Annette Gadegbeku, MD, has been appointed senior associate dean in the Office of Community Health and Inclusive Excellence at Drexel University College of Medicine. In 2022, Gadegbeku was appointed associate dean in the College’s Office of Community Health & Health Equity, where she expertly led strategic initiatives to connect community clinicians and organizations, both internal and external to Drexel.
The Office of Community Health and Inclusive Excellence builds upon the College’s mission to advance community service, education, clinical care and research, while addressing the needs and health disparities of our local neighborhoods. The new office incorporates the functions of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the former Office of Community Health & Health Equity, to better align and strengthen the College’s resources to address inclusivity across missions.
Gadegbeku will continue to successfully support and bolster relationships, partnerships, collaborations and programs within the University and among Philadelphia community sites and stakeholders to achieve the best health outcomes through the promotion of health and wellness. She will also continue to promote urban health equity and advance curricular support, research and training in community health and inclusive excellence. She will focus on strengthening curricula to address the care of marginalized, underserved and at-risk populations and support instruction in anti-racism, microaggressions, bias and trauma-informed care in Drexel’s preclinical and clinical environments including at affiliate sites.
Gadegbeku is charged with fostering inclusion and belonging by developing policies, procedures and processes. She will collaborate with the Office of Faculty to implement best practices for recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty from groups historically underrepresented in medicine, as well as working with the Office of Admissions to implement best practices for the recruitment and support of students from underrepresented groups in medicine and biomedical sciences.
Gadegbeku will oversee existing pathway programs and establish new ones to increase the representation of individuals who have been personally impacted by health care disparities, socioeconomic or educational barriers. She will centralize community-based participatory research and foster University-wide collaboration in alignment with both Drexel’s strategic plan and the goals of Drexel Health to improve health outcomes. She will promote faculty and trainee research focused on community health, wellness and barriers to care, with the aim of impacting the health professional workforce and health policy in our communities.
Gadegbeku is an associate professor and chief of the Division of Community Health in the Department of Family, Community & Preventive Medicine and faculty director for Healing Hurt People, a hospital and community-linked violence intervention program at the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice in the Dornsife School of Public Health. Gadegbeku also serves as assistant director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, where she supports the consortium between Jefferson and Drexel and its inclusive efforts in cancer-related community outreach, academic training and research.
On May 7, College of Medicine students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered at the Germantown Cricket Club for the annual Batts Health Equity and Inclusive Excellence Dinner. The event celebrates the achievements of the graduating students who have been personally impacted by health care disparities, socioeconomic or educational barriers, and raises funds for the Dr. James A. Batts Student Fund to support students with their education expenses, conference fees, test preparation materials and tuition.
James A. Batts Jr. joined the staff at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1979 and retired as senior attending physician and professor emeritus in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Batts had an interest in increasing the number of underrepresented medical students and regularly recruited and mentored aspiring doctors. Each year, he hosted a party at his own expense for underrepresented students and faculty at MCP. We are proud to return to the tradition of naming the Health Equity & Inclusive Excellence Dinner in his honor.