Rush and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a partnership that aims to create pathways to career and learning opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds.
Cheryl Campbell, assistant secretary for administration at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Omar Lateef, president and CEO of Rush, celebrated the signing of a memorandum of understanding in front of an audience of students, faculty, and staff at Rush University Medical Center in late July.
As a Biden-Harris administration appointee, Campbell outlined the lasting impact of enacting this partnership with Rush.
“My time is short, so I want to make sure that I put in processes, systems, and opportunities that will far outlast myself,” Campbell said. “No matter the administration, that is a binding document.”
Campbell also called on students to continue to advocate for partnership and increasing opportunities.
“Let’s make sure that we hold each other accountable for what we need to achieve,” she told the audience.
The new memorandum of understanding lays the groundwork for a strategic partnership between Rush and HHS. The partnership will be implemented through the Rush Education and Career Hub (REACH), with the shared goal of strengthening the employment and educational pipeline while building a high-performing federal workforce that is reflective of everyone.
In his opening remarks, Lateef spoke about the collaboration’s potential to broaden the scope of REACH programing and allow access to even more students and communities while inspiring the next generation of diverse health care professionals.
“If we can get out in the community and show people what’s possible," he said. “We’ll find brilliance and people will start to make changes that they never thought they could make.”
“We’ll make change that this country needs.”
REACH – a part of the Office of Community Health Equity and Engagement at Rush – provides innovative, hands-on STEM learning for underrepresented students from cradle to career, to increase postsecondary achievement and diversity in health care and STEM professions.
Since 2018, REACH has championed more than 18,000 students, parents, and community members through outreach, programs and wraparound services. One student, Nadiya Muhammad, spoke at the signing and shared her experience and excitement over the partnership. Muhammad has been with the program since her sophomore year of high school and is now going into her senior year of college with the goal of becoming a physician. She credits her passion for medicine to the REACH program where she was able to gain experiences in a variety of departments including community health, emergency medicine, and labor and delivery.
“It not only shaped my passion to be a physician but the kind of physician I want to be,” Muhammad said. “A physician that is working actively to eliminate health care disparities that are so prevalent in our Chicagoland community and within the nation.”
