Home > Patients, Families, & Visitors > The Office of Equity and Minority Health

Workforce Diversity

The OEMH stands poised to respond to changing workforce needs resulting from the demographic shifts throughout the region. Driving factors include, but are not limited to age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and physical ability. The OEMH efforts in this arena will focus predominantly on developing or enhancing training programs including internships and fellowships, professional education, and research opportunities. The OEMH has a strategic commitment to:

• Facilitate recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities to clinical oncology
• Encourage researchers and clinical providers to become more knowledgeable about their patients' diverse cultures
• Increase the understanding of how to qualify and quantify the impact of diversity on the organization's long-range strategies

Current efforts include the following:

• Evaluate and implement training programs that support minority candidates' pursuit of health and biomedical research careers, with a primary focus on high school and undergraduate programs within the Northwestern Medicine affiliated organizations.
• Evaluate potential interventions to enhance participation in graduate and post-doctoral trainee programs by underrepresented minorities
• Implement an evaluation strategy for minority workforce pipeline development that will inform future local, regional, and federal policy around diversity strategies.