Addressing Health Inequities

The College of Health Sciences seeks to ensure all communities, both local and global, are empowered to be their healthiest selves through equitable access to health promotion and quality healthcare.

CHS Mission

Recruit and retain diverse students, faculty and staff in all CHS programs.
Continue to revise our curriculum to be responsive to racism and social inequalities in health in the communities we serve.
Train and support our students to become healthcare professionals that possess cultural humility through education, community outreach, and multidisciplinary experiential learning opportunities.
Integrate our students to the(ir) local and global communities to provide quality clinical and public health services.
Empower our graduates with the knowledge, resources and tools to disrupt the structures and systems that perpetuate racism and health inequities in Black and other historically marginalized communities.

ARCADIA2025 ADAPTIVE STRATEGY

PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVE ON ANTI-RACISM

CENTER FOR TEACHING, LEARNING, AND MENTORING

On-Campus Student Activities

Physical Therapy Multicultural Leadership Alliance

PTMLA Mission: To create an environment of self-growth in regards to cultural competence amongst our students and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the physical therapy profession.

Prior events have included: Inclusive Language in Healthcare, and LGBTQIA+ Community and related health disparities.

MEET THE BOARD

Pro Bono Clinic

Recognizing our communities have difficulty with services for a variety of reasons, doctoral physical therapy students created an environment where a patient's medical needs and social needs can be supported. Supervised by faculty, DPT students work with individuals that have musculoskeletal and neurological diagnoses that may experience barriers to accessing services due to various social needs—for example, a patient who cannot access services due to lack of insurance coverage appropriate and/or affordable for their diagnosis.

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Public Health Week

Arcadia's annual celebration of National Public Health Week focuses on various topics, like 2021's events on addiction, climate change, resilience, and careers. The topics reflect the daily themes of rebuilding, galvanizing climate change, and building COVID-19 resilience set by the American Public Health Association (APHA).

SEE ARCADIA'S NPHW 2021 EVENTS

Physician Assistant Diversity Committees

PA Class of 2021 and 2022's committees discuss health disparity issues – Autism, Indigenous access to healthcare, and a hosted panel discussion on diversity and inclusion in medicine.

Alex Cristofori ’21M, MPH shared how his work as a peer mentor in recognizing that students felt that discussions of race, inequality, and diversity in medicine were missing from their education in health care.

PTMLA Leader Seamus Moran '22

As a transgender male and a student physical therapist, I've had to educate healthcare providers about my gender identity, address discrepancies surrounding my legal name and sex assigned at birth, and interact with staff who are uncomfortable with topics surrounding sex and gender. I am proud to be part of Arcadia's Physical Therapy Multicultural Leadership Alliance (PTMLA) and contribute to raising awareness for healthcare disparities amongst a variety of populations and communities.

Health Sciences Programs

Milestones for Historically Marginalized Populations

As the University continues addressing health inequities across its communities, the College seeks five-year goals to grow historically marginalized populations of students, staff and faculty based on its current members and recognizing room for inclusion.

*Minoritized Racial and Ethnic Groups include American Indian/Alaska Native; Asian; Black/Non-Hispanic; Hispanic; Multiple Ethnicities; Native Hawaiin/Pacific Islander; and Non-Resident Aliens. In accordance with the American Medical Association of American Medical Colleges guide to Equity, Arcadia University's College of Health Sciences recognizes that the term "monority" means "less than" and is now considered pejoritive. Groups have been made minorities by dominant culture and whiteness, thus minoritized and marginalized.