Macy Awards
Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Awards
The Social Mission Alliance is no longer accepting nominations for the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Awards for Excellence in Social Mission. Join us on Monday, April 8, 2024 to see who will be awarded! The awards reflect a shared vision and partnership between the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and the Social Mission Alliance. Each award serves as a physical representation of individual/group dedication to challenge, reform and renew social mission though educational efforts that reduce health disparities, and/or promote community engagement, diversity, value-based care and access for all. Social mission is defined as activities or initiatives that teach, model, or improve community engagement, diversity, disparities reduction, value-based care, or engagement with the social determinants of health. Social mission enhancement means making programs not only better, but fairer and more just.
The award will be granted in the following categories: Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star (student, resident, fellow, or early-career faculty), Individual (mid-career and actively working in social mission), Program, Institution, and Lifetime Achievement (late-career or retired/emeritus). Awardees will receive a monetary prize, travel and lodging to the conference, and a crystal award acknowledging their achievement. Nominees should be working interprofessionally as innovators in health professions education who are invested in bringing change and should be exemplars of the social mission in health.
The intended outcome of this award program is the increased recognition of institutions, programs, and people who are doing extraordinary work promoting social mission in health professions education. This recognition gives greater visibility to these projects and the Social Mission Alliance movement as a whole. In the process, the awards program has become a centerpiece of the national conference, celebrating the works of people and programs achieving social mission goals.
Applications will be accepted until November 15, 2023. The awards dinner and presentation ceremony will take place on the first night of the conference, April 8, 2024.
Categories
- Rising Star
- Individual Excellence
- Lifetime Achievement
- Program Excellence
- Institutional Excellence
2024 Award Recipients
Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star Award
Alec J. Calac (Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians)
Individual Excellence
Lisa M. Meeks, PhD, MA
Over the last decade, Lisa Meeks’ work and advocacy have had profound impacts on recruiting, admitting, and retaining students with disabilities while simultaneously dismantling ableism in health professions education. She achieves this by engaging with HPE communities and associations to provide actionable education to dismantle barriers.
A standout achievement is her podcast, DocsWithDisabilities, reaching audiences in 100 countries and sharing stories of clinicians with disabilities. Meeks focuses on cultivating the next generation of disabled clinicians, researchers, and leaders. She champions an equitable and accessible research lab, guided by the principles of disability justice, emphasizing interdependence and leadership from those most impacted. Actively recruiting and mentoring disabled trainees, she ensures financial support and accommodations for their scholarly pursuits and conference attendance. Driven by her commitment, she tirelessly advocates for all, contributing to the vision of an equitable and inclusive future in health professions education.
Program Excellence
Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity
The Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity US + Global (AFHE) program develops early to mid-career leaders who understand the foundations of health inequity and have the knowledge, skills, and courage to build more equitable organizations and communities. The program does so by providing intensive learning and growth experiences and connecting fellows in a cohort network. The program includes US and international fellows from multiple health professions who are joined by others doing work in health such as artists, lawyers, and journalists to create an interdisciplinary network that sparks creative solutions to the most pressing health equity issues of our time. The program has a truly interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to learning, community building and striving to overcome global challenges.
Institutional Excellence
The University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM) provides a learning environment that builds on the assets of its rural, majority-minority state. This is reflected in the diversity of the student body it recruits and the service-learning opportunities offered. It is also reflected in its strategic plan: “Transform health professions education across the Health Sciences Center to meet the needs of our diverse learners, our professions, and our state.” Learners gain unique insights into their multi-ethnic communities through service-learning opportunities supported by a decentralized network of Health Extension Regional Officers (HEROs) and Community Health Workers (CHWs). Finally, UNM programs in education, service, and research are increasingly driven by community-identified health and social priorities with UNM health programs brought to the front door of communities via face-to-face or telehealth modes. One consequence is that UNM has one of the highest percentages of health science graduates remaining in the state and working in rural and underserved communities.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H.
Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H., is an Emeritus Professor after fifteen years of serving as Associate Dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Dentistry, and faculty member at the UIC School of Public Health. He was a mayoral-appointed Chicago Board of Health member for thirteen years, and served two terms as a gubernatorial-appointed Illinois Board of Health member. Before joining the UIC faculty, he was the Executive Editor and Project Director for Oral Health in America: A Report of the U.S. Surgeon General, released by US Surgeon General David Satcher in 2000. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), served a three-year term as co-chair of the NAM’s Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professions Education, a Past President of the American Public Health Association, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, the American Board of Dental Public Health, and the Institute of Medicine of Chicago. Evans has focused on the issues of health inequities, access to care, and social justice throughout his career.
“On behalf of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, I would like to express my admiration for those being honored with the 2024 Awards for Excellence in Social Mission,” Holly Humphrey, president of The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation said. The work being done by these remarkable individuals and organizations serves as a fitting monument to Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, who was a force for social justice and health equity. I offer my congratulations and my deepest respect.”
The awards will be presented at the 2024 Social Mission Alliance Conference in Durham, NC, at a special recognition event the evening of April 8th. The Social Mission Alliance Conference is a comprehensive meeting for health professions educators working to create a more equitable health care system for all. Each awardee receives $2,500 and a commemorative plaque. The awards are supported by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the education of health professionals for a healthier public.
The Social Mission Alliance is a national movement, focused on health equity and training health professionals as agents of more equitable health care, based at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at Milken Institute SPH.
Applications will be accepted until November 15, 2023. The awards dinner and presentation ceremony will take place on the first night of the conference, April 8, 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions
For individuals, the Fitzhugh Mullan Rising Star award is for a health professions student, learner, or early career faculty. The Individual awardee should be mid-career and actively working toward social mission. The Lifetime Achievement award will go to someone who is late career, retired or emeritus status. The Program award will go to a program or organizational model of social mission in action that may be within or outside of an institution. The Institution award will go to a school within a university or the university as a whole.
There are only a few questions on the form as follows:
- Summary of how this nominee has advanced the social mission of health professions education including how they have incorporated IPE principles (Interprofessional Education) in their work and how their work rises above others in advancing social mission. The nomination should discuss who the nominee(s) are and what they have done.
- Summary of how individuals, the community, and/or society have benefited from these activities. The nomination should discuss the specific societal/community impact of the activities described above.
Institutional endorsement (optional upload field): The - institutional support section can be used to show impact beyond what the nominator has previously submitted. For program nominees, this can be a letter of support by the institution. For other nominees, it can be used by someone other than the nominator, to further describe the candidate’s impact on a profession or community of commitment.
Yes, you can return to the Cognito form and it should be saved, but you may want to download the questions above to work on them outside of the form in case you run into any issues.
Yes, we have had nominations that were selected in subsequent cycles. Please be careful with your submission as the questions may change a bit between cycles.
Yes, self-nomination is fine. You just repeat the information for nominee in the information on nominator section.
Yes. You can make more than one nomination in the same category or across multiple categories.
The ideal nominee should be working interprofessionally, demonstrate innovation/creativity in their approach, and have positively impacted their community. The community of commitment should be defined and the impact should be clear.
Leigh Anne Butler is staffing this committee and can be reached via email at lbutler@gwu.edu.
2020 Recipients (Honored at 2021 Virtual Conference)
George Blue Spruce, Jr., DDS, MPH
George Blue Spruce, Jr., DDS, MPH, the first Native American Dentist in the United States, realizes that as a trailblazer he bears the responsibility of illuminating the health professions pathway for American Indian children who are unaware the path exists. He has dared American Indian children to become a dentist, and his unique leadership has left a legacy promoting social mission in health professions education. He is the founder of the Society of the American Indian Dentist (SAID).
Robert M. Rock, MD
Dr. Robert Rock co-created a one-of-a-kind course at Yale on health disparities for PA, MD, and APRN programs. The course intentionally includes interprofessional educators and led to the creation of an interdisciplinary student group for all graduate students, faculty, and the New Haven public for community building and action toward health equity. His efforts have helped to create a sense of belonging and empowerment for students who carry identities traditionally not exemplified in medicine.
Joseph Kiesler, MD
Dr. Joseph Kiesler’s commitment to equity and social justice has inspired thousands of learners and faculty. From providing care to the homeless and backside racetrack workers to his leadership in establishing a national model of interprofessional service learning at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Kiesler is a true champion of the core values of social mission in education
Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Miami, FL
The Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program (NeighborhoodHELP) at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine demonstrates national leadership in integrating social accountability and interprofessional education through a service-learning experience in underserved communities. NeighborhoodHELP is a household-centered care approach that highlights a social mission in health professions education while caring for vulnerable populations.
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) is a beacon of hope for students who wish to pursue a career in health professions and advocate for those whose voices are silenced. Formed from the ashes of the Watts Riots of 1966, CDU has graduated more than 575 physicians, 1,200 physician assistants, and over 1,000 nursing professionals. With a mission of academic excellence coupled with community responsibility, CDU develops students into change agents who are poised to be champions of health equity
Testimonials
Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Vital Voices Podcasts on the 2021 awardees can be found here
