The Office of Diversity and Inclusion welcomed the class of 2026 to campus during its annual Diversity and Inclusion Welcome Reception. 

Vice Dean's Message

Welcome to Fall 2022.

It’s the fall/winter season in Chicago. I welcome the season changes and the recurring spirit of new beginnings, anticipated challenges and navigable solutions. The same seasonality applies to our arc of Diversity and Inclusion here at Feinberg School of Medicine and our peer institutions on the Northwestern Chicago campus. Our seasons evolve; graduation was extraordinary and reflected the increasingly rich diversity of Northwestern. As fall welcomes bursts of new imagery, we welcome and embrace new relationships with our allied health institutions, our graduate studies program, and stronger relationships with our Chicago campus peer institutions – Northwestern Medicine, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Kellogg School of Management and Pritzker School of Law. The ubiquity of our themes of belongingness and inclusion promises a harvest, we hope, of abundant proportion.

Northwestern Receives $16 Million Grant to Support Faculty Recruitment and Equity

A transformative grant awarded to Northwestern totaling over $16 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to disrupt systemic barriers that impede the full participation of underrepresented groups by funding the cluster hiring of new faculty in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular, and brain and behavioral sciences.

Summer 2022 Pre-Matriculation Program

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) was thrilled to host its eighth annual summer Pre-Matriculation Program in July 2022. This program is offered to a cohort of incoming first-year medical students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine. During this program, new students engaged with current medical students and faculty, were introduced to the curriculum, participated in weekly seminars and gained clinical exposure. This year, 17 students participated, making it the largest cohort to date. Students left the program feeling well equipped to start their M1 year with confidence, having built connection and community with Feinberg faculty and students and learned how to navigate the different resources and tools available.

Here's what several students had to say about their experience:

"Honestly, I think the most important aspect was building a community here before starting. Now, I feel like I have friends who I can really rely on before even starting, and that's going to make a huge difference when things get overwhelming in the first few months. I even feel like things may not get overwhelming at all because I know who to talk to, and I have my people who will rally together and celebrate." 

"Great way to build community and loved Dr. Okwuosa's case study sessions."

"I enjoyed the opportunity to meet other classmates and found this, along with shadowing potential mentors, the most useful parts of the program."

ODI Events Recap

ODI Welcome Reception

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion welcomed the students of the class of 2026 at its annual Diversity and Inclusion Reception. Students were welcomed by Tameka Brannon, ODI's new director, Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc, vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion, and Linda Suleiman, MD, director of Diversity and Inclusion for the McGaw Medical Center. 

Medical Alumni Association's Inclusion and Allyship Committee Student Meet-and-Greet

The Feinberg community came together for a meet-and-greet in the Method Atrium on the evening of Thursday, September 22. The event was co-hosted by the Medical Alumni Association Board’s Inclusion and Allyship (I&A) subcommittee and ODI. Students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered to learn more about how they could get involved with the subcommittee. The subcommittee co-chairs, Darren Wethers, ’88 MD, and Javier Guevara, ’12 MD, made short remarks at the beginning of the program to welcome the group and encourage the crowd to connect with each other during the evening and throughout the school year. Attendees were encouraged to have a conversation with one person whom they hadn't met before, and many of the students met with alumni and faculty and learned interesting facts about their backgrounds. ODI and the I&A subcommittee hope to host more meet-and-greets throughout the year.

Fall Lyceum

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Fall 2022 Lyceum took place on October 20 and featured Thomas Fisher, Jr., MD, MPH, as the guest speaker. Fisher discussed racial disparities in medicine and his book, "The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER."

2022 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award

Northwestern was fortunate enough to win another Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. The HEED Award is the only national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion across their campus.