Salem College Announces Plan to Focus on Training Leaders in Women’s Health

Salem College is an educational institution for women in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The college enrolls about 600 undergraduate students and slightly more than 100 graduate students, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education.

The college recently announced a newly transformed academic model and undergraduate experience, focused on preparing the next generation of women leaders in fields relating to health. The new model – which will include both curricular and co-curricular components – will debut in fall 2021 and expand and evolve over time.

Starting this fall, Salem will add three new health-oriented majors – Health Sciences, Health Humanities, and Health Advocacy and Humanitarian Systems – as well as women’s leadership development programming, a renewed core liberal arts curriculum, and expanded internship and service-learning opportunities, all centered on the topics of leadership and health. This unique transition will make Salem College the only liberal arts institution to establish a distinct focus on elevating and expanding women in health leadership.

“We need more women leaders across virtually every sector, but particularly within the larger health landscape – spanning healthcare, health policy, advocacy, education, and law – it’s absolutely critical that we begin to close the gap between the high number of women professionals and the low number of women in leadership and decision-making positions,” said Lucy Rose, vice-chair of the college’s board of trustees. “Over the past several years, we’ve seen a steady increase both in the demand for health professionals and in student interest across these fields. For a well-established women’s college like Salem, the time has never been better to launch a reimagined liberal arts experience designed specifically to address these leadership gaps, at the community, national, and global levels, and prepare these women for burgeoning careers across the health spectrum.”

Susan Henking, interim president of the college, added that “as an institution that has prepared women to lead and engage in the challenges of their time for 250 years, Salem is eager to once again be at the forefront of driving transformational change for the world.”