VCU Receives the 2012 Minority Access Role Models Award

University honored for excellence in diversity

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Virginia Commonwealth University recently was named a recipient of the 2012 Minority Access Role Models Award for its commitment to recruit, retain and advance students and employees from a diverse applicant pool. VCU is one of only 27 institutions nationally to achieve the designation.

Recipients were presented the award by Minority Access Inc. on Sept. 28 in Orlando at the 13th National Role Models Conference. Created out of a partnership between Minority Access Inc. and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and supported by the National Institutes of Health, the annual Role Models Conference focuses a national spotlight on institutions and individuals who have excelled in producing and supporting minority researchers, particularly in the biomedical sciences and health-related fields, and their research efforts.

“This award is the direct result of the leadership and work of many dedicated people at the university over the years,” said Wanda Mitchell, Ed.D., founding vice president of diversity and equity at VCU. “We want to build upon this great work to achieve greater outcomes and future successes.”

VCU’s student body is very diverse, composed of around 40 percent of underrepresented populations. The university houses a Division of Diversity and Equity, and has a five-year diversity plan in place, which highlights VCU’s mission to provide a fertile environment in which ideas and skills can be cultivated for a future and world that respects natural diversity.

VCU was recently recognized by The Education Trust as one of the nation’s top colleges and universities for boosting graduation rates and closing the graduation rate gap for both black and Hispanic students.

Minority Access Inc. is a nonprofit educational organization that assists individuals, academic institutions, federal, state and local government agencies, and various corporations in diversifying campuses and work sites by improving the recruitment, retention and enhancement of minorities. It also provides technical assistance to minorities and minority-serving institutions in order to improve the higher educational, professional and managerial employment of minorities.