The Michigan Promise

The Michigan Promise represents a longitudinal investment in the faculty and residents of the Department of Surgery at Michigan Medicine.

Advancing Surgeon Excellence

We at the Department of Surgery recognize that our success is due to the talent, commitment, and vision of faculty and residents. We pledge that we will support each individual to achieve their full professional and academic potential. The Michigan Promise ensures that faculty and residents within our department, and our community as a whole, realize our goals as the leaders and best.

Our mission is to:

  1. Prepare each surgeon to achieve the highest excellence in clinical care, research, and education.
  2. Build a diverse and inclusive culture in which all individuals advance and thrive.
  3. Recruit the best and brightest clinicians and scientists to the Department of Surgery.
  4. Create innovative strategies for ongoing professional growth and scientific discovery.
  5. Develop the most talented and progressive leaders in academic medicine.
  6. Expand outreach and service to local, regional, national, and global partners.

Within these missions, we have created defined strategies to reach these goals, and each initiative is open to surgeons within the Department of Surgery across rank, track, and specialty. The Michigan Promise is designed to accelerate achievement and ensure that our environment allows all individuals to achieve excellence and professional satisfaction. Because our faculty and residents play a central role in executing the mission of the Department of Surgery, these efforts are integrated as a core value of equal importance to other core departmental values.

Each initiative within the Michigan Promise addresses challenges of achieving excellence in clinical care, teaching, research, diversity, and equity in modern academic medicine.

Support the Michigan Promise

Your support will provide opportunities for each faculty member and trainee to participate in the initiatives under the Michigan Promise. By supporting these opportunities, you contribute to the Michigan Medicine Department of Surgery's ever evolving pursuit of excellence in academic surgery. These initiatives focus on six core areas of professional development: environment, recruitment, leadership, achievement, innovation, and outreach. Please contact the Department of Surgery Development Office with any questions about making a gift.

"I would like people to say that the Michigan Promise has had a positive impact on surgery, through our science, through developing new ways to care for patients, but also through improving culture and leadership in surgery and changing perspectives on what it means to be a surgical leader."  

Dr. Justin B. Dimick, Department of Surgery Chair