A diverse healthcare workforce is critical to improving outcomes for our diverse nation.

In order to achieve this, there needs to be both a pipeline and a pathway, says Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, President and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine.

“We need students to believe what’s possible in first grade and then chart a path,” she says.

Montgomery Rice says her own love and science and people led her to chart her career pathway that led her into academic medicine. “What if everybody was given that opportunity. What if everybody was told you can be whatever you want to be?”

“Every one of my roles has been about how to develop people to bring their best self to work,” she says.

Although health equity work can be polarized and be perceived as political, Montgomery Rice says Morehouse School of Medicine is committed to leading the creation and advancement of health equity — both through new solutions and through complementing existing ones.

The heart of her message on health equity: It’s about “giving people what they need, when they need it, to achieve optimal level of health.”

Montgomery Rice spoke with Movement Is Life’s Dr. Carla Harwell for this episode, which was recorded at Movement Is Life’s annual health equity summit.

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