Introduction: Previous publications have assessed the diversity among medical students, residents, faculty, and department leaders in surgery and medicine overall. We aim to evaluate the diversity among medical school deans in the United States. We quantify and compare the representation of women and underrepresented minority surgeon and non-surgeons.
Methods: 151 allopathic medical schools were included. Data regarding demographics, education, training, and previous leadership position were collected from institutional websites, online resources, and July 2021 Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Deans. Demographics for surgeon and non-surgeon were compared using chi square and logistic regression with 5% significance interval.
Results: 21.9% (n = 33) of all medical school deans were surgeons. 21.2% (n = 7) were women, which was not significantly different from non-surgeons (22%, P = .92). All the women surgeons were non-Hispanic white, similar to all deans (P = .83). 78.8% (n = 26) of all surgeon deans were non-Hispanic White compared to 84.7% (n = 100) overall (P = .28). There were 13 Black deans, four of whom were surgeons, and only one Hispanic dean, who was not a surgeon. Surgeons were more likely to be fellows of their professional society (P = .012).
Conclusion: The demographic diversity of surgeon and non-surgeon US medical school deans is not significantly different. The deficiencies in leadership diversity in medicine persists among medical school deans. There remains substantial room to improve the representation of women and underrepresented minorities as deans.
Keywords: diversity; general surgery; leadership.