Our goal is to be a national leader among academic medical centers in achieving a vision of healthy people and healthy communities.
Social Impact: The effect that education, research and health care policies, practices and interventions have on the well-being of individuals and communities. This includes improved population health outcomes and overall quality of life in alignment with the Wisconsin Idea.
Belonging: The extent to which learners, faculty and staff know and feel that they are valued, respected, included and celebrated for their individual and unique contributions and identities.
Resources
- Social Impact and Belonging Modules in Canvas
- Badge Backers — Tips for Preventing and Responding to Microaggressions
- Social Impact Lens Policy Assessment Toolkit
- Incident Response Toolkit
- Ensuring an Inclusive, Healthy Climate (Office of Faculty Affairs and Development)
- Office of Multicultural Affairs (Office of Academic Affairs)
- Native American Center for Health Professions
Role of the Office Social Impact and Belonging
Lead
Provide overall strategic leadership, direction and coordination of social impact and belonging practices.
Coordinate
Triage, oversee and promote effective social impact and belonging-related collaborative efforts across the school and UW Health.
Accelerate
Advance measurable progress by composing high-impact and effective social impact innovation across our missions through transformation.
Serving both UW School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health, our aim is to be:
- Targeted: Focusing on specific strategies that are integrated and aligned across the organization to allow intentional, systemic change
- Streamlined: Breaking down siloed work and connecting across the system to develop strategic and transformative approaches
- Impactful: Placing organizational attention in key areas including advancing social impact and belonging efforts that engage staff, and actions to advance basic science departments, institutes, centers and programs

Our Vision: Healthy People and Healthy Communities
Essential Factors
Sense of Belonging
- People fearlessly bring their best ideas forward
- New concepts are met with curiosity, compassion and critical thinking
Social Impact
- As the nation’s first school to integrate public health and medicine, we seek to improve the health of all populations
Strategies
- Expand the breadth and reach of professional development and training programs for faculty and staff
- Intentionally support all faculty and staff
- Embed a social impact lens across policies and processes
- Support all departments and ensure basic science departments’ access to programs and functions