The UNM Health Sciences Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is dedicated to supporting diverse trainees in becoming the next generation of faculty and senior administrative leaders. The office aims to achieve this goal through pre-faculty development “To provide trainees with foundational self-efficacy, knowledge, skills, and experiences to be successfully appointed, and eventually promoted and tenured within an academic institution (Sanchez JP and Williams V, 2019.)”
The office has been engaged in pre-faculty development since 2014 when Dr. Romero Leggott become a co-Principal Investigator of the Building the Next Generation of Academic Physicians Initiative (BNGAP Inc.) - www.bngap.org
CLICK HERE for Application for Academic Medicine Writing Fellowship/MedEdPORTAL - 4 UNM HSC Positions to be filled - Application due August 8, 2025 (Program Orientation August 22-23, 2025)
The BNGAP Academic Writing Fellowship is a six-month program that guides fellows in publishing medical education content, and is open to current health professions students, staff, residents and faculty.
CLICK HERE - to Register for the 2025 BNGAP National Pre-Faculty Career Development Conference, October 25-26, 2025, Belfer Research Building, 413 East 69th Street, NYC, NY. Hybrid Format.
Conference Abstact Proposals Due: August 21, 2025
Award Applications due September 1, 2025, 11:59PM PST
The BNGAP National ‘Pre-Faculty’ Career Development Conference for Diverse Trainees and Faculty is the first forum to bring together trainees, faculty, and senior leaders to share and discuss activities and best practices in building the next generation of academic health professionals.
CLICK HERE - to view information about the LGBT Health Workforce Conference, Future Dates TBA (20 Sponsored Registrations for UNM Health Sciences members)
Faculty and staff are encouraged to become a BNGAP Member for FREE (CLICK HERE) and gain access to a number of valuable resources:
Monthly pre-faculty development newsletters (Access Here)
UNM Health Sciences is offered a full page ad 8 times a year and position postings (8 postings) each for three months. Materials are to be submitted to BNGAP Coordinator (bngapcoordinator@gmail.com) 10 days prior to the 1st of each month for consideration.
The historical collaboration between BNGAP, the UNM School of Medicine and the UNM HSC Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has yielded numerous achievements:
Carolina Stefany Paredes Molina, Dennis J. Spencer, MD, PhD, Miguel Morcuende, MD, Maria Soto-Greene, MD, Karissa Culbreath, PhD , Leonor Corsino, MD, John P. Sánchez MD, MPH. An Introduction to Research Work, Scholarship, and Paving a Way to a Career in Academic Medicine. MedEdPORTAL. 2018 Feb 21;14:10686. https://www.mededportal.org/doi/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10686
Maria Soto-Greene, MD, Karissa Culbreath, PhD , Daniel E. Guzman, John P. Sánchez, MD, MPH, Valerie Romero-Leggott, MD . Diversity and Inclusion in the Academic Medicine Workforce: Encouraging Medical Students and Residents to Consider Academic Careers. MedEdPORTAL. 2018 Feb 27;14:10689. https://www.mededportal.org/doi/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10689
Dr. Valerie Romero-Leggott and Dr. JP Sanchez contribute to the following two BNGAP Books.
For more information, please contact HSC-Diversity@salud.unm.edu, or order your own copy here:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-94223-6
UNM SOM trainees (Ms. Mirella Galvan-De La Cruz, Dr. Christian Mateo Garcia, and Dr. Ashley Huff) were selected for prestigious BNGAP Pre-Faculty Award, September 2020.
UNM SOM Jonathan Hulse MD, PhD Candidate is awarded the 2023 Junior Leadership Award at the National LGBT Health Workforce Conference. The award recognizes an individual that as a health-related graduate school trainee (enrolled anytime after August 2018) has led activities to promote the development of a health workforce responsive to the needs of LGBT communities.
Under the leadership of Vice President Valerie Romero-Leggott, Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center became one of the inaugural members of the BNGAP National Center for Pre-Faculty Development, July 2020. 2025-2026 membership in BNGAPs National Center for Pre-Faculty Development at Tier 4 is supported by HSC Office for DEI and the HRSA NM COE Grant (1 D34HP45723‐01‐00).
Additionally, please email Dr. Lindsay Smart, Associate Vice President, UNM HSC DEI (LSmart@salud.unm.edu), if you are interested in developing a BNGAP Chapter at UNM HSC.