Mission and Goals

Mission

The Office of Cultural Enhancement and Diversity (OCED) exists to take a firm leadership role in achieving and sustaining excellence in medical education, health care delivery and biomedical research on an international level, through diversity. We will support an educational environment that fosters the vigorous exchange of ideas without fear of prejudice or persecution.

We will help train culturally and clinically skilled physicians and, thereby, improve access to high quality healthcare and biomedical research for underserved and special patient populations. We will help prepare students for leadership roles in the state of Kansas.

Goals

The OCED has established the following goals in accomplishing its mission:

1. Build a physician workforce that is representative of a 21st century Kansas and the Nation
2. To increase the academic preparedness of the state's underrepresented and disadvantaged K-16 students for successful entry into KU School of Medicine.
3. To recruit well-qualified underrepresented and disadvantaged students to KU School of Medicine.
4. To promote and support diversity in the student body and to ensure an intellectually stimulating environment for the vigorous exchange of ideas, active learning and teamwork.
5. To provide a culturally embracing environment without fear of prejudice or negative action for students, faculty, trainees, staff and patients.
6. To ensure the success of underrepresented students in medicine.
7. To promote and support diversity in the faculty and trainees and to care for a diverse community and enhance the quality of care.
8. To promote and support the development of comprehensive, cutting-edge educational and research agendas.
9. To prepare culturally competent and clinically skilled leaders in the field of medicine.
10. To promote and support access to quality health for all people, especially the medically underserved and diverse populations of the state of Kansas.
11. We will help prepare students and faculty for leadership roles in the state of Kansas and for the future workforce and global economy.

About Our Logo

When we set out to develop a logo for the Office of Cultural Enhancement & Diversity, we wanted something that would represent the spectrum of people our office serves while incorporating an image related to health care.

Accomplishing this was not an easy task - but it was a rewarding one. After a seemingly endless cycle of brainstorming concepts, rejecting some and developing others, we believe we came up with an image that captures the spirit and commitment of our office.

The hand

We decided to feature an image of a hand for two reasons. First, regardless of a person’s nationality, gender, race, sexual orientation, age or countless other ways in which we differ, we are all human beings. The hand symbolizes the fundamental sameness in us all.

It also represents the healing hands of medicine. Whether it is the skilled hand of a surgeon or the gentle touch of a primary care physician during a physical examination, a physician’s competent and compassionate hands serve as a conduit for care.

The world

An image representing a portion of the world was incorporated into the logo to represent the wide range of cultures, religion and other belief/value systems that exist throughout humanity. We thought about making the circle part of the logo a globe but thought it was more appropriate to incorporate the world with the hand since our beliefs and value systems are very much a part of who we are.