After months of multimillion-dollar funding appeals from cities across the country, the nonprofit film festival board announced Thursday that the famed event will move from its longtime home in Park City, Utah, to Colorado beginning in 2027.
Boulder beat out a combined bid from Park City and Salt Lake City, as well as one from Cincinnati, which revealed earlier that it was no longer in the running.
The city is set to host the event from 2027 through 2036, according to Colorado film commissioner Donald Zuckerman, with a potential 86,000 and $132 million in economic activity, as Park City reported in 2024.
The news means that Hollywood will now turn its focus toward the Front Range, which should benefit financially in January and February, when the trend-setting festival is held, an otherwise sluggish time of year for hotels and restaurants here. Contrast that with the promise of hundreds of Hollywood elite in limousines, dozens of red carpets and worldwide media attention.
Sundance sees the heart of the festival as centered in downtown Boulder, according to a Thursday statement, “utilizing a wide array of theaters and venues, and incorporating spaces around the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street.”
“January is a traditionally slow time for tourism in Denver and Boulder, and (Boulder) has the capacity to serve the people that would participate,” Gov. Jared Polis has told The Denver Post, touting the mountain backdrop, hotel capacity and Denver International Airport — not to mention festival founder Robert Redford’s ties to the University of Colorado, having attended college there.
Polis and state legislators have been working since last year to shore up incentives for the event, with a potential $34 million state tax credit for Sundance. The incentives would be doled out over the next decade, or about $3 to $5 million per year. The revised bill — which would also leverage $500,000 annually to support “small or existing local film festivals entities,” as sponsors put it — is due on the State Senate floor Friday morning.
However, the decision reinforces Boulder as an international draw, with an attractive, walkable downtown, sophisticated cultural scene, and the capacity to host tens of thousands of visitors during Sundance’s annual event, boosters said.
“This decision was informed by a detailed evaluation of the key components essential to creating our Festival,” said Ebs Burnough, Sundance Institute Board Chair, in a statement. “During the process, it became clear that Boulder is the ideal location in which to build our Festival’s future, marking a key strategic step in its natural evolution.”
The founder of the Sundance Institute, Robert Redford, attends the opening day press conference to kick-off the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Jan. 18, 2018. (Angela Weiss, AFP/Getty Images)
Boulder is “an art town, tech town, mountain town, and college town,” added Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO.
Choosing Boulder cements Colorado’s reputation as a global film destination, joining prestigious events such as the Telluride Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Boulder International Film Festival and Denver Film Festival, said Kathy and Robin Beeck, co-founders of the Boulder International Film Festival.
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“We and Sundance both think there’s not only room for both festivals, but for collaboration,” Robin Beeck told The Denver Post this month, noting that she and Kathy met with Sundance officials last summer during Sundance’s fact-finding trip.
John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, which represents 1,300 businesses, has told The Denver Post he’s confident the city is ready for its close-up.
“… Boulder is accessible by an international airport,” he said. “We have incredibly convenient transportation, and all the amenities and theaters and services that you need are within walking distance of each other.”
Now that it’s decided, Sundance, state and local officials will spend the next two years shoring up theaters, meeting and party spaces, and lodging options in a remarkable cross-collaborative effort. It will include not only the state incentives but work from Boulder’s business boosters to meet Sundance’s high expectations for hosting, as well as the University of Colorado — where some events are expected to be held — and other Front Range film industry types.
Like the 2025 Sundance event, which ran Jan. 23-Feb. 2 in the resort town of Park City, Boulder’s will be programmed during the same time period.
“All three finalists were assessed on ethos and equity values, infrastructure, and capabilities to host the Festival, in addition to demonstrating ways in which they will continue to foster the diverse Sundance community and inspire the next generation of independent filmmakers,” according to a Sundance statement.
A mainstay at the Eid al-Fitr table of Maryam Jillani’s grandmother, Kulsoom, was mutton pulao, an aromatic rice dish prepared in a gently spiced bone broth. It’s both comforting and celebratory — and can be absolutely revelatory when paired with a sharp condiment like a garlic chutney.
This cover image released by Hardie Grant shows the cookbook “Pakistan,” by Maryam Jillani. (Hardie Grant Publishing via AP)
Dessert included seviyan, sweetened vermicelli noodles simmered in spiced milk.
This photo taken on June 21, 2022 shows a recipe for mutton pulao from Maryam Jillani’s book, “Pakistan.” (Maryam Jillani via AP)
Serves 6 to 8 as a main course
Ingredients
About 3 pounds bone-in mutton, lamb or beef, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces
4 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
4 whole cloves
2 black cardamom pods
One 2-inch cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons garlic paste
2 tablespoons salt, or to taste
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cups basmati rice, rinsed in several changes of water
Directions
Fill a large pot with 8 to 10 cups water. Add the mutton, half of the onions, the whole cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon of the garlic paste, and 1 tablespoon of the salt. Cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook the mutton for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the quality of the meat, until it is tender. With a slotted spoon, remove the meat. Strain the solids from the liquid, return the liquid to the pot, and place it by the stove. Discard the solids.
In a clean, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil until it begins to shimmer. Add the remaining onions and fry on medium-low heat for 12 to 15 minutes until they are a deep golden-brown color. Take care to not let them burn. Stir in the remaining garlic paste and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until the mixture no longer smells raw.
Increase the heat to high and add the mutton and remaining 1 tablespoon salt. Sear the meat, 5 to 7 minutes, until it has browned slightly. Pour in 6 cups of the strained mutton broth (put any leftover broth in airtight containers and freeze for later use). Taste and add more salt as needed. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to maintain a simmer. Carefully pour in the rice and let cook for about 10 minutes until the water completely evaporates.
Wrap a tight-fitting lid with a clean kitchen towel and place it securely on the pot. Turn the heat to the lowest possible setting and let the rice steam for at least 10 to 12 minutes until fluffy. Carefully transfer the pulao to a serving platter and fluff with a fork.
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Lahsun ki Chutney (Garlic Chutney)
Aida Khan, a London-based entrepreneur and chef, shared her mother’s recipe for this vibrant, punchy lahsun ki chutney. Its very spicy, so a little goes a long way. Refrigerate this chutney in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
Makes 1 cup
Ingredients
4 heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 1/2 small red onions, roughly chopped
1/4 cup red chile flakes
1 bird’s eye chile (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Directions
In a food processor, combine the garlic, onions, chile flakes, and bird’s eye chile (if using), and blitz until you have a thick paste.
In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the garlic and onion paste and salt. Bring it to a simmer, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to low. Cook the chutney for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan, until the garlic and onions have caramelized and the chutney’s color deepens.
Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and serve.
Seviyan (Sweetened Roasted Vermicelli)
This image shows a dessert recipe called seviyan from the cookbook “Pakistan” by Maryam Jillani. (Sonny Thakur via AP)
Serves 12
Ingredients
1/4 cup ghee
6 green cardamom pods, cracked
5 1/2 ounces seviyan (semolina vermicelli)
8 1/2 cups full-fat milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons blanched sliced almonds
Directions
In a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, melt the ghee and heat it until it begins to shimmer. Add the cardamom pods and fry for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the seviyan and fry over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes until browned slightly. Gradually pour in the milk and bring the pudding to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Keep the milk at a gentle simmer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring continually, until the milk thickens but the seviyan still has some bite.
Transfer the seviyan to a serving bowl. Top with sliced almonds. Let it cool to room temperature before serving. To store, transfer to an airtight container, refrigerate, and use within 2 to 3 days.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A new American airstrike campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels appears more intense and more extensive, as the U.S. moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in city neighborhoods, an Associated Press review of the operation shows.
The pattern under U.S. President Donald Trump reflects a departure from the Biden administration, which limited its strikes as Arab allies tried to reach a separate peace with the group. It comes after the Iran-backed Houthis threatened to resume attacking “any Israeli vessel” and have repeatedly fired at Israel over the country’s refusal to allow aid into the Gaza Strip.
The Houthi attacks and the response to them have drawn new scrutiny in Washington after security officials in Trump’s administration shared plans for the first round of strikes on the rebels in a group chat that included a journalist. But bombing alone may not be enough to stop the Houthis, whose earlier barrage of missile fire toward the U.S. Navy represented the most intense combat it had seen since World War II.
“Folks that say, ‘We’ll go in there and take out everyone with the last name Houthi and we’ll win.’ The Houthi leadership has been taken out in history in the past, and they are resilient,” retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan said. “They came back and they grew stronger. So this isn’t something that is a one-and-done.”
Meanwhile, concerns are growing over civilians being caught in the middle of the campaign. While the U.S. military has not acknowledged any civilian casualties since the strikes began over a week ago, activists fear strikes may have killed noncombatants already in territory tightly controlled by the Houthis.
“Just because you can’t see civilian harm doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” warned Emily Tripp, the director of the U.K.-based group Airwars, which studies Western airstrike campaigns.
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows B-2 stealth bombers, right side, parked at Camp Thunder Cove in Diego Garcia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, as a U.S. airstrike campaign continues against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
President Donald Trump waves as he departs a reception celebrating Greek Independence Day in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A Yemeni checks debris at his home after U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo)
A Yemeni walks on debris from a destroyed building after it was struck by U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo)
This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)
This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)
Houthi supporters chant slogans and hold pictures of Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi movement, during an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Yemenis clean debris in front of their shops after a U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
FILE – White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz listens to a question from a reporter in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
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This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows B-2 stealth bombers, right side, parked at Camp Thunder Cove in Diego Garcia on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, as a U.S. airstrike campaign continues against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
A new, intense U.S. airstrike campaign shakes Yemen
The Trump campaign began March 15. American warships fired cruise missiles while fighter jets flying off of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier dropped bombs on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, a nation on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula that is the Arab world’s poorest.
“No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World,” Trump said in a social media post announcing the campaign, days after his administration reimposed a “foreign terrorist organization” designation on the Houthis.
So far, the Houthis say the airstrikes have killed 57 people.
That’s just over half the 106 people the Houthis’ secretive leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, claimed the U.S. and U.K. killed during all of 2024. He provided no breakdown of combatants versus noncombatants. Houthi fighters often aren’t in uniform.
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Al-Houthi said the two countries launched over 930 strikes last year. The U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED, has recorded 305 strikes. The discrepancy between the figures could not be immediately reconciled, though the Houthis could be counting individual pieces of ordnance launched, rather than a single event with multiple bombs used, as ACLED does. The rebels also have exaggerated details in the past.
Between March 15 to March 21, ACLED reported 56 events. The campaign also has seen the highest number of events in a week since the American bombing campaign began on Yemen during the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump administration officials have touted the differences between their strikes and those carried out under President Joe Biden.
“The difference is, these were not kind of pin prick, back and forth, what ultimately proved to be feckless attacks,” Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told ABC’s “This Week” on March 16. “This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.”
Waltz has also claimed key members of Houthi leadership, including their “head missileer,” have been killed. The Houthis have not acknowledged any losses in their leadership.
There are indeed clear differences, said Luca Nevola, the senior analyst for Yemen and the Gulf at ACLED. Under Biden, the focus appeared to be on mobile launchers for missiles and drones, then infrastructure, he said. Trump is targeting urban areas more intensely, judging from the number of strikes on cities so far.
“It’s very likely that somehow the Trump administration is pursuing a decapitation strategy,” Nevola added.
The Trump administration is also allowing the U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees Mideast operations, to launch offensive strikes at will, rather than having the White House sign off on each attack as under Biden. That will mean more strikes.
Israel, which has repeatedly been targeted by Houthi missile fire and drones, including Thursday, also launched four rounds of airstrikes in 2024 and another in January.
Less transparency, growing concerns about civilians being harmed
During the Biden administration, Central Command offered details to the public on most strikes conducted during the campaign. Those details often included the target struck and the reason behind it.
Since the start of the new campaign, however, there’s been no similar breakdown.
Donegan, the retired vice admiral, praised that strategy during a recent call hosted by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. “You don’t tell the enemy what you’re going to do, and you don’t tell them what you’re not going to do.”
But that also means the Houthis’ description of targets is the only one that’s public. They’ve claimed two attacks targeted an under-construction cancer clinic in the city of Saada, as well as private homes and crowded city neighborhoods. There’s been no effort so far from the U.S. military to either dispute that or offer evidence to support strikes on those targets.
“It’s an extremely complicated information environment in Yemen,” Tripp, of Airwars, said. “The Houthis have extensive restrictions on (activists) and operations, media and press.”
Even so, some information can be gleaned from Houthi-released footage. One strike around Saada that the Houthis say killed a woman and four children included missile debris. Serial numbers on the fragments correspond to a contract for Tomahawk cruise missiles, an AP examination of the imagery showed. That corresponded to an assessment separately made by Airwars.
Including that Saada strike, Airwars believes it is likely that at least five U.S. strikes in the new Trump campaign that have hurt or killed civilians, based off of videos and photos from the site, Houthi statements and other details.
The U.S. military declined to answer questions regarding possible civilian casualties but said the “Houthis continue to communicate lies and disinformation.”
“CENTCOM won’t provide details on strikes and locations until the operation has concluded, and there is no additional risk to U.S. personnel or assets involved,” it added, using an acronym for Central Command. “At the direction of the president, CENTCOM continues to conduct strikes across multiple Iran-backed Houthi locations every day and night to restore freedom of navigation and restore American deterrence.”
Houthi attacks started over the Israel-Hamas war
From November 2023 — weeks after the Israel-Hamas war began — until January of this year, the Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors.
The rebels said the campaign in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the two waterways was carried out in solidarity with Hamas. It stopped with the ceasefire reached in that war in January.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war.
Since the ceasefire ended, the Houthis have not resumed their attacks on shipping in the vital corridor for cargo and energy shipments moving between Asia and Europe. Still, overall traffic remains sharply reduced.
A European Union naval force has been patrolling the Red Sea and escorting ships, as well as taking Houthi fire. However, the vast majority of Houthi attacks toward military targets has been pointed at U.S. Navy vessels.
More US forces move into Mideast as Yemen’s future in question
That, along with the Truman, will likely give the American military two places to launch aircraft since it hasn’t immediately appeared that any strikes came from bases in other Mideast nations — where public sentiment remains strongly with the Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.
The U.S. military also may be bringing additional firepower, as radio transmissions from B-2 stealth bombers and flight-tracking data suggested the U.S. Air Force is moving a number of the aircraft to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP showed three B-2s parked Wednesday at Camp Thunder Cove on the island. That would provide a closer location for the long-range bombers to launch that’s still far outside of the range of the rebels — and avoids using allies’ Mideast bases.
In October, the Biden administration used the B-2 to target what it described as underground bunkers used by the Houthis.
But the future of Yemen itself remains in question. The Houthis broadly maintain control over the capital of Sanaa and the country’s northwest. Yemen’s exiled government is part of a fractious coalition that for now appears unable to wrest any control back from the rebels. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which launched a war 10 years ago against the Houthis, have pushed for peace talks as fighting appears broadly frozen on the ground.
“The United States can hurt the Houthis, it can weaken them,” wrote Gregory D. Johnsen, a Yemen expert at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, “but without effective ground troops — either its own or someone else’s — it will not be able to eliminate their capabilities.”
The Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI programs could exacerbate an unexpectedly steep drop in diversity among medical school students, even in states like California, where public universities have been navigating bans on affirmative action for decades. Education and health experts warn that, ultimately, this could harm patient care.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued a handful of executive orders aimed at terminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in federally funded programs. And in his March 4 address to Congress, he described the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning the consideration of race in college and university admissions as “brave and very powerful.”
Last month, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights — which lost about 50% of its staff in mid-March — directed schools, including postsecondary institutions, to end race-based programs or risk losing federal funding. The “Dear Colleague” letter cited the Supreme Court’s decision.
Paulette Granberry Russell, president and CEO of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, said that “every utterance of ‘diversity’ is now being viewed as a violation or considered unlawful or illegal.” Her organization filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.
While California and eight other states — Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington — had already implemented bans of varying degrees on race-based admissions policies well before the Supreme Court decision, schools bolstered diversity in their ranks with equity initiatives such as targeted scholarships, trainings, and recruitment programs.
But the court’s decision and the subsequent state-level backlash — 29 states have since introduced bills to curb diversity initiatives, according to data published by the Chronicle of Higher Education — have tamped down these efforts and led to the recent declines in diversity numbers, education experts said.
After the Supreme Court’s ruling, the numbers of Black and Hispanic medical school enrollees fell by double-digit percentages in the 2024-25 school year compared with the previous year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Black enrollees declined 11.6%, while the number of new students of Hispanic origin fell 10.8%. The decline in enrollment of American Indian or Alaska Native students was even more dramatic, at 22.1%. New Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander enrollment declined 4.3%.
“We knew this would happen,” said Norma Poll-Hunter, AAMC’s senior director of workforce diversity. “But it was double digits — much larger than what we anticipated.”
The fear among educators is the numbers will decline even more under the new administration.
At the end of February, the Education Department launched an online portal encouraging people to “report illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning,” stating that students should have “learning free of divisive ideologies and indoctrination.” The agency later issued a “Frequently Asked Questions” document about its new policies, clarifying that it was acceptable to observe events like Black History Month but warning schools that they “must consider whether any school programming discourages members of all races from attending.”
“It definitely has a chilling effect,” Poll-Hunter said. “There is a lot of fear that could cause institutions to limit their efforts.”
Numerous requests for comment from medical schools about the impact of the anti-DEI actions went unreturned. University presidents are staying mum on the issue to protect their institutions, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Utibe Essien, a physician and UCLA assistant professor, said he has heard from some students who fear they won’t be considered for admission under the new policies. Essien, who co-authored a study on the effect of affirmative action bans on medical schools, also said students are worried medical schools will not be as supportive toward students of color as in the past.
“Both of these fears have the risk of limiting the options of schools folks apply to and potentially those who consider medicine as an option at all,” Essien said, adding that the “lawsuits around equity policies and just the climate of anti-diversity have brought institutions to this place where they feel uncomfortable.”
In early February, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against the University of California-San Francisco’s Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland over an internship program designed to introduce “underrepresented minority high school students to health professions.”
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Attorney Andrew Quinio filed the suit, which argues that its plaintiff, a white teenager, was not accepted to the program after disclosing in an interview that she identified as white.
“From a legal standpoint, the issue that comes about from all this is: How do you choose diversity without running afoul of the Constitution?” Quinio said. “For those who want diversity as a goal, it cannot be a goal that is achieved with discrimination.”
UC Health spokesperson Heather Harper declined to comment on the suit on behalf of the hospital system.
Another lawsuit filed in February accuses the University of California of favoring Black and Latino students over Asian American and white applicants in its undergraduate admissions. Specifically, the complaint states that UC officials pushed campuses to use a “holistic” approach to admissions and “move away from objective criteria towards more subjective assessments of the overall appeal of individual candidates.”
The scrutiny of that approach to admissions could threaten diversity at the UC-Davis School of Medicine, which for years has employed a “race-neutral, holistic admissions model” that reportedly tripled enrollment of Black, Latino, and Native American students.
“How do you define diversity? Does it now include the way we consider how someone’s lived experience may be influenced by how they grew up? The type of school, the income of their family? All of those are diversity,” said Granberry Russell, of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. “What might they view as an unlawful proxy for diversity equity and inclusion? That’s what we’re confronted with.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, recently joined other state attorneys general to issue guidance urging that schools continue their DEI programs despite the federal messaging, saying that legal precedent allows for the activities. California is also among several states suing the administration over its deep cuts to the Education Department.
If the recent decline in diversity among newly enrolled students holds or gets worse, it could have long-term consequences for patient care, academic experts said, pointing toward the vast racial disparities in health outcomes in the U.S., particularly for Black people.
A higher proportion of Black primary care doctors is associated with longer life expectancy and lower mortality rates among Black people, according to a 2023 study published by the JAMA Network.
Physicians of color are also more likely to build their careers in medically underserved communities, studies have shown, which is increasingly important as the AAMC projects a shortage of up to 40,400 primary care doctors by 2036.
“The physician shortage persists, and it’s dire in rural communities,” Poll-Hunter said. “We know that diversity efforts are really about improving access for everyone. More diversity leads to greater access to care — everyone is benefiting from it.”