A dean-funded program, FOCUS is designed to improve the recruitment, retention, advancement and leadership of women faculty, and to promote women’s health research. FOCUS collaborates with other medical schools, universities, national committees, and Women in Medicine programs in order to explore institutional change that fosters a more diverse faculty in the community of academic medicine.

FOCUS works to achieve these goals through:

  • Professional development and leadership mentoring initiatives
  •  Collecting, analyzing and reporting annual gender data for PSOM faculty
  • Offering multiple opportunities for networking to assist women in all ranks, tracks and stage of career in establishing multiple mentors and peer support teams
  •  Obtaining extramural funds to offer seed grants and fellowships that stimulate research focused in women’s health while concomitantly supporting the career development of Penn medical students and faculty investigators
  • Individual mentoring of biomedical faculty at Penn; conducting grant funded research on women’s biomedical careers and faculty development
  • Providing national leadership on advancing women in medicine through invited lectures and research presentations and publications

Among their initiatives: