APSA and Burroughs Wellcome Fund Host 2024 Diversity Summit

APSA and Burroughs Wellcome Fund 2024 Diversity Summit

The American Physician Scientist Association and Burroughs Wellcome Fund Diversity Summit was held in Raleigh, North Carolina from June 27 - 28, 2024. The Diversity Summit originated in 2019 when the Burroughs Wellcome Fund generously aided the APSA Trainee Diversity Working Group in creating this summit in order to address barriers to physician-scientist training and increase diversity in the physician-scientist community. We are grateful for the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s continued support in holding this important event!

The 2024 Diversity Summit was chaired by Jessica Weng, 5th year MD/PhD candidate at Mayo Clinic Rochester and the incoming co-chair of the APSA Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. The purpose of this Diversity Summit was to:

“Utilize Human-Centered Design Thinking sessions as a mechanism for developing a strategic plan for APSA and participants to work towards fulfilling and coordinating solutions to address questions related to physician scientist diversity”.

This summit featured a series of excellent speakers exemplifying our mission of strengthening a diverse community of physician-scientists:

• Dr. Jose E Cavasos MD PhD - Associate Dean and Professor at UT Health San Antonio, and director of the South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program
• Dr. Briana Christophers PhD - MD/PhD student at Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-Institutional MD/PhD Program, Chair of APSA JEDI Committee 2021-2023
• Mytien Nguyen, MS - MD/PhD student at Yale School of Medicine, co-founder of the National First Gen & Low-Income Medicine Association
• Sahra Gabure - MD/PhD Student at the University of Missouri, co-chair of the JEDI Committee

APSA is grateful for the hard work and dedication that has gone into planning this successful Diversity Summit, and for the productive discussions and new ideas that have come out of it. Congratulations to the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee for putting together this fantastic event!