Overview
Building the Future of Medicine, Empowering Students, Working Together for Health Equity.
At the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, we strive to educate and nurture a diverse group of medical students to be competent, empathetic, leaders, and have cultural humility. We empower our students with tools and resources so they are able to medically care for people in the diverse communities we serve. Collaboration with our surrounding communities is essential for excellence in patient care, education and health research.
The college and its outreach and student pathways team, which is part of the Office of Student Affairs, are accomplishing these goals with a three-pronged strategy:
- Building pathway and outreach programs for K-12 and undergraduate students to attract more applicants to the medical school.
- Helping facilitate an environment congruent with the mission of the College of Medicine among faculty, staff and students.
- Working closely with the UH Mission Congruence and Admission committees in accordance with the College of Medicine's goals and values.
Welcome
Welcome to the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine! I am Dr. Kenya Steele, assistant dean of outreach and student pathways, here.
The College of Medicine is built on an important social mission – to improve the overall health and health care of Greater Houston, Texas and beyond. We are achieving this by addressing health inequities in underserved communities and the shortage of primary care physicians. A diverse and engaged workforce is essential to creating real health equity in our communities because it brings with it a diversity of ideas, experiences, representation, and solutions.
We want to reach as many young scholars as possible from our local communities. We want to show them pathways and opportunities to become doctors, and hopefully some of them will utilize these pathways to attend the College of Medicine.
Medical students from underserved areas are more likely to return to similar areas to practice as doctors, which helps decrease health disparities and improve health care. Both the students and our communities can grow and thrive.
The Outreach team works actively to create an environment that is welcoming for students, staff and faculty and provides outreach opportunities to reach a diverse body of students.
I believe our work at the college is a small start to decreasing health disparities and increasing health equity in our communities while improving health outcomes.
If there is any way we can be helpful to you or if you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
Sincerely,
Kenya Steele, M.D.
Initiatives and Programs
To reinforce our mission, the Fertitta Family College of Medicine is developing pathway and outreach programs to encourage talented K-12 and undergrad students to consider careers in the health professions, especially medicine.
“We launched programs to help build a pathway into medical school for sudents in our surrounding communities. We also want to help prepare students from marginalized groups to get into medical school and to teach them about the social determinants of health.” ~ Assistant Dean of Outreach and Student Pathways Dr. Kenya Steele
Events
Health Career Collaborative Finale
STEM Zone Saturday
Endeavour Program Presentation
Meet the Team
Kenya Steele, M.D.
Assistant Dean, Outreach & Student Pathways
Ashley Schwartz
Program Coordinator 2, Outreach