Diversity and Inclusion

The program strives to be a meritocracy, in which residents are recruited based on their academic record, work and potential. This is done without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or genetic information. This approach has allowed the program to consistently recruit a strong and diverse group of residents.

Residents have the opportunity to work with all faculty involved with the core services at Guthrie/Robert Packer Hospital, as well as subspecialty services, and with faculty with whom they rotate at other institutions. This promotes interpersonal relationships with individuals with similar ethnicities, cultures, and religions, especially between attendings and residents. By allowing residents to work with all faculty members, we give them the opportunity to take advantage of all the diversity within our entire faculty pool. The Guthrie Clinic and Robert Packer Hospital are equal opportunity employers and have consistently been able to recruit a diverse faculty and staff, despite our rural location. Besides a diverse faculty, our current complement of surgical residents are comprised of individuals with varying ethnic backgrounds, marital statuses, race, sexual orientation, and they represent multiple different countries. Our male to female ratio within the fellowship is and has been about 50% for several years, and about 33% of the residents are foreign medical graduates with or without US citizenship. We have an institutional membership with the Association of Women Surgeons. The program has a long-standing tradition of providing support to those fellows who wish to pursue mission work overseas, and a recent graduate (2018) has devoted his life to serving the under-privileged people of Chad.