NMF recently celebrated 75 years of building health equity with a special gala and awards ceremony–Reimagining Health Care: Celebrating Equity Change Agents–that honored the organization’s legacy and recognized its ardent supporters, including the NMF Corporate Imagineer Award recipient, Johnson & Johnson. On the heels of this important milestone, NMF, with support from Johnson & Johnson, welcomed 20 exceptional and diverse medical students from across the country to participate in the second cohort of the AIM scholarship program.
In the fall of 2021, Johnson & Johnson partnered with NMF to initiate the program in an effort to diversify our health workforce by supporting Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) medical students through scholarship funding and guidance from Johnson & Johnson physician mentors.
AIM is an innovative, three-year service-learning program that exposes medical students from diverse backgrounds to career opportunities within pharmaceutical medicine and equips them with the skills to become clinicians and research leaders—in any field of medicine—who are prepared to address the health inequities that disproportionately affect communities of color.
It’s been an honor to provide hands-on support for the next generation of BIPOC medical doctors and researchers. I look forward to helping the second cohort of scholars on their journey to becoming the healthcare leaders of tomorrow.
Three thematic areas are covered over the course of the program: structured mentorship; research and health equity-focused education/training; and professional skills building. The program includes a series of didactic training sessions in the first two years, covering topics focused on health equity as viewed through our therapeutic areas, medical devices and safety. In the first two years of the program, the students meet monthly with their Johnson & Johnson physician mentors, adhering to a mentoring curriculum focused on leadership development. Furthermore, in year two, scholars work closely with their mentors to conduct a research project. The scholars also receive support in the third year to prepare for residency.
This impactful collaboration between Johnson & Johnson and NMF reflects the bold commitment Johnson & Johnson has made through its ORTHE initiative to help eradicate racial and social injustice as a public health threat by creating enduring alliances and building a diverse healthcare workforce. In its second year, the AIM program has already proven to be a tremendous success for the inaugural cohort of scholars who have spent the past year working toward their future medical careers. Scholars also shared how the program strengthened their commitment to pursuing medical careers where their work is centered around prioritizing diversity and providing high-quality care to historically marginalized patient populations.
Together, NMF and Johnson & Johnson are reimagining health care and building a diverse health care workforce to achieve health equity. We are excited to welcome you to the AIM scholarship program and to your role as a change agent. We aim to empower you to change the world.
The second AIM cohort is continuing the momentum with 20 high-performing underrepresented medical students from various universities across the country. A fourth of this year’s students attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including Howard University, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine. See below for a full list of the universities that are represented in the second cohort of students:
- CUNY School of Medicine
- Howard University
- Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- Meharry Medical College
- Morehouse School of Medicine
- Sam Houston State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine
- The Ohio State University College of Medicine
- The University of Toledo College of Medicine & Life Sciences
- Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
- University of California Davis
- University of Louisville School of Medicine
- University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
- University of Washington School of Medicine
- UT Health Science Center at San Antonio
- UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine
Scroll through the carousel below to learn more about these extraordinary scholars and their aspirations to serve historically marginalized populations and help mitigate healthcare inaccessibility in their communities.
