On March 27, the Mount Sinai Health System announced the Growth in Operations, Administrations, and Leadership Society (GOALS) program via a press release. The initiative aims to increase the representation of Black men at the middle and upper levels of management by creating paths for career advancement through networking, mentorship, and advancement opportunities.
The release states that “The GOALS initiative will partner with executive leadership from Human Resources and Talent, Development, and Learning to grant cohort members exclusive interviews for career advancement. Also, if needed, Talent, Development, and Learning will provide slots in their certificate courses. The cohort candidates will be handpicked GOALS members, interviewed by the GOALS counsel, and introduced to Human Resources for opportunities at open internal positions at Mount Sinai. In addition to the cohort, the GOALS initiative will host quarterly meetings and social networking mixers. The first cohort will launch this spring.”
GOALS held its first meeting of Black men in leadership from across the Health System in September 2022 to discuss creating a support system for other Black men who join the Mount Sinai community.
The release adds that “GOALS is one of many innovative programs under the Friends of ODysseus Mentoring Program (FOD) at Mount Sinai. Launched in 2017 by Reginald W. Miller, DVM, DACLAM, Dean for Research Operations and Infrastructure, Icahn Mount Sinai, FOD was created to support Black male medical students navigating Mount Sinai by providing mentoring in career advancement. FOD mentoring programs also include Scholars-athletes With Academic Goals (SWAG), which offers a financial literacy series, roundtable discussions, and a pipeline initiative for junior high, high school, and college students interested in science and medicine. The program has since expanded to include other underrepresented groups, including Latinx men and women, as well as staff and faculty throughout the Mount Sinai Health System.”
GOALS aims to provide a safe space for talks on structural racism and tools to overcome challenges. The program will leverage existing programs and opportunities that already exist within Mount Sinai for networking and professional development offered by Talent, Development, and Learning.
Anthony Smalls, program manager for Shared Resources in Research Operations and Infrastructure in the Office of the Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was quoted in the release saying that “We hope this program will grow the numbers of Black men in mid- and upper-level positions in our Health System and will encourage other healthcare organizations to initiate programs of this kind that address the need for change in the workplace and eliminate the classification of underrepresented groups.”
