CMSS Hosts Civic Science Fellow on Racial Equity and Clinical Algorithms

Program Cohort to Shape Science, Expand its Benefits and Horizons

May 6, 2024

The Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) is pleased to serve as Host Partner for a 2024 -2025 Civic Science Fellow. We are grateful for the support provided by Funding Partner, the Doris Duke Foundation, which enabled CMSS to hire Ndifreke Ikpe, MHA, our new Civic Science Fellow on Racial Equity in Clinical Algorithms. Along with other Fellows supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, Ndifreke will work to increase visibility and prioritization to develop a more rigorous approach to how race is applied and understood in the design of clinical algorithms and the assessments they inform.

Ndifreke Ikpe joins CMSS from the Aspen Institute where she served as a Senior Associate responsible for the operations of the Health Innovators Program. As Civic Science Fellow, Ndifreke will support the organization’s health equity work by collaborating with member societies to support shared learning across society stakeholders, including staff and volunteer leaders who oversee equity, clinical guidelines and algorithms, research, informatics, education, and publishing. Ndifreke’s activities, including shared learning and best practices across societies, will empower CMSS and specialty societies to build capacity to enable race-conscious clinical guidelines and algorithms that inform equitable clinical practice and decision-making.

MEET NDIFREKE & THE 2024/2025 FELLOWS

CMSS is excited to participate in the pioneering Civic Science Fellows program, designed to catalyze progress toward a future where all people can shape science to expand its benefits and horizons. The program welcomes more than 40 new and returning partner organizations, connecting diverse sectors and disciplines including journalism, scientific research, social sciences, medicine, communications, public engagement, and philanthropy.

About the Civic Science Fellows Program: Seeding Transformative Change to build a Culture of Civic Science

The Civic Science Fellows program is building a network of leaders working to advance change across sectors—so people from all backgrounds shape science and benefit from its power and promise. The program brings together an interdisciplinary network of journalists, bench and social scientists, community-facing practitioners, content creators, public-interest organizations, and funders to develop evidence-based, human-centered approaches to build meaningful collaboration between science and diverse communities.

The 2024-25 Civic Science Fellows will work on projects addressing: ethical questions born from advances in neuroscience; the future of graduate education and the future of work; how race is applied and understood in the design of clinical algorithms and the assessments they inform; climate communication and action; and evidence-based approaches to communicating about science in polarized political environments, as well as many other emergent civic science issues.

Civic science goes beyond science outreach, co-creating a culture in which science is strengthened through evidence-based engagement with people across diverse issues and experiences, and scientists are equipped to anticipate and engage around the civic context of their work. Organized by the Rita Allen Foundation, the program is supported by a growing community of leaders and organizations who recognize that a culture of civic science will be key to solving the grand challenges of today and tomorrow.

The program, designed as a civic science lab, was established in 2020, with initial support from the Rita Allen Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Kavli Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In 2021, a second cohort launched with support from 35 funding and host partners.