AAMC Reporter, November 2000: Despite Growth in Ranks, Minority Faculty Promotions Lag

VOLUME 109, NUMBER 2

JORDAN J. COHEN, M.D., PRESIDENT

NOVEMBER 2000

Despite Growth in Ranks, Minority Faculty Promotions Lag

By Jennifer Proctor

AAMC's Di Fang, Ernest Moy, and Lois Colburn discuss minority medical school faculty promotion rates in a news segment that aired on TV stations across the country.

Ramon Velez, M.D., M.P.H., calls minority faculty an "endangered species." A professor of medicine at Wake Forest University, Dr. Velez warns that unless minority faculty begin to climb the career ladder in medical schools, they may become extinct.

Dr. Velez's fears have a basis in a far-reaching, new AAMC study examining minority faculty promotion rates. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study finds that minority faculty are promoted less frequently than their white counterparts, even though their numbers in academic medicine have increased.

"People have been saying there is a problem in academic medicine; now we have definitive data to prove it," says Ernest Moy, M.D., M.P.H., assistant vice president of the AAMC's Center for the Assessment and Management of Change in Academic Medicine.

According to the study, "While increases indicate steady improvement in the representation of minority faculty, they suggest that medical schools have been more successful at recruiting minority junior faculty and less successful at helping minority junior faculty achieve senior rank."

"We believe that this is the most comprehensive, reliable study on this topic to date," says the study's lead author, Di Fang, Ph.D., AAMC manager of demographic and workforce studies. Dr. Fang, together with Dr. Moy, Lois Colburn, and Jeanne Hurley, examined 17 years worth of data from the AAMC's Faculty Roster System, the official data system for tracking U.S. medical school faculty. The study examines the promotion rates of 50,000 full-time assistant and associate professors. Researchers adjusted for cohort, sex, tenure status, degree, department, medical school type, and research productivity.

During the 17 years studied, 1980-1997, the promotion rates among minority faculty didn't improve, Dr. Moy says. Additionally, the study indicates that all minorities, not just underrepresented minorities, are promoted at different rates than white faculty.

"This study raises awareness of a critical issue in medical education," says Vanessa Northington Gamble, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of the AAMC's Division of Community and Minority Programs. She hopes the study will serve as a catalyst for schools and the AAMC to investigate the reasons underlying the promotion disparities.

Before the problem can be solved, a series of questions need to be addressed, Dr. Gamble stresses. Are minority faculty not being promoted, or are they leaving academic medicine before they attain senior faculty rank? What are their experiences in academic medicine? What distinctive difficulties do minority faculty face?

Currently, the AAMC sponsors Minority Faculty Career Development Seminars, which are targeted toward underrepresented junior faculty who wish to pursue positions of leadership in academic medicine.

Lynne Richardson, M.D., is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "This study is very important because it documents what we have found to be reality," says Dr. Richardson, who is African American. "There are obstacles for minority faculty that make advancement more difficult."

For example, she says, others in academia may automatically question the qualifications, intelligence, and performance of a minority faculty member. "The only solution to the reality of racism is excellence. Minority faculty have to refute the presumption of inferiority."

A dearth of mentors may also hinder minority career advancement. "A lot of minority faculty do not have strong mentors, and therefore, they don't know how to negotiate the maze of promotion," says Wake Forest's Dr. Velez. Mentors generally come from faculty with full professorships, creating a Catch-22 for minority faculty.

In addition, Dr. Richardson suggests that minority faculty may find their career aspirations sidelined by an increased feeling of obligation to serve their ethnic group or community. She also notes that minority faculty are often asked to serve on myriad committees within their medical school, sometimes overwhelming faculty members and detracting from career goals.

But Dr. Velez says there is reason for hope for greater minority advancement, noting the tremendous progress the nation's medical schools have made in recruiting minority faculty since he graduated 30 years ago. "In 1970, there were virtually no minority faculty members," he says, urging schools to take a leadership role in the professional development of minority faculty. "These faculty must be retained and recognized as a valuable resource to the academic enterprise."

Information: Di Fang, (202) 828-0581