The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson is privileged to be located in Arizona, a land of rich cultural traditions and heritage. The UA College of Medicine expresses its commitment to diversity by:
- Educating, training and employing diverse faculty, staff and student body
- Fostering the development of personal attributes that are necessary to achieve its mission within its employees and students
- Encouraging and supporting culturally relevant scholarly activities that acknowledge and respect systems of healing that emerge from different traditions
- Providing a culturally competent, inclusive and respectful environment
Every department assigns a “Diversity Champion” to help achieve and ensure the diversity of its training programs.
The Rheumatology fellowship program actively recruits underrepresented minorities. This is accomplished by reviewing applications, inviting applicants to interview, and ranking applicants in a manner that takes into account the positive impact that a diverse fellow population will have upon our program. We use a holistic screening and interviewing process, avoiding over-reliance on specific quantitative areas (e.g., USLME scores) that may cause one to overlook an otherwise well-qualified candidate. Once fellows have matched, we are sensitive to their background and to the social/familial/cultural challenges that they may experience in Tucson. We pair faculty mentors based upon area of interest. In addition, we informally utilize our senior fellows as support to the incoming fellows. In doing so, our incoming fellows feel supported and not isolated, and know that assistance is always available for adjusting to the nuances of life in a different city, state and/or country.
Our program offers qualified individuals the opportunity to participate in a Spanish Language and Healthcare Disparities track. Those who participate in this track are asked to prepare seminars on diversity/disparities, to which the entire body of trainees and faculty members attend.