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Anne Constantino |
Growing up in a family of educators, Anne Constantino told her mother she’d never be a teacher. Instead, she graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in psychology. After a stint at AmeriCorps, she landed a job in the very field she swore she wouldn’t enter. But that job sparked a passion.
Constantino is now the diversity specialist for both the UNMC College of Pharmacy and College of Dentistry.
“It’s exciting to work at the premier institution in the state,” Constantino said. “This job combines all of my work experiences as well as my passion for higher education.”
Constanino is very familiar with the university system. She worked as an assistant director of admissions at UNL. In that role, she handled all on-campus recruitment and assisted with multicultural recruitment.
She later became an academic adviser working with about 1,300 pre-health students in the College of Arts and Sciences and serving as the academic advisor for students in the NU Paths program.
This year, she came to UNMC from Creighton University were she was an academic success counselor for the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. She also taught an academic success course to pharmacy, occupational and physical therapy students as well as a pre-matriculation program for underrepresented minority students in the pharmacy program.
As a diversity specialist at UNMC, part of Constantino’s goal is to improve the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority students, which in the past hasn’t been easy.
“It has been a real challenge to recruit underrepresented minority students to our program,” said Clarence Ueda, Pharm D., Ph.D., who recently stepped down after serving 20 years as dean of the UNMC College of Pharmacy. “When prospective students come to campus and don’t see many people who look like them, it’s more difficult to recruit them. But when we do, we must ensure there’s a support system in place to retain them.”
Constantino is hoping to change that.
“I understand what it takes to get into the programs here at UNMC and how students can be successful once they arrive,” Constantino said.
Dr. Ueda believes Constantino will be successful.
“Anne will do a tremendous job. She has the contacts, and knows the city and area programs,” Dr. Ueda said. “More importantly, she knows and understands what’s involved and what it takes to recruit future health science professionals.”
John Reinhardt, D.D.S., dean of the UNMC College of Dentistry, echoed Dr. Ueda’s sentiment.
“I think Anne, specifically, can work to increase the number of students, faculty and staff and elevate cultural competency efforts,” Dr. Reinhardt said.
He said it is often tough to recruit black, Hispanic and American Indian students to the College of Dentistry.
“Health care disparities occur in dentistry just like in medicine,” Dr. Reinhardt said. “There is an urgency to recruit students, faculty and staff. But the challenge is that Nebraska isn’t a diverse state so there is a small pool of applicants.”
UNMC is committed to increasing those numbers through pipeline programs which encourage high school students to consider health science careers.
But the culture of the campus must change as well.
“As the United States is changing and becoming more diverse, our students will be treating different populations,” Dr. Reinhardt said. “In order to make those interactions go smoothly, we must be culturally competent and train our students to be culturally competent as well.”
Dr. Ueda said success won’t happen overnight.
The pharmacy program currently has several students from Dillard University in New Orleans, one of the historically black U.S. colleges and universities. Dr. Ueda said their decision to choose UNMC was a result of cultivating one-on-one mentor relationships built upon mutual trust.
“It takes commitment, effort and a genuine interest,” Dr. Ueda said.
Constantino started her work in July. Already, she has outlined strategic goals for both colleges as well as a method to measure their achievement.
She also is looking to explore relationships with area community colleges. Even though those students have not chosen the traditional route to a health professional school, she believes working to develop relationships while students are just beginning their academic career will help with possible matriculation to UNMC later.
Constantino said she is excited to work with UNMC’s other diversity specialists in pursuing these common goals.
“I think it’s important for us to work as a whole community,” Constantino said. “To make UNMC a culturally competent organization with a more diverse student body and faculty, that is the ultimate goal.”