The Sidney Kimmel Medical College has markedly improved the overall diversity of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) community over the past 5 years. 

The Department of Surgery's commitment goes even further with the creation of a Vice Chairman of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. Olugbenga Okusanya, who is also the Thoracic Surgery Fellowship Program's Associate Program Director, is the Vice Chairman. Dr. Okusanya coordinates efforts between the medical school, the enterprise, and the GME level to support DEI in every aspect of Jefferson's mission, including education.  

In addition to Dr. Okusanya's leadership, the DEI committee is focused on reviewing and enhancing our retention and recruitment policies. Our ad hoc recruitment committees use standardized questions to help reduce bias in our recruitment process. Furthermore, all our faculty have implicit bias training before participating in interviews and candidate selection. Our process will utilize some standardized questions to reduce bias in our selection of applicants. Lastly, our institution recently created the Carl Mansfield Society to foster a sense of community between underrepresented minorities in medication across all GME programs at Jefferson