Social Mission Alliance Conference

ATSU – A.T. Still University

ASU Edison College of Nursing and Health Innovation – Arizona State University

Conference Overview

Conference PDF

Conference Program

Morehouse School of Medicine

Emory Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

Sir Michael Marmot

The Honorable Andrew Young

Dr. David Satcher

Open Keynote Presentation

Plenary speaker, Natalie Hernandez, PhD, MPH
from Morehouse School of Medicine

2018 Beyond Flexner Plenary Speaker
Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD from University of Virginia

2018 Beyond Flexner Plenary Speaker Stephen Black, JD
from the University of Alabama

​The 2018 Beyond Flexner Conference had a theme of Community, Diversity, and Equity and included plenary, workshop and special events around health education in which social mission is present, prominent, and valued to drive health equity and improved health for individuals, communities, and nations. The conference provided tools and strategies for the implementation of interprofessional education/practice, and provided information about social determinants of health, community engagement, disparity reduction, diversity promotion, and value-based health care. Keynote presentations were provided by Sir Michael Marmot, World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and civil rights leader Andrew Young. Conference attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a variety of community site visits, such as the SPCC Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program, which is a pipeline program. that motivates and helps prepare schoolkids in medically underserved communities for health professions education.

Florida International University

Conference Agenda

The 2016 Beyond Flexner Conference offered a unique opportunity to learn more about the movement and how to integrate social mission into teaching, learning, and practice. There was also a focus on interprofessional education and practice, which are essential components of a transformed health system. Television commentator and social activist, Soledad O’Brien, and Massachusetts General Hospital CEO Peter Slavin provided the keynote presentations. One of the highlights of the conference was the Student/Resident Poster Presentations recognizing research being done in social mission.

University of New Mexico

Conference Program

Speaker Information

​​The 2015 Beyond Flexner Conference examined the progress of social mission innovations and reforms, as well as the moral, financial, and pedagogic aspects of social purpose and social accountability in health professions education. Attendees deliberated about best practices, new schools’ programs, curricular innovations, augmented pipeline programs, teaching health centers, “upstream” medicine, and the public health medicine interface. Conference participants not only deliberated issues of social mission but had the opportunity to take part in one of 16 site visits in and around Albuquerque. These visits were to programs where health professions students and faculty engaged in community based health delivery, agriculture, environmental improvement, and information exchange projects, modeling the impact a medical school could have on social determinants of health.

Oklahoma University School of Community Medicine

Conference Program

Speaker Information

Conference Summary

Conference Video

The Beyond Flexner 2012 conference served as the capstone to a W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded study at the Department of Health Policy of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The study explored unintended consequences of the Flexner Report with a focus on innovative models of medical education that address social mission. The Beyond Flexner Study began with the development of an advisory committee consisting of sixteen leaders in medical education and health policy. The research team and advisory committee identified eight core modalities that stand out as essential elements in the social mission of education, and selected six medical schools with a strong social mission commitment for the study. The selected schools were: AT Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona, Morehouse School of Medicine, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and University of Oklahoma-Tulsa School of Community Medicine.

The conference was sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, George Kaiser Family Foundation, The George Washington University, University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, and The University of Tulsa. The purpose of the conference was four-fold. First, it served as a venue to announce and discuss the findings of the Beyond Flexner study. Second, it provided a valuable networking opportunity for major players in the social mission of medical education, including schools that participated in the Beyond Flexner study. Third, it provided an opportunity for the many schools and medical educators who have lacked a forum to explore social accountability and mission in medical education. Finally, it allowed participants to explore the experiences, challenges, and lessons learned with the implementation of social accountability in medical education.