Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Initiatives

AACP Article

Summary of AACP Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Initiatives 

AACP is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion.  As expressed in our AACP Diversity Statement "AACP affirms its commitment to foster an inclusive community and leverage diversity of thought, background, perspective, and experience to advance pharmacy education and improve health".  Additionally, one of our core values is inclusiveness: "All individuals have perspectives that we appreciate and represent in our work".  To that end, AACP has focused on a number of initiatives to advance EDI in the academy.  A summary of these initiatives is provided below for your information.

  • CEO Action: AACP pledged our commitment to diversity and inclusion alongside 1,500 CEOs of the world’s leading companies and business organizations, as a way to leverage our individual and collective voices to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. 
  • DEIA Advisory Committee: An AACP advisory committee has been formed to address Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism.  The goal is to provide guidance and strategy recommendations related to organizational priorities and activities that advance our goals in DEIA throughout our organization. The committee will focus on three pillars: staff/board/leadership, members/affinity groups, and external organizations/stakeholders.
  • Commentary on Systemic Racism:  AACP published a paper on systemic racism that was published in three journals: AACP, JAcCP and JAPhA.
  • Member/Leader Development: 
    • Most recently, the 2020 plenary session, “A Lawyer’s Prescription for Pharmacists’ Role in Achieving Health Equity” by Dayna Matthew provided a timely look at the health equity in the context of COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice. 
    • Damon Williams, an expert on Strategic Diversity Leadership, spoke at our Interim Meeting.
    • AAMC’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, David Acosta, spoke as part of our diversity training at the 2019 Leadership Forum.
    • Created in 2017, the Leadership Development Pipeline Taskforce, put out an AACP Diversity Declaration that is now used in our nominations process throughout the Boards and Councils.  It states that all nominating committees shall strive to include and engage the full diversity of the Association’s membership in AACP.
  • CVS Health: Partnered with CVS Health to offer a Minority Scholarship for Pharmacy Students in 2019 and 2020 consisting of five $8,000 scholarships for underrepresented minorities with the goal of promoting and supporting a diverse population of student pharmacists who will care for an increasingly diverse population of patients. AACP received 390 completed applications in 2019 and 688 in 2020.
  • AACP Diversity Recruitment Guide: The guide was released in May 2020 and highlights various programs and organizations that schools of pharmacy can partner with to build relationships and pathways for underrepresented student populations to promote pharmacy education and careers.  Identified programs and organizations serve underrepresented minority students in high school, college, and national organizations, as well as additional sections that focus on programs and organizations that serve students with disabilities and LGBTQ communities.
  • SHPEP: AACP supports and participates in AAMC’s Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP), a free summer enrichment program focused on improving access to information and resources for minority college students who are interested in the health professions. Currently there are five program sites that provide pharmacy tracks: Howard University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, University of Florida, University of Iowa, and University of Louisville. 
  • Webinars: AACP has offered webinars to AACP members that highlighted innovative ways that members can interest more diverse students in their respective programs and the profession through pipeline programs and articulation agreements, including “Implicit Bias Training for School of Pharmacy Admission Interviewers” in February 2020.
  • SNPhA: AACP established a new relationship with the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) to leverage minority pharmacy students and students committed to serving underserved populations to promote pharmacy and exhibited at the SNPhA conference in 2019.
  • INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine: AACP contributed to the January/February 2018 issue of the magazine that focused on diversity initiatives at multiple colleges and schools of pharmacy and supported Pharm4Me ads in multiple issues. Staff has also promoted the HEED (Higher Education Excellence in Diversity) Award; measure of an institution's commitment, programs, initiatives, goals, and accomplishments as they relate to diversity, equity and inclusion; to AACP member institutions. 
  • Member/Leader Development: Most recently, the 2020 plenary session, “A Lawyer’s Prescription for Pharmacists’ Role in Achieving Health Equity” by Dayna Matthew provided a timely look at the health equity in the context of COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice.
  • Mississippi Inclusion Institute: AACP has partnered with The University of Mississippi to develop an institute focused on diversity, inclusion, and equity in pharmacy education and practice that is scheduled in January 2021.
  • Media Planet's Diversity in Healthcare Campaign: AACP participated in the diversity-themed issue to raise awareness and discuss the current state of diversity in healthcare.  The issue featured pharmacy students and faculty, and was distributed through the e-version of USA TODAY on Sept. 25, 2018.
  • FASHP: Shared and highlighted major diversity and inclusion initiatives at AACP and across the FASHP organizations in May 2019.
  • Recruitment: Expanded the number of onsite diversity recruitment events attended to promote pharmacy to underrepresented students, including the following:
    • AAMC Minority Student Medical Career Fair
    • National Association of Minority Medical Educator (NAMME) Conference and Fair
    • Council for Opportunity in Education Conference - as attended by TRiO Program Professionals (Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, SSS, McNair, etc.)  These programs are on over 1000 college/university campuses and serve 700,000 low-income first-generation student from 6th grade through college graduation annually by preparing them for educational and career opportunities
  • PharmCAS EO Indicator: Added a new Education-Occupation (EO) Indicator to the PharmCAS application to help colleges and schools of pharmacy better assess the socioeconomic status (SES) of students during the 2019-2020 application cycle.
  • PharmCAS Fee Waiver Expansion: Due to COVID-19, the AACP Board of Directors increased the PharmCAS application fee waiver fund from $80K to $100K for the 2020-2021 cycle only. The temporary expansion will allow AACP to cover an additional 114 applicants in financial need for a total of 571 during the 2020-2021 cycle.
  • Dedicated Staff: AACP hired an Associate Director of Student Recruitment and Diversity, Danielle Stubbs, in 2022.  In 2017, AACP established a director of recruitment and diversity position.  
  • 2018 Admissions Workshop: The 2018 Admissions Workshop featured a session, “Making the Case for Holistic Admissions: Perspectives from Dentistry (ADEA); Medicine (AAMC); and Nursing (AACN)” with external speakers from the 3 professions. Previous Workshops have also featured related programming.
  • 2017 Holistic Admissions Institute: Initial and encore Institute provided participants with a path for applying the holistic review framework to identify true mission-based, applicant criteria and support the diversity interests and excellence at the institution.
  • AACP Annual Meetings: The 2020 Annual Meeting Plenary Session, “A Lawyer’s Prescription for Pharmacists’ Role in Achieving Health Equity” by Dr. Dayna Matthew provided a timely look at the health equity in the context of COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice. Additional educational sessions from past and current meetings have addressed diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • AACP 2020 School Poster Session: The2020 theme included related subcategory, “Strategies for Recruiting Students for the 21st Century Pharmacy Profession (i.e., methods of recruitment, engagement, diversifying the pipeline, etc.) “
  • Tour of Diversity: AACP participated in the Tour for Diversity in Medicine program before it was discontinued in 2017.

AACP Policies, Statements, Reports, Sessions, SIGS (not including new 2020 HOD policies)

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism in Pharmacy Education: Moving from Words to Action: 2022 AACP Council of Deans Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Task Force Report
  • AACP Statement on Recent Events: “Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and others, and the public outcry about the manner in which they died, as well as the history of racism in our country, AACP reaffirms our commitment to foster an inclusive community, with diversity of thought, background, perspective and experience.  We also affirm our commitment to racial equality, equity and justice, as an embodiment of our core values of inclusiveness, integrity and excellence…”
  • AACP Diversity Statement: “AACP affirms its commitment to foster an inclusive community and leverage diversity of thought, background, perspective, and experience to advance pharmacy education and improve health.”
  • Strategic Priority #1: Focused on increasing the Pharm.D. applicant pipeline to ensure there will be an appropriate number and quality of pharmacists to meet society’s needs and includes a related goal: “1.3 Increase Diversity: Appropriately measure and increase diversity (broadly defined) in the applicant pipeline.”
  • AACP Special Taskforce White Paper on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital: AJPE
  • Health Disparities and Cultural Competence SIG and Minority Faculty SIG: Both membership groups actively support related initiatives and programming.