created on a foundation of social mission. The school’s efforts to advance the dialogue on social mission and health disparities are tangible—from brick and mortar buildings to the smiles created through service, education and research. The School of Dental Medicine formula addresses the state’s oral health care needs from every angle, from immediate hands-on care by seasoned dentists who also teach tomorrow’s professionals to educating students who are community-oriented advocates for individuals, special populations and communities. The institution’s vision promotes a distinctive primary care focus that treats the whole patient and provides access to care for rural, underserved and under-resourced areas. The school’s pipeline programs open doors for minority students, many of whom remain in North Carolina on the front lines of dental care and patient advocacy, working against disparities and inaccessibility.
Lifetime Achievement
Uta Landy, PhD
Twenty years ago, Dr. Uta Landy, a psychologist, observed that medical training in family planning was inadequate. To provide skilled faculty for medical schools and to improve the evidence base for reproductive health practice, Dr. Landy initiated a “Fellowship in Family Planning.” The fellowships began at a few elite programs (University of California, San Francisco, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Pittsburgh, and Northwestern) and steadily expanded to the current 30. Early on, she consulted with the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology to create a subspecialty that would “institutionalize” training in family planning. Dr. Landy’s programs have trained more than 7,000 residents and 400 subspecialists in family planning. These young physicians have provided contraception and abortion to countless women at clinics and hospitals in every state. Her Family Planning Fellowship graduates have become the nation’s leading advocates for “evidence-based” family planning care in the media, in legislatures, and in state and federal courts, where reproductive rights are increasingly under threat.
Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star
Bernadette Lim, MD
Dr. Bernadette Lim has transformed the landscape of medicine and health; she has led several national health justice initiatives at the intersection of racial justice, integrative medicine for the underserved, and health equity spanning non-profit, policy, direct service, and media/artistic endeavors. As the first in her family to become a doctor, she embodies a lifelong, daily commitment to eliminating health injustices. In January 2018, she created the Freedom School as a personal endeavor to center the voices of underserved communities and women of color in medical and public health education that oftentimes pathologizes Black and Brown communities. The conversations that emerged from the Freedom School spread quickly and became incredibly popular nationwide, such that Dr. Lim and her colleague also co-created the Woke WOC Docs podcast, which has quickly become a leading student voice of centering social justice in health and medicine. Most notably, Dr. Lim has also led the establishment of two brick and mortar Community Healing Sanctuaries in downtown Oakland and on the University of California, Berkeley’s campus that offer daily and weekly healing services.
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The awards will be presented at the Beyond Flexner 2022 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona at a special recognition event the evening of March 28, 2022. The Beyond Flexner Conference is a comprehensive meeting for health professions educators working to create a more equitable health care system for all.
Each awardee receives $2000 and a commemorative plaque. The awards are supported by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the education of health professionals for a healthier public.
The Beyond Flexner Alliance is a national movement, focused on health equity and training health professionals as agents of more equitable health care, based at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
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