BNGAP Group Picture

Our Beginning

In September of 2008, Dr. J.P. Sanchez and Dr. Elizabeth Lee-Rey, faculty members of the Hispanic Center of Excellence at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (HCOE-EINSTEIN), met to discuss the lack of underrepresented minority individuals serving as faculty at academic health centers and existing efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in the academic medicine workforce.  During the meeting, it was decided that current faculty-directed efforts would fall short of diversifying academia, and greater attention towards building the “pre-faculty” pipeline of diverse medical students and residents considering academia was warranted.  Given the lack of existing literature on the “pre-faculty” pipeline it was decided to initially focus on diverse medical student and resident awareness and interest in academia.  An initial exploratory study was launched between HCOE-Einstein, the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), and the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) with the help of Dr. Gezzer Ortega and Dr. Dennis Spencer respectively. Over 60% of the survey respondents reported interest in an academic medicine career and desired additional guidance. Soon after, Dr. Sanchez and Dr. Lee-Rey presented their exploratory work to Dr. Marc Nivet, Chief Diversity Officer of the Association of American Medical College (AAMC-DPP), and both parties committed to building a pipeline for diverse medical students and residents to pursue an academic medicine career.

Through several discussions with Dr. Marc Nivet, Dr. Laura Castillo-Page, Dr. Ortega, Dr. Spencer, and other trainees and leaders emerged a new initiative entitled “Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians Initiative”.

Initially Dr. Sanchez engaged Black and Latino-identified health professional organizations to be a part of the initiative. These organizations included SNMA, LMSA, the National Medical Association, and the National Hispanic Medical Association. All four national organizations have a mission and distinguished track record of supporting the recruitment, retention and promotion of Black and Latino-identified individuals interested in the health care professions. Through informal discussions and national presentations we became aware that this initiative was of interest and of relevance to all medical students and residents and with the help of Dr. Baligh Yehia developed a collaboration with the Medical Student Section and Resident and Fellow Sections, American Medical Association.

This initial group set forth a common vision to help develop a diverse academic medicine workforce that will train medical students and residents to effectively address evolving health care needs and work towards health equity in the U.S.  Their collaboration was featured in an article in Academic Medicine.  In November 2010, this initial group implemented a mixed-methodology study of medical student and resident interest in and factors associated with an academic medicine career.  The findings were published in a second article in Academic Medicine.

Since our creation, with the assistance of our organizational and institutional collaborators (Dr. Hal Strelnick – Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Maria Soto-Greene – Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Dr. Gary Butts –  Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, and Mr. Mekbib Gemeda – New York University School of Medicine) we have also concurrently developed, implemented and evaluated educational workshops to heighten diverse medical student and resident interest, participation and success along an academic medicine track.  Through these activities we believe we have begun to create medical students and residents who are better prepared than some diverse junior faculty to pursue an academic medicine career, in terms of career awareness and planning, initiating a longitudinal academic medicine career plan over medical school and residency, teaching and research scholarship, and embracing leadership roles.

Native American Perspectives on Academia

In the Spring of 2012, under the mentorship of Dr. Norma Poll, BNGAP was able to connect with Dr. Donna Galbreath and Dr. Nicole Stern, leaders of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP).  Through Dr. Galbreath’s and Dr. Stern’s guidance and support BNGAP collaborated with AAIP to launch a mixed methods study of Native American physicians awareness of and interest in academia. Study results can be found via Sánchez JP, Poll-Hunter N, Stern N, Garcia AN, Brewster C. Balancing Two Cultures: American Indian/Alaska Native Medical Students’ Perceptions of Academic Medicine Careers Journal of Community Health Feb 2016.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Perpsectives on Academia

In the Fall of 2012, BNGAP members Dr. Nelson Sanchez, Dr. J.P. Sanchez, Dr. Mitch Lunn, Dr. Baligh Yehia, and Dr. Ed Callahan spoke about documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) awareness of and interest in academia.  The discussion led to two main activities: 1) a mixed methods study of LGBT perspectives in academia and 2) the 1st LGBT Health Workforce Conference.

In order to ensure a national sample for BNGAP’s study on LGBT perspectives on academia, BNGAP collaborated with GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality with the support and guidance of Dr. Henry Ng, Dr. Jesse Joad and Dr. Travis Gayle.  Study findings can be found via Sánchez N, Rankin S, Callahan E, Ng H, Holaday L, McIntosh K, Poll-Hunter N, Sánchez JP. LGBT Health Professionals Perspectives on Academic Careers – Facilitators and Challenges. LGBT Health December 2015, 2(4); 346-56.

The First LGBT Health Workforce Conference was developed to provide an overview of up-to-date practices (climate and educational) in preparing the health care workforce to address the health concerns of LGBT communities.  The conference was developed with the incredible support of Dr. Jennifer Gaboury and Mr. Christopher Adam Mitchell, Board President and Board Member, respectively, of the Center for LGBT Studies, City University of New York. The content of the conference is documented as a meeting report in the inaugural edition of LGBT Health (Sánchez NF, Sánchez JP, Lunn MR, Yehia BR, Callahan E. Meeting Report: First Annual LGBT Health Workforce Conference: Empowering Our Health Workforce to Better Serve LGBT Communities. LGBT Health March 2014, 1(1): 62-65)

BNGAP Collaborators’ Activities Towards Diversifying Academia

In the fall of 2012, BNGAP launched an inventory survey among collaborators to assess their efforts to promoting medical student and resident interest in academia.

Hispanic Serving Health Profession Schools’ Activities Diversifying Academia

In the fall of 2012, BNGAP collaborated with the Hispanic Serving Health Professions Schools (HSHPS) under the guidance and support of Ms. Michelle Quinteros, Dr. Valerie Romero-Leggott and Dr. Maria Soto-Greene to assess HSHPS member organization efforts to promoting medical student and resident interest in academia.

Asian Perspectives on Academia

In the Fall of 2012, after EINSTEIN held a Pre-Faculty Academic Medicine Career Development Conference for Students, medical student Lindy Zhang and Edward Lee approached Dr. J.P. Sanchez about assessing the Asian perspectives on academia.  In the Fall of 2013, Lindy Zhang, Ed Lee, Serena Chiang, Charles Kenworthy, Louisa Holaday, and Dr. Spencer conducted a mixed methods study at the Annual Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association Annual Conference to assess medical student awareness and interest in academia. Study findings can be accessed via Zhang L, Lee E, Kenworthy C, Chiang S, Holaday L, Spencer D, Poll-Hunter N, Sánchez JP. Southeast and East Asian American Medical Students’ Perceptions of Careers in Academic Medicine. Journal of Career Development. Volume: 46 issue: 3, page(s): 235-250

Diversity in the Academic Dental Workforce   

In the Summer of 2013, BNGAP was approached by Dr. Rosalia Rey who was interested in exploring diverse dental student awareness and interest in academic careers.  BNGAP worked with Dr. Rey to complete an institutional study that was eventually published – Rey R, Behar-Horenstein L, Feng X, Sánchez JP, Garvan C. Factors influencing students’ likelihood of pursuing academic dental careers and comparison by under-represented minority status and gender. IOSR Journal of Medical and Dental Sciences, Volume 14, Issue 10, pp 89-99, 2015.  At the 25th Annual Conference of the Hispanic Dental Association Conference (San Antonio, Texas), Mrs. Diana Macri, Dr. Sarita Artega and Dr. J.P. Sanchez delivered a presentation on Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians.  In April 2016, BNGAP, with the guidance and leadership of Dr. Mark Lopez (ADEA) and Dr. Norma Poll (AAMC) brought together dental and medical school faculty to discuss adaptation of the BNGAP Academic Medicine Career Development Conference for Diverse Trainees for dental hygienist and dental graduate students. From this BNGAP-ADEA-AAMC meeting emerged the BNGAP Academic Dentistry Curriculum Committee, with dental faculty from across the country.  Since the meeting the ADCC has:

a) Led the development of the BNGAP Academic Dentistry Career Development Conference for Diverse Dental Hygienist and Dental Graduate Students

b) Assisted in the development of the BNGAP Health Related Career Development Conference for Diverse College and Post-Bacc Trainees

The ADCC launched the first BNGAP Academic Dentistry Conference April 8, 2017 at NYU College of Dentistry.

Incorporation

In the Spring of 2015, Dr. J.P. Sanchez, after discourse with institutional and organizational leaders decided to file for Incorporation in the State of New York.

10th Anniversary

On January 30-February 1 BNGAP celebrated its 10th Anniversary celebration at the University of Arizona – Phoenix Campus

BNGAP Chapters

In 2017, BNGAP developed a structure to launch medical student led institutional chapters. Chapters can exist at osteopathic and allopathic medical schools. Each chapter must have at least one faculty advisor.

National Center for Pre-Faculty Development

July 1, 2020 the National Center for Pre-Faculty Development was launched with 23 inaugural members.

BNGAP Academic Medicine Writing Fellowship

After great success in guiding BNGAP members in publishing in MedEdPORTAL, BNGAP launches the Academic Medicine Writing Fellowship. The fellowship is a formalized virtual mentorship experience to help diverse medical students, residents, fellows, faculty and/or staff design, implement, evaluate, and submit educational content for publication in MedEdPORTAL.  Initial co-fellowship directors of the program included Dr. Rosa Lee, Dr. Emine Abali, Dr. Renee Williams, and Dr. Raymond Lucas.