Several years ago, while serving as a resident at Duke and pondering his young son’s future, as well as his own life experiences, Dale Okorodudu, M.D., began thinking a lot about how he could inspire his son and other young minorities to consider medicine as a career option.

“Not a single day goes by that I don’t reflect on the fact that I’m a black man in a white coat – a black male in the field of medicine,” he says. “That’s something you don’t see much of.”

Only about 5 percent of practicing physicians in the U.S. are black, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. Increasing that number significantly is a goal of Dr. Okorodudu and UT Southwestern, who are joining forces on a special video project that had its genesis a few years ago.

“We want to make something that young people can watch and be impacted by,” Dr. Okorodudu says. “Let them know what it’s like to be in the field of medicine. Show them that if I can do it, they can too.”

It’s an opportunity that UT Southwestern heartily endorses.

It Starts at UT Southwestern

The project is kicking off at UTSW, in support of the Medical Center’s longtime commitment to building a diverse medical environment.

“UTSW is deeply committed to diversity and equal opportunity, both as an ethical imperative and as essential to success in institutional missions that require tapping into the full human potential.  With the responsibility to educate and train a workforce of physicians and other caregivers prepared for the needs of society, we are also committed to doing all we can to ensure that that workforce reflects the broad community they will serve, “ says Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UTSW.

Those aspirational words are matched by aggressive deeds.

UT Southwestern’s Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion promotes services to enhance minority students’ success in their medical school curriculum, while UT Southwestern’s Office of Faculty Diversity & Development implements strategies to promote the careers of women and men in underrepresented minorities.