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Office of Recruitment & Multicultural Affairs

Celebrating Our ORMA Community

  • Diverse students at ORMA BBQ on the HMS Quad. Image Gretchen Ertl

    ORMA BBQ

    Community fun on the Quad

  • ORMA community members engage at multiple networking events each semester

    Networking Events

    ORMA community members engage at multiple networking events each semester

  • Students in front of a rainbow flag holding signs that read Gay/Latinx Doctor, Transgender Health Matters and Ally. Image: Jessica Halem.

    LGBTQ Pride

    The student LGBTQ community at HMS is supported through ORMA

  • Celebrating soon-to-be doctors at our annual Revisit banquet

    Annual Banquet

    Celebrating soon-to-be doctors at our annual Revisit banquet

ORMA focuses on the recruitment and support of medical students who are from groups historically underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and those who identify as LGBTQ+. ORMA approaches this work with an intersectional lens. Our efforts have resulted in over 1,450 graduates who are Black, African American, Latinx, and Native American over the past 50 years.  In 2011, ORMA began serving LGBTQ+ students and continues to lead the way in inclusive support for this student population across the nation.

Personal and academic advising are available to ORMA students from the Director and the Faculty Advisors. Reach out to the ORMA staff any time to schedule a meeting, navigate the resources available to you at HMS, or just to visit. The Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs (ORMA) is located in TMEC Suite 252 with the Office of Student Affairs.

ORMA is also home to the the Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee (MCFC), a collaboration among students, faculty and staff across Harvard's medical and dental schools, which champions issues of diversity and inclusion. 

Resources

Recruitment

Harvard Medical School seeks diverse student populations. Harvard’s commitment to diversity is not only reflected in the variety of institutions from which students are accepted, but also in the ethnic and economic backgrounds of the student body. In 1969, the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs (ORMA) was established. ORMA is responsible for recruiting and providing support services to students from groups underrepresented in medicine and students who identify as LGBTQ+. Since 1969, Harvard has graduated more than 1,450 physicians from groups underrepresented in medicine. 

Please see HMS Admissions and the AAMC website for additional information.

Poussaint Prematriculation Summer Program

The HMS Poussaint Prematriculation Summer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (PPSP) will be held July 6-27, 2022.

The PPSP gives entering medical students from underrepresented groups the opportunity to explore topics in oncology. Through coursework, seminars, and clinical shadowing, students will gain a better understanding of exciting career options in oncology, a field that covers a variety of sub-specialties and in which research and treatment options are rapidly expanding.

The PPSP is open to 12 students who have accepted admission to Harvard Medical School. 

Please read Open Eyes and Hearts for more information and to read comments from last year's scholars on the virtual program. 

Program Highlights

  • $2,000.00 stipend.
  • $500.00 towards travel to/from Boston.   
  • $875.00 for housing in Vanderbilt Hall (across the street from HMS!)  
  • Social events throughout the program.
Eligibility
  • The Poussaint Prematriculation Summer Program does not require prior clinical or research experience
  • Entering first-year students to Harvard Medical School are eligible to apply to the PPSP
  • Applicants must be Black/African American, Hispanic, American Native/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander

Application Process

Online application is here.  Deadline June 3, 2022. The application requires:

  • Two 150-word essays, one on your research/clinical experiences and one describing how you would benefit from PPSP and what you hope to gain from the experience.
  • A copy of your CV including any research/clinical experiences.

For more information, please contact: Christopher De La Cerda

Student Organizations

Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), Harvard Chapter

The Latino Medical Student Association, HMS/HSDS regional chapter, is dedicated to the empowerment of the Latino community. LMSA seeks to achieve this goal through a multifaceted approach, which includes academic support through medical school, education about social and health-related issues concerning the Latino population, community projects for underserved Latinos, and the recruitment of Latinos to Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. LMSA also organizes social and cultural events to celebrate and promote awareness of the great diversity that exists in the Latino communities of the US, Mexico, Central America, South America, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. LMSA collaborates with and supports other minority groups at HMS as well as in the Boston community. Finally, LMSA is committed to the pursuit of social justice, health equality, and human rights; membership is open to all students interested in these issues. Please see the LMSA website for more information.

LGBTQ+ and Allies at Harvard Medical School (LAHMS)

LAHMS is the Harvard Medical School lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied student organization. The goals of this organization are to provide visibility of the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people and awareness of the needs and concerns of LGBTQ patients; to provide a forum for the LGBTQ community to discuss issues particular to being gay and to provide a doctor for organization members; to involve LGBTQ and other faculty and local hospital house staff members in activities to serve as allies and mentors. The organization sponsors films, speakers, workshops, and social events. Please see the LAHMS website for more information.

Native American Health Organization (NAHO)

The Native American Health Organization was formed to establish a foundation for unity among Native American students in the medical area. Through a variety of special programs, NAHO seeks to improve the health status of Native Americans by encouraging and recruiting Native American students into medicine and increasing the awareness of Native American heritage and health-care issues. NAHO works closely with the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP).

Student National Medical Association (SNMA)

The SNMA is the oldest and largest medical student organization dedicated to people of color and underserved communities. Community service is the heart and soul of the SNMA. Eliminating disparities in health-care delivery, disease, morbidity, and disease mortality are among our highest priorities. Our programs are designed to promote healthy living and stress the preventative nature of health-care delivery. Committed to increasing the number of culturally capable and sensitive physicians, the SNMA is also dedicated to the academic and clinical success of medical students and premedical students. Through our signature MAPS, HPREP, and YSEP programs, SNMA members work with youths from elementary school to college, introducing them to science and serving as mentors. In this way, the SNMA strengthens the educational pipeline that leads from elementary school to medical school. SNMA members also support each other through various social activities, networking, and providing a note/book exchange. Please see the SNMA website for more information.

LGBTQ+ Resources

LGBTQ+ Advisors

Alex Keuroghlian, MD, MPH

Alex Keuroghlian, MD, MPHDr. Alex Keuroghlian is a clinical psychiatrist, educator, and researcher. He is primary course director for the fourth-year elective clerkship, “Care for Patients with Diverse Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities,” and the national continuing education conference, “Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health.” His clinical practice and research focus on sexual and gender minority health. He directs two federally-funded centers for sexual and gender minority populations, The National LGBT Health Education Center and the Evidence-informed Interventions Center for Coordinating Technical Assistance. Dr. Keuroghlian is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at HMS, the Public & Community Psychiatry Curriculum Director for the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean psychiatry residency program, and Director of the Division of Education and Training Programs at The Fenway Institute. Dr. Keuroghlian serves as a Faculty Advisor for the LAHMS student group.  He can be reached via email at: ORMA@hms.harvard.edu.

Mary W. Montgomery, MD

Mary W. Montgomery, MDDr. Mary Montgomery is a clinician educator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from UCSF, completed her internal medicine residency at BWH, and her infectious diseases fellowship at the combined BWH/MGH program with a specialty focus on HIV. Dr. Montgomery takes care of a cohort of HIV patients and teaches residents and fellows on the inpatient ID consult service. She is also interested in the care of LGBTQ patients, patients with substance use disorders and the overlaps between human and animal medicine. At HMS she is the director of the internal medicine sub-internship and co-directs the BWH Practice of Medicine course. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her wife and daughter. Dr. Montgomery serves as a Faculty Advisor for the LAHMS student group.  Email: mwmontgomery@bwh.harvard.edu

LGBTQ+ and Allies at Harvard Medical School (LAHMS)

LAHMS is the Harvard Medical School lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allies student organization.  LAHMS works to provide a supportive community among students, faculty, and staff. They also work to increase visibility of the lives of LGBTQ+ people, awareness of the needs and concerns of LGBTQ+ patients, and create a community of local faculty and house staff to serve as allies and mentors. The organization sponsors films, speakers, workshops and social events.

Foundational Concepts: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Sex Development

Recommendations for Data Collection

Glossary of Terms for Health Care Teams

 

About Us

Story of Diversity

HMS Commitment to Diversity

Diversity and Inclusion at HMS

Resources for Racial and Social Justice

 

ORMA History 

 
In 1968, the Black American enrollment at Harvard Medical School (HMS) was less than one percent. HMS was not alone in being a predominantly white institution. At that time, only four percent of all first-year medical students nationwide were from underrepresented groups (2.8 percent were Black). Until the early 1970’s, most Black American doctors were educated at Howard and Meharry medical schools.
 
The social climate of the late 1960’s sparked the first nationwide efforts to bring underrepresented students into medical schools. After the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., HMS Dean Robert H. Ebert created the Committee for Disadvantaged Students, charging it with increasing the number of disadvantaged students at HMS and Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM).
 
In 1969, the school began an active recruitment program. Fifteen Black students matriculated at HMS and Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, was appointed Associate Dean of Students during that year. The Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs was established with Dr. Poussaint as the director. Although the medical school initially focused on increasing Black representation, it soon broadened its efforts to include applicants from other underrepresented groups (Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and Native American). The school officially committed itself to admitting a diverse student body with a significant percentage of students from underrepresented groups.
 
The first challenge facing those who wished to increase HMS’s underrepresented population was convincing prospective candidates that their applications would receive serious consideration. Students already enrolled at HMS and HSDM were recruited to help meet this challenge. The Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs currently contacts 60 to 75 undergraduate institutions each year to share information. Current HMS and HSDM students from underrepresented backgrounds also meet with interviewees, conduct tours, and address questions from prospective candidates over lunch.
 
In 1970, HMS implemented its Pre-Matriculation Summer Program for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Participants were exposed to major basic science courses at the Cambridge campus. This eight-week bridge between college and medical school was designed to ease students’ transition into HMS/HSDM and to enhance the likelihood of their academic success.
 
In 1983, the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs broadened the scope of the Pre-Matriculation Summer Program to give students the chance to do full-time research in the laboratories of medical-area faculty during the summer preceding their matriculation. In 2014, the office partnered with the HMS Center for Primary Care with a focus on primary-care placements. Students in this program attend a series of seminars expanding understanding of and opportunities within primary-care medicine. In 2016, the summer program partnered with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to sponsor a four-week program exploring aspects of careers in oncology.
 
In 2011, ORMA began serving LGBTQ+ students and continues to lead the way in inclusive support for this student population across the nation.
 
The Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs is actively involved in the Revisit Weekend and other quality-of-life programs that affect underrepresented and LGBTQ+ students. Members within the Black, Latinx, Native American, and LGBTQ+ student organizations have traditionally worked very closely with the office in these areas.
 
Older students from underrepresented and LGBTQ+ backgrounds have also helped ease the assimilation of new students by serving as peer advisors. While social, cultural, and recreational events help bring upper-class students and new students together, the older students also provide a support network and share tips on preparing for the major clinical rotations and the National Residency Match. Students also serve on the various Admissions subcommittees.
 
These efforts by HMS have produced impressive results. In 1969, HMS accepted 16 Black students for the class of 1973. Since that time, HMS has graduated over 1,450 physicians from minority backgrounds. Many of our alumni have assumed leadership roles in different fields of medicine. 
 
We would like to salute all of the HMS and HSDM alumni, students, staff, and faculty who have contributed to the many years of success of the Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs.

Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee

 

The Inter-Society Multicultural Fellows Committee (MCFC)  meets monthly to discuss issues affecting the HMS community. We are a dynamic group that supports the activism of student organizations and their programs in the community. The committee has brought about significant changes at HMS. We strive to support student actions, foster intersectional efforts, and encourage sharing of best practices.  This monthly gathering brings together these student organizations:

  • Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA)
  • Harvard Longwood Muslims (HLM)
  • Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA)
  • LGBTQ+ and Allies at Harvard Medical School (LAHMS)
  • Maimonides Society 
  • Native American Health Organization (NAHO)
  • Pacific-Asian Coalition for Liberation (PACL)
  • Racial Justice Coalition (RJC)
  • South Asian Medical and Dental Association (SAMDA)
  • Student National Medical Association (SNMA)
  • Women of Color in Medicine and Dentistry (WOCIMD)

The Committee itself represents diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. It is the Committee’s belief that we all see ourselves as members of a broad spectrum of different identities, such as ethnicity, race, class, sexual orientation, gender, age, ability, religion, and nationality, and that in each of these identities we may experience ourselves in certain contexts as being part of a minority or a majority group. Membership in some of these groups may result in the experience of discrimination and the denial of social benefits. The Committee invites all individuals to join in a discussion of their identity as members of different groups.

The Committee believes that the best possible medical community is one in which the maximum heterogeneity is found. We believe that the best research and medical care occurs in a context where differences are highly valued; that “hybrid vigor” is relevant and fundamental to the structure and optimum functioning of human groups. We do not advocate a homogenization of our differences, however. Our natural tendency to cluster into our group identities is also essential to the nurturing of each of our unique cultures. Multiculturalism is the search for an appreciation of the richness gained by the coexistence of our differences, as well as an acknowledgment of our similarities. We feel that these values are fundamental to the development of competent physicians.

Mentorship Awards

ORMA LGBTQ Excellence in Mentoring Award

Nic Freeman and Dr. Robert Goldstein with award plaque. Image: Steve Lipofsky

 

2019 LGBTQ Award Recipient:

Robert Goldstein, MD, PhD

Robert Goldstein, MD, PhD (he/him/his) serves as the Medical Director of the Transgender Health Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-leads the hospital-wide initiative to improve care for the transgender and non-binary communities. Robbie received his undergraduate degree, MD, and PhD at Tufts University before coming to MGH for internship, residency and chief residency. He completed the combined MGH/BWH Infectious Disease fellowship in the HIV Clinician Educator track. Dr. Goldstein joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 2018 as an Infectious Disease physician and primary care provider in the Transgender Health Program. His clinical practice is focused on caring for the LGBTQ community, those living with HIV and those at risk for HIV.

Past Recipients:

2017 - Jennifer Potter, MD

2019 - Daniel S. Kamin, MD

Michael Shannon, MD, MPH, Excellence in Mentoring Award

 

Thomas Sequist MD with award plaque

 

2022 Shannon Award Recipient:

Thomas Sequist, MD, MPH

 

 

Dr. Sequist is the Chief Medical Officer at Mass General Brigham. In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing strategy, policy and metrics for patient experience, quality, safety, health equity, community health, pharmacy and physician wellbeing. He is a practicing general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sequist’s research interests focus on quality measurement and improvement, health care equity, patient and provider education, and the innovative use of health information technology. Dr. Sequist is a member of the Taos Pueblo tribe in New Mexico and has conducted health policy research to advance our understanding of health care for Native American communities. He is the Director of the Four Directions Summer Research Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

 

About the Award:

 

In memory of Michael Shannon, MD, MPH

Michael Shannon, MD

 

The Student Mentorship Program at Harvard Medical School voted to name this mentorship award the Michael Shannon, MD, MPH, Excellence in Mentoring Award in memory of Dr. Shannon, who died in March, 2009. Dr. Shannon was a pediatrician for more than 25 years. He served as chief emeritus of Emergency Services at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and was the first African American to be named a full professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. The award was named in his honor to recognize Dr. Shannon’s contributions as a teacher and as a mentor over his two decades at Harvard Medical School. In 2016, an endowed chair was named in his honor at Boston Children’s Hospital: the Michael W. Shannon, MD, Professorship in Pediatrics in the Field of Emergency Medicine. It was bestowed on Dr. Richard Bachur, chief of emergency medicine at BCH. In addition to his accomplishments as a physician, Dr. Shannon was a former professional dancer who performed annually in the "Urban Nutcracker" and "Black Nativity". Dr. Shannon was an advocate who worked tirelessly to help improve the communities in and around Boston. In his 55 years, Dr. Shannon touched everyone he met -- and many who never had a chance to meet him in person. His passing was a great loss to the community.

 

 

Past Recipients:

2021 - Sherri-Ann M. Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH

2019 - Audra Robertson Meadows, MD, MPH, FACOG

2018 - Daniele Ölveczky, MD, MS

2017 - Alden M. Landry, MD, MPH

2017 - Dennis K. Norman, EdD, ABPP

2016 - Ira C. Chan, MD

2015 - Peggy Timothé, DDS, MPH

2014 - Alexy D. Arauz Boudreau, MD, MPH, FAAP

2012 - Elliot Meléndez, MD, FAAP

2011 - DeWayne Pursley, MD, MPH

2010 - Rhonda Bentley-Lewis, MD, MBA

2009 - Johnye Ballenger, MD

2008 - Fidencio Saldaña, MD, MPH

2007 - Christian Arbelaez, MD & Andrea Reid, MD

Lectureships

Harold Amos Mentorship Lectureship

 

The Harold Amos Mentorship Lecture is presented annually. Award-winning speakers highlight the impact that mentorship plays in their careers.

 

Sherri-Ann Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH on the right, slide from lecture on left

 

2021 Amos Lecturer: Sherri-Ann M. Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH

Joy, Growth and Purpose 

 

The event honors Dr. Amos, renowned teacher and mentor, who was the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Amos was the first African American to earn a PhD from the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School (1952) and then became the first African American department chairman, within the same Division in 1968. Teaching was his greatest joy. He guided many students under-represented in medicine into academic careers. On his retirement from HMS at the age of seventy, Dr. Amos accepted the position as the first national director of the Minority Medical Faculty Development Program (MMFDP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, serving until 1994.

 

Past Amos Lecturers:

2020 - Audra Robertson Meadows, MD, MPH

2019 - Daniele Ölveczky, MD

2018 - Alden M. Landry, MD, MPH

2017 - Dennis K. Norman, EdD, ABPP

2016 - Ira C. Chan, MD

2015 - Peggy Timothé, DDS, MPH

2014 - Alexy D. Arauz Boudreau, MD, MPH, FAAP, '00

2013 - Elliot Meléndez, MD, FAAP, '99

2012 - DeWayne M. Pursley, MD, MPH, '82

2011 - William T. Curry, MD

2010 - Christian Arbelaez, MD, MPH

Robert H. Ebert Lectureship

The Robert H. Ebert Lecture is presented annually during Revisit.  HMS alumni share their journey in medicine with students at the beginning of their own journey.

 

3 photos: head shots of Edward Barksdale, on left, Andrea Reid, on right, Yoseph Boku on bottom

2022 Ebert Lecturer: Edward M. Barksdale, Jr., MD, FACS, FAAP, '84

Lessons from Longwood Avenue: A Journey from Success to Significance 


The event honors Dr. Ebert, Dean of Harvard Medical School from 1965 to 1977. In 1969, he initiated the recruitment of minority students. These efforts increased enrollment from 1% up to 10%. He also opened the doors of Harvard Medical School to female students – who now make up more than 50% of the student body. Ebert established affiliations between HMS teaching hospitals and neighborhood health centers. He created the Divi­sion of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program run collaboratively by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). He initiated the Harvard Community Health Plan, one of the early Health Maintenance Organization insurance programs.

Past Ebert Lecturers:

2021 - David J. Brown, MD, '97
2019 - Roy Hamilton, MD, MS, '01
2018 - Luis A. Moreno Jr., MD, ’98
2017 - Sherri-Ann M. Burnett-Bowie, MD, MPH
2016 - Gina Moreno-John, MD, MPH, '94
2015 - Tiffany S. McNair, MD, MPH, '08
2014 - Anthony L. Mitchell, MD, Lt Col, USAF, MC, FS, '98
2013 - Nawal M. Nour, MD, MPH , '94
2012 - Alden M. Landry, MD, MPH
2011 - David Walton, MD, '03
2010 - Alvin F. Poussaint, MD
2009 - Yvonne Romero, MD
2008 - Johnye Ballenger, MD
2007 - Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, MD , '99
2006 - Robert L. Satcher, Jr, PhD, MD, '90
2005 - Kenneth Stanley Robinson, MD, MDiv, '79
2004 - Richard Allen Williams, MD

 

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