Event Description

This exciting special event was part of a 3-part webinar series that was hosted and sponsored by the Docs With Disabilities Initiative!

In this session, Lisa Meeks, PhD, Matt Sullivan, PhD, and Suchita Rastogi, PhD, explored the results of a national Delphi study that established a consensus-based list of 75 clinical accommodations for medical students that are being used at MD-granting institutions across the United States. They explained how DM3P, MSDCI, the Docs With Disabilities Initiative, and SMADIE worked together to develop standardized accommodation language to improve communication between medical students, disability resource professionals, and faculty members. This work is an important way to improve equity for disabled learners.

Speakers

Lisa Meeks

Lisa Meeks is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and the founder and co-director of the Docs with Disabilities Initiative (DWDI). Before joining UIC in 2025, Dr. Meeks held the position of Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she also served on the admissions committee. An internationally recognized scholar in disability inclusion, Dr. Meeks has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in premier journals such as JAMA, Academic Medicine, and Medical Education. She is also editor and author of the seminal books and key book chapters on disability inclusion in health professions education. She serves on the ACGME committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and is currently acting as the Guest Editor of the Academic Medicine Supplement on Disability Inclusion in Medical Education.

Matt Sullivan

Matt Sullivan is a research-oriented practitioner dedicated to promoting disability awareness and inclusion within the higher education environment. He serves as the Assistant Director of Disability Resources at Washington University in St. Louis and as Disability Resources’ liaison to WashU’s School of Medicine. Additionally, Dr. Sullivan serves as a co-curriculum developer and instructor for the Disability Resource Professional (DRP) Academy, a highly focused, hybrid professional development experience for disability resource professionals seeking expertise in medical education. Matt previously served the Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) as a member of the Professional Competencies working group assisting in the creation of the organization’s guiding professional standards, and was Chief of Staff on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Coalition for Disability Access in Health Sciences Education.

Suchita Rastogi

Suchita Rastogi is the CEO and Executive Director of the Disability in Medicine Mutual Mentorship Program (DM3P), which she co-founded based on her lived experiences navigating college, graduate school, and medical school with multiple chronic illnesses. As DM3P’s CEO, she wears many hats, including mentor, supervisor, visionary, event planner, grant writer, editor, and more. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity and is working towards a Masters in Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is working towards a career in disability health equity research and policy.