The Office of Community Engagement and Diversity is responsible for facilitating and coordinating collaborative scholarly engagement and diversity activities within the School of Medicine. In order to best meet our health care challenges, we are actively partnering with our rural, urban, and traditionally underrepresented communities to understand unique circumstances and needs, so that the School of Medicine will provide state of the art health care and training of medical practitioners and researchers that are ready and able to serve the people of Kentucky and beyond.  The School of Medicine recognizes the unique contribution that individuals with diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and identities bring to the institution and seeks to create an environment that is inclusive, welcoming, and supportive of all people.

The School of Medicine Office of Community Engagement works closely with the HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion and with leadership in the Schools of Nursing, Dentistry, and Public Health and Information Sciences, as well as with the University Office of Community Engagement and Office of Diversity and Equity.

Mission:

Community engagement and diversity represent essential components of the vision for the University of Louisville School of Medicine and play strategic roles in achieving our mission of improving the health of our patients and our diverse communities. The School of Medicine has a fundamental role and responsibility to improve the health of the community (broadly defined) and transform the delivery of healthcare that is complementary to and integrated with the school’s other strategic pillars: Education, Clinical Services, and Research. The goal of the Office of Community Engagement and Diversity is to promote and support existing community partnerships and initiatives and to engage new partners to contribute to health and wellness of the community -- locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. The Office will further advance the University of Louisville’s community engagement and diversity priorities of the strategic 2020 plan.

The Office serves as a focal point for connecting identified community needs with the strengths, competencies and strategic objectives of the School of Medicine. In addition to the direct ways that the School contributes to improving health and healthcare delivery, the Office recognizes that effective efforts to improve community health and transform healthcare delivery require collaborative, multidisciplinary, multifaceted approaches. This need for multidisciplinary, multifaceted approaches presents an opportunity for the Office to serve as a platform to engage a broad range of collaborative partnerships across multiple disciplines both within the University and throughout our community.

The Office promotes a vision for the SOM that provides an excellent educational and work environment that fosters understanding of, respect for and acceptance of the cultural differences necessary for an enlightened and educated citizenry whose purpose is to eliminate health inequities in our country.  We recognize diversity as relating to race, gender, socioeconomic class, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and disabilities of the individuals on our campus. The University of Louisville's School of Medicine Diversity Plan has a strategic plan to actively welcome all to ta center of learning that embraces the diversity of ideas, cultures, and people.