José E. Rodríguez, MD has been appointed interim Associate Vice President for Health Equity and Inclusion. Dr. Rodríguez will be filling the role vacated earlier this year by Dr. Ana María López. Dr. Rodríguez is a professor within the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. He has an impressive background in diversity work within the health care arena.
While at the University of Utah, Dr. Rodríguez has taken a strong role in advancing the institutional goals for health equity and inclusion. Within his department, he has served on the diversity committee, as well as various recruitment committees, supporting focused recruitment of underrepresented ethnic and racial minority (URM) faculty and residents. At the institutional level, he has served as a member of the Core Collaborative for the Office of Health Equity and Inclusion. He has represented the university presenting at national conferences on our work and his research on diversity initiatives.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Utah, Dr. Rodríguez served as the co-chair of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion and the co-director for the Center for Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Medicine at Florida State University College of Medicine. He is an accomplished academic, publishing numerous articles on the importance of URM's in academic medicine.
Dr. Rodríguez noted that he is looking forward to capitalizing on the tremendous work that has already been done here, and he is eager to build on those efforts as we move toward a more diverse campus for health sciences students and faculty.