5. AAMC & Collaborators Target Young Learners to Diversify the Healthcare Workforce. With Dr. Geoffrey Young.

In this episode of Cobb & Company, recorded live at the National Medical Association Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly in New York, Dr. Randall Morgan, President and CEO of the W. Montague Cobb Health Institute, sits down with Dr. Geoffrey Young from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). They discuss the AAMC's new strategic action plan aimed at diversifying the healthcare workforce.

Dr. Young, who leads the AAMC’s Transforming the Healthcare Workforce portfolio, shares insights into the organization's efforts to engage younger learners, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, in pursuing careers in healthcare. He highlights the importance of establishing pathway programs, developing educational resources, and fostering community partnerships to create a more inclusive healthcare workforce.

Additionally, Dr. Young and Dr. Morgan delve into the challenges and opportunities within K-12 education, the role of community colleges, and the critical need for academic health centers to engage with their local communities. They also discuss the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in medical education.

Tune in to learn about innovative strategies, successful programs, and the ongoing efforts to ensure that the future healthcare workforce is diverse, well-prepared, and capable of meeting the needs of all communities.

Dr. Young leads the Transforming the Health Care Workforce portfolio, an extension of his responsibility leading the AAMC’s Strategic Action Plan 4, which seeks to diversify the health care workforce.

His portfolio’s work is focused on the education, professional development, and wellness of future health care workers and on creating viable pathways for historically marginalized  communities to enter the health care profession. 

Focus areas include disseminating research and data that provide insights on trends, structural inequities, and institutional culture that impact the diversity of the health care workforce and scanning the full medical education continuum to highlight promising practices, leverage points of intersection, and inform resource development that support innovations to UME and GME. 

His team is also recognized as a leader in holistic review in selection and pre-medical and applicant resources, providing inspiration, resources, data, and tools so that anyone can aspire to a career in medicine.

Before joining the AAMC in 2011, Geoffrey served in leadership positions in medical school admissions and student affairs at Rutgers University-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.  Dr. Young earned his B.A. from Hampton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Ohio State University.

Randall C. Morgan, Jr., MD, MBA, is the President and CEO of the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute based in Washington, D.C. In that role he leads a staff of scholars and research specialists who focus upon the elimination of Health Disparities. He is also an active orthopedic surgeon who has practiced in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida since 2005. He serves as founder and President of University Park Orthopedics in that community. He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Florida State School of Medicine and is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut. He is a graduate of Grinnell College with a B.A. in Chemistry. He received the M.D. degree from Howard University. He served as a resident in Orthopedic Surgery at Northwestern University and served a Pediatric Orthopedic Fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. He later received an MBA degree from the University of South Florida.

Dr. Morgan served as the 95th President of the National Medical Association during the years 1996 and 1997. He was the first board-certified orthopedic surgeon to hold that position. Dr. Morgan is a true pioneer in his profession and was among the first surgeons to perform total joint replacement surgery at Northwestern University. Dr. Morgan has practiced General Orthopedic Surgery and Pediatric Orthopedics in Evanston, Illinois, and as well in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, for more than 30 years prior to his relocation to Sarasota. With the assistance of his father, Mr. Randall C. Morgan, Sr., he founded the Orthopedic Centers of Northwest Indiana and served as its president from 1975 to 1999. At one time, this was the largest minority-owned orthopedic practice in the United States. He has written and published extensively throughout his career on Orthopedics, Social Responsibility, Health Equity and the Education Pipeline for Underrepresented young scholars.  He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and the American Board of Managed Care Medicine. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honorary medical society.

(c) W. Montague Cobb Institute https://www.thecobbinstitute.org/w-montague-cobb 

AAMC ACTION PLAN:     https://www.aamc.org/about-us/strategic-plan/action-plan-4-increase-diversity-medical-school-applicants-and-matriculants