Our Mission:
To improve the health care of the citizens of Arizona through fostering and achieving cultural equity and sensitivity within the educational and health care system. To educate pre-health students within Arizona through direct involvement in community outreach activities.

Our Purpose:
To provide educational support and clinical experience for pre-health students, and to sustain outreach and service to the community

Our History:
In past years, the University Of Arizona College Of Medicine Office Of Minority Affairs has sponsored a Minority Premed Club at the University of Arizona as a mechanism of supporting students. The opportunity to expand the Minority Premed Club emerged in 1993 when the Office of Minority Affairs established an office in the Phoenix Campus of the Arizona Health Sciences Center. The Phoenix OMA began to establish chapters at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University with the assistance of each university’s Prehealth Advisors Office. The Minority Premed Club underwent changes such as in 1994, the name changed to Arizonans Into Medical School (AIMS). With an increase in students both minority and non-minority, utilizing the club, as a support and resource the name change occurred to better reflect the club’s membership. The next change for the organization took place when the Office of Minority Affairs assumed new responsibilities. The Vice President of Health Sciences, James Dalen, MD, MPH, broadened the scope of work to include all of the Health Science disciplines and serve as a resource for all students interested in pre-health. The OMA reorganization affected AIMS, by changing the name to Fostering and Achieving Cultural Equity and Sensitivity (F.A.C.E.S.) in the Health Professions. This current name projects the essence of the OMA’s overall mission, which is:
“To improve the health care of Arizonans through fostering and achieving cultural equity and sensitivity within the state’s education and health care systems.”
In addition to being more representative of the OMA mission the F.A.C.E.S. name is more supporting and welcoming to all students who feel they can benefit from the goals and functions of this organization. Most importantly, however, FACES will encourage both minority and non-minority students to understand the importance of achieving a culturally competent and sensitive medical community and society. FACES has evolved into a vital component of the OMA with a rich history of student members and activities. It is as a crucial mechanism serving to increase the ethnic and cultural diversity of the health care workforce, and promote the knowledge of the critical relationship between culture and health.