The Changing Faces of Academic Family Medicine Leadership: A CERA Secondary Analysis

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts strive to create a physician workforce that represents the general population. Barriers remain, however, regarding the promotion of women and underrepresented in medicine (URiM) physicians. We sought to describe gender and race trends in academic family medicine leadership over the past decade.

We performed a secondary analysis of Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance clearinghouse data, examining demographic survey responses from available surveys of family medicine clerkship directors (CDs), program directors (PDs), and department chairs from 2011 to 2023.

During the time studied, family medicine CDs female representation expanded to 60.2% of CDs, an increase of 23%. CDs increased Asian representation by 127% without significant change in other racial groups. Family medicine PDs female representation expanded to 54.5% of PDs, an increase of 97%. PD Black representation expanded by 51%, and Asian representation expanded by 100%. Family medicine department chairs female representation expanded to 37.5% of chairs, an increase of 61%. Similarly, Black representation expanded by 95%, and Hispanic representation expanded by 150%. In total, 19.1% of chairs identified as URiM in 2023.

Family medicine has improved advancements into academic leadership positions. Family medicine CDs and PDs have achieved representative status of females but lag in URiM representation. Family medicine department chairs have made progress in both female and URiM representation but still lag compared to the general and family medicine physician population. Additional mentorship and sponsorship are needed to access the resources available in family medicine to further advance DEI in the representativeness of its leadership.