Transition of Eve Juliet Higginbotham, SM, MD, ML as Vice Dean of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDE)
March 22, 2023
Dear Penn Medicine Community,
I write to share the news that Eve Juliet Higginbotham, SM, MD, ML will step down from her role as Vice Dean of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDE) in the Perelman School of Medicine effective September 1, 2023 to take on new challenges and expand upon what she has accomplished here at Penn. Dr. Higginbotham will continue her service to professional organizations and boards, and her scholarship affirming the importance of the integration of equity and health policy. A search committee, chaired by Liz Howell, MD, will be charged to begin the process of identifying Dr. Higginbotham’s successor this spring.
I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Higginbotham for her transformative leadership, collaboration, and dedication over the 10 years that she has served in this role. In 2012 we set out to find a leader who would strengthen our focus on enhancing diversity and inclusion within the academic, educational, and clinical missions of the medical school. Our search led us to an academic physician with a robust track record as an impactful and forward-thinking leader in the academic world and community. Dr. Higginbotham came to us with a lifelong focus on diversity and demonstrated leadership. She brought clinical expertise, having served as Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as well as a depth of experience in academic leadership roles, including Senior Vice President and Executive Dean for Health Sciences at Howard University. Among other national roles, she currently serves as an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine Council and a board member for of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. However high we’d set our sights when Dr. Higginbotham joined us, she has surpassed them by a significant margin.
The launch of the Office of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (OIDE) in 2013 provided an impetus for a greater institutional focus on inclusive excellence, initially within the Perelman School of Medicine and, ultimately, extending to the more than 45,000 person Penn Medicine community. We now have an infrastructure and roadmap for sustaining coordinated efforts, processes that will support the vitality of key initiatives, and measurable outcomes, evidencing an unwavering commitment to the core values required to ensure the durability of these efforts. Increases in workforce diversity, enhancement of our culture, integration of health equity within the strategic fabric of academic departments and business entities, and a clear commitment to address the needs of the communities we serve are tangible products of our collective progress.
Under Dr. Higginbotham’s leadership, Penn Medicine has contributed to the development of Health Equity Week and the establishment of the Martin Luther King Jr. Health Equity Symposium as opportunities to feature prominent speakers. OIDE’s annual reports (2021-22 Annual Report) offer thorough and rigorous assessments of our progress toward our goals. And Dr. Higginbotham’s robust partnership with the university has resulted in key investments in diversity that span across our organization, seen and felt in critical roles, like departmental vice chairs for diversity, affinity groups, and robust programs. These initiatives and impacts are now a part of our Penn Medicine culture, reflecting the vibrancy of a diverse and inclusive community championed and cultivated during Dr. Higginbotham’s tenure as Vice Dean.
Dr. Higginbotham’s success in her role has taken many forms and one of its finest attributes is its simultaneously visionary and actionable nature. Some of our most notable accomplishments under Dr. Higginbotham’s stewardship include the launch and continued success of the cross institutional initiative, the Action for Cultural Transformation (ACT). In support of ACT, 96% of Penn medicine's 45,000 faculty, trainees, staff, and students completed unconscious bias training and almost two-thirds responded to the 2021 Diversity Engagement Survey indicating that this strategic framework is positively impacting our institutional culture. Dr. Higginbotham's accomplishments also include the establishment of a leadership report card, contributing to efforts to enhance accountability for advancing inclusion, diversity, and equity initiatives for leadership and resulting in greater activity across departments and units. This is evidenced by the large increase in diversity-related expenditures and measurable growth in the diversity of faculty, trainees, and biomedical workforce over the last 10 years. As of June 30, 2022, those who self-identify as underrepresented in medicine and science (URMaS) increased 90%, and the number of women faculty increased by 97%, compared to 2013. Notably, the growth of URMaS and women faculty significantly outpaced the growth of all faculty, which increased 49% during this period.
Dr. Higginbotham is quick to note that this work has happened in conjunction and partnership with hundreds of colleagues across Penn Medicine, particularly the staff members of OIDE, who support key functions, including a curated national database of diverse faculty candidates, exit interviews, comprehensive IDE programming, and restorative practice. Dr. Higginbotham established an office of outstanding professional colleagues who support faculty searches in partnership with Faculty Affairs and coordinate the efforts of diversity search advisors. The lessons learned have been proactively shared in national and international presentations and peer-reviewed literature.
Moreover, the seven OIDE anchor programs – the Alliance of Minority Physicians (AMP), Center for Health Equity Advancement (CHEA), FOCUS on Health and Leadership for Women (FOCUS), Penn Medicine Program for LGBTQ Health (LGBTQ Health), Program for Health Equity in Education and Research (PEER), Penn PROMOTES, Research on Sex and Gender in Health (Penn Promotes), and Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity – and additional members of the OIDE Advisory Council as well as milestone programs such as IDEAL, further integrate and strengthen the infrastructure and support for affinity groups and equity-relevant research, reaffirming and advancing IDE initiatives across the institution.
I wish to thank Dr. Higginbotham for her unwavering resolve in pursuit of inclusive excellence and, in doing, so I affirm our institutional commitment to embracing this shared work. Penn Medicine, its patients, and our communities are better for having had the honor of her service. Although we have taken many strides in the last decade, we know that there is still significant work to be done to bring us closer to an institution with a highly inclusive culture. We will continue to strengthen the quality of education and produce innovative research and models of healthcare delivery by fostering a vibrant, inclusive environment and fully embracing diversity.
Sincerely,