AMMP’s History
By Pam Burton, first official Chairperson of AMMP
Reprinted from Winter 1999 edition of Eye on AMMP newsletter
The truth is, you never know what's behind a door until you open it and actually check it out for yourself. Coming to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), I only knew that it was a very prestigious organization with its fine doctors and cutting edge research. I remember saying during my interview that "I would like to retire here." My idealism has not changed. What did happen was that I opened these great doors and found it was quite different than what I had anticipated. To put it directly, I really expected to see more staffing and patient population diversity. Unfortunately, diversity only seemed to exist in certain departments within the hospital and essentially non-existent in management. This revelation has always troubled me but I was so busy the next couple of years that the thought of diversity laid dormant in my mind and heart.
In the beginning of 1992, three years after walking through the great doors of MGH, the Director of my department appointed me to a newly formed task force whose charge was to create ideas for recruiting minority individuals into management positions. The hospital acknowledged its vulnerability and was asking for help. I was honored that I was chosen and appointed to such a hospital wide endeavor. Then I realized, who else could be so honored since I was the only one of color in my department. Nonetheless, I was determined to make the best of it.
The first meeting of the "Minority Recruitment Task Force" as it was called back then was February 25, 1992. There were approximately fifteen of "us." So here we all were, and there at the head of table, convening the meeting, sat a well-meaning nurse of majority. She wanted us to talk about why we thought it was difficult to recruit professional people of color to the MGH. She wanted the truth but people did not feel safe enough to give it to a management person who happened to be white. Nonetheless, we overcame our fear and managed to come up with a proposal for a minority administrative internship program. Inspired by the hospital's administrative fellow program, this program was primarily designed to help minorities already employed by the hospital to develop and advance into better management positions.
We waited anxiously while the proposal was taken to Administration. After some time it was reported back to us that Administration was unable to act on the proposal because the hospital was going through some tough financial times.
A Task Force is exactly what it denotes: A group of people brought together to work on a particular issue. We figured since our task was done, the task force would be disbanded. No so fast! During what was supposed to be our last meeting, we decided as a group we were going to appoint ourselves as a committee. The gavel was passed to me right in the middle of the meeting. Not knowing that this was going to happen, I had to come up with something quick to finish the meeting. The first item of business we discussed as a committee was to charge our name to reflect that we were now a committee. As of August 1993, we were no longer known as the Minority Recruitment Task Force, we were and proudly called the Alliance of MGH Minority Professionals, or AMMP.
I was appointed the first official chair in August 1993, and served until December 1995. Nathan Lee was appointed Vice-Chair; he did not complete his term. When I think back over the years, I would never had thought that AMMP would grow to be such a powerful committee within the MGH community. Now, I feel truly honored that I belonged to the original group of folks to form AMMP.
Although the name has changed once again, to the Association of Multicultural Members of Partners, the acronym remains the same, AMMP. The sound of it has always made me think of something moving onward and upward. You may wonder what if AMMP grows nationally. You say eventually the acronym will need to change. Think again, maybe it can be called the…Association of Multicultural Members of the Planet.
I know you may think I have gone too far in my thoughts, but who would have ever thought back in 1992 that in 1998 I would be attending a ceremony where it was announced officially that the Brigham and Women's Hospital was starting its very own AMMP chapter! So why not dream a little?
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