The Multicultural Physicians’ Alliance is led by residents and fellows to improve diversity and inclusion among residents and fellows by fostering an environment for professional development and a culture of inclusivity.

Multicultural Physicians' Alliance

The IU School of Medicine Multicultural Physicians' Alliance (MPA) works to improve diversity, equity and inclusion among residents and fellows by fostering an environment for professional development and a culture of inclusivity. To achieve this purpose, MPA emphasizes key goals:

Facilitate professional exchange and collaboration between residents who are underrepresented in medicine (URM) and IU School of Medicine on initiatives that support causes that increase diversity, inclusion and representation in medicine.
Develop and support shared experiences for URM residents and fellows that empower residents and fellows to be patient advocates and strategically develop efforts to positively impact URM communities.
Enable exposure to various career options for URM residents in order to improve the representation in multiple ﬁelds across the medical ﬁelds.
Promote opportunities for professional development in areas of clinical acumen, board preparation, oral presentations, grant writing, publications, and innovation.
Expand and multiply vertical mentoring opportunities with faculty as well as medical students and encourage strong academic relationships with faculty
Advocate for concerns of URM residents and fellows.

MPA Foundational Pillars

The four pillars of the Multicultural Physicians' Alliance demonstrate how the organization will strives to achieve its goals. These priorities are important in planning events and programming for each year, acting as the guiding light for all MPA work.

Pillars for the MPA are Professional Development, Recruitment, Community Engagement, and Retention

This pillar will help our MPA residents to develop professionally in order to prepare for careers after graduating from GME.

Sample projects include:

Grant writing assistance
BioSketch development support
Publication writing and submission
EndNote training
CV and personal statement tips
Support for educational advancement (tertiary degrees/training)
Language services
Global medicine opportunities
Support for presentations (oral and poster)
Journal club
Business pitch support for entrepreneurs
Advocacy and health policy training
Research and innovation exposure

This pillar aims to increase URM resident trainees in the GME by attracting strong URM medical students to IU for their residency training.

Sample projects include:

Fall social event (shared event) for local/visiting medical students
MPA-sponsored visiting clerkship for URM medical students
MPA visiting research fellowship for medical students and residents
Resident-run blog describing the experience of being a URM physician and how to appropriately and professionally combat various issues

This pillar will provide opportunities for MPA residents to directly impact their communities and further to have experiences that will inform their clinical practice, advocacy and research.

Sample projects include:

Indiana Black Expo
Indiana Latino Expo
Patient education forums
URM-speciﬁc content for patient education development
Patient Advocacy Panel (IU Health, VA and Eskenazi)
Community service activities in collaboration with local organizations
The “Looks Like Me” campaign for the Circle City Classic parade

This pillar aims to foster a strong sense of community and camaraderie between MPA residents and to show the earnest effort of the GME to embrace URM residents.

Sample projects include: