Office for Diversity and Community Engagement (ODACE) (formerly the Office of Special Programs)
NJMS has a tradition of commitment to diversity and has fostered a spirit of inclusiveness for its highly diverse community, faculty, staff, and students. Our mission is to develop individuals underrepresented in medicine and other health professions, as well as to champion cultural competency, community service, and humanism in all aspects of medical education. We at NJMS are resolutely responding to the need for a diverse healthcare workforce that resembles the diversity of today's patients. To accomplish this, a myriad of programs have been implemented in collaboration with partners at the pre-college, undergraduate, professional school, and community levels. Collectively, these partnerships embrace and recognize the impact that diversity has on the educational experience of all students and on the delivery of culturally competent quality healthcare. The Office for Diversity and Community Engagement has established pipeline programs to build and strengthen these partnerships to address the entire educational spectrum through federally and privately programs including the Hispanic Center of Excellence, Health Careers Opportunity Program, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/AAMC Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, and the Mini-Medical School.