Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, MPH, MS is using her expertise and experience to focus on professional development, career advancement and retention of underrepresented minority faculty.
“Our focus is on faculty development for populations who are underrepresented in medicine, including Black or Latino faculty and women in leadership,” Tucker Edmonds said.
In addition to her role as an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tucker Edmonds serves as assistant dean for diversity affairs for Indiana University School of Medicine. She helps create an inclusive climate for students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds and identities.
“My passions are health equity and social justice. As an assistant dean for diversity affairs, I now get to advocate for both, in our health system, on a daily basis,” Tucker Edmonds said. “It’s both a privilege and a responsibility—one I pursue with a sense of urgency—to enhance the care of our patients and the education of our learners by ensuring that our institution recruits, retains and advances a talented, diverse workforce, faculty, and leadership.”
Tucker Edmonds is also researching decision-aid tools for patients to understand decisions they need to make about their care and ways to eliminate health disparities and advance social justice.
“Patients deserve better than we currently offer,” Tucker Edmonds said. “For instance, we are raising awareness about the black maternal mortality crisis, but until we address systemic inequity and institutionalized racism, we won’t move the needle on health disparities to achieve health equity. For me, it’s urgent. Lives are at stake. These are issues we must address with considerable intention and investment.”
Outside of IU School of Medicine, Tucker Edmonds is involved with the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), serving as the treasurer and legislative affairs chairperson for the organization’s Indiana chapter. She is also on the Indiana State Department of Health’s Perinatal Substance Use Committee, focused on finding ways to identify and treat pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders to improve pregnancy outcomes and neonatal abstinence syndrome.
