In recognition of the lifetime commitment of Fitzhugh Mullan, MD to public health, policy and medicine, the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) Health Workforce Institute has been renamed the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. Patricia (Polly) Pittman, PhD, a professor in Milken Institute SPH Department of Health Policy and Management will serve as the newly named Institute’s director.
“In naming the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity, we at GWSPH are committed to continuing Dr. Mullan’s lifelong goal of creating a more equitable distribution of health workforce resources for decades to come,” said Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MS, MPH, the Michael and Lori Milken Dean at Milken Institute School of Public Health. She added that Mullan “embodies the spirit of GW through his work to make a positive impact on the health and well-being of people throughout the world.”
A pediatrician by training, Mullan is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and a professor of pediatrics in the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He served for four years as a co-director of the Health Workforce Institute with Pittman.
“I am thrilled to be appointed as the inaugural director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity,” Pittman said. “I am grateful for this opportunity to carry on the mission of the Institute and our shared commitment to health equity.”
Mullan spent his professional career fighting to make health equity a focus of medicine and all health professions. Over the past 50 years, he has served as a civil rights worker, National Health Service Corps physician, federal administrator, state health secretary, assistant Surgeon General, researcher and teacher. Mullan came to GW in 1998 and co-founded the GW Health Workforce Institute with Pittman in 2015.
The Institute works to further research and education in health workforce equity and houses two fellowship programs (the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity and the Residency Fellowship in Health Policy). The Health Workforce Institute is also the home of the Beyond Flexner Alliance, a national movement that Mullan founded to promote social mission in Health Profession Education.
“Dr. Mullan has touched the lives of so many students, colleagues and peers as a teacher, mentor, leader and friend over the past decades,” said Jane Hyatt Thorpe, JD, the interim chair of the Milken Institute SPH Department of Health Policy and Management. “We couldn’t be more pleased that our school is elevating our commitment to fostering a more equitable distribution of health workforce resources through the creation of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity.”