Diversity & Inclusion

Developing a rich culture starts with a conscious, deliberate effort to recruit diverse students, faculty and staff who add depth of experience and worldviews to the organization. To achieve these results we created innovative recruitment programs. They include:

• Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP) — a free six-week summer enrichment program focused on improving access to information and resources for college students from communities underrepresented in the health professions, including but not limited to, individuals who identify as African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latino. These individuals are typically from socioeconomically and educationally disadvantaged communities. SHPEP offers students a number of academic and career experiences, including an introduction to inter-professional education that addresses effective collaboration across health professions.
• Dent-Stay Program — pairs URM dental school applicants who have been selected for an interview with URM dental student volunteers giving applicants an opportunity to connect with someone they can identify with.
• Dental Immersion Day — pipeline program to bring high school students of Hispanic/Latino origin to a Saturday immersive program in dentistry:
  • Lectures and pre-clinical dentistry activities for 25 students.
  • Concurrent program for parents to become familiar with college presentation and financial aid.
  • Held in cooperation with the Alabama State Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA).
• Faculty Mentoring Program — for URM students interested in admission to dental school.
• Impressions Program — hosted by the School’s national award winning Student National Dental Association (SNDA). The program exposes URM pre-dental college students to a career in dentistry through activities and interactions (lectures, PCD, DAT prep, seminars) that assist attendees in becoming stronger dental school applicants.

In addition to student recruitment, senior leadership personally interviews all final faculty and staff candidates as a part of the employee recruitment process. This helps further evaluate their attitude, effort and the sense of inclusion they would add to the culture we are working to build.

UAB’s biennial Campus Engagement Survey provides the School of Dentistry with an invaluable, unbiased snapshot of the attitudes and behaviors — including thoughts, opinions, and comments — about what is really on the minds of faculty and staff. The analyzed results helped us identify what we are doing well and where we have opportunities for improvements.

We are committed to creating an environment of involvement, respect, and connection where the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives. As such, the 2019 survey results were shared with faculty and staff and school leaders have created opportunities for faculty and staff input to generate discussion on improving our culture. These opportunities include department meetings, school-wide faculty and staff meetings, focus groups and diversity education programs.

The School of Dentistry believes in building a multicultural environment that embraces the uniqueness of all individuals and fosters a team environment. Our theory is that diversity of thought is a concept that is learned and can be taught while building a culture of inclusivity.

Our educational programs include:

• The Common Thread — a diversity toolkit, designed in collaboration with the Schools of Medicine and Health Professions, to explore the concept of inclusivity within the UAB family and the part each of us play in its advancement
• Title IX — a workshop on setting boundaries between faculty and students. This was required training for all full time faculty. Faculty found it to be engaging, informative, and impactful training
• Human Trafficking — raised awareness of this modern form of slavery and the health care provider’s role, leading to protocols for recognizing and reporting suspected cases
• Opioid Addiction — addressed the issues surrounding chronic pain management leading to changes in protocol for prescribing opioids
• Dentistry Cultural Advancement Team (DCAT) — a series of programs designed for students, staff, and faculty, campus-wide, to come together in a casual setting to inspire thought and generate discussion on numerous topics including diversity, equity, and inclusion. This program provides attendees the opportunity to network together, get to know each other better, and helps us understand and value different perspectives.
• Student Curriculum — first year dental students are introduced to cultural awareness through educational courses:
  • Ethics in Dentistry
  • Dentistry and Culture
  • Cultural Competency
  Through our more than twenty external and voluntary community rotation sites, the dental student experience is enriched by working with racially and ethnically diverse patients
• Excellence in Continued Enrichment and Learning (EXCEL) — three or four times a year the School organizes a day of training for faculty and staff. Some of the program topics covered to date include:
  • Diversity Training — Cultural Awareness
  • Communication and Team Building
  • Backward Teaching Design
  • Sexual Harassment
  • Exceptional Service Experience
  • Rubrics as a Teaching Tool
  • Faculty Calibration
  • Critical Thinking

We believe community service and experiential learning are critical components of education because it provides students, faculty, and staff with a diverse experience they may otherwise never get. Programs include:

• UAB Dentistry Cares Community Day — once a year the School of Dentistry partners with more than 300 community dentists and volunteers across campus to provide a free day of care for patients from local homeless and domestic abuse shelters in the Birmingham area.
• UAB Community Month — an annual celebration of campus diversity was sponsored by the School of Dentistry with a campus-wide presentation of “The Common Thread.”
• ALAHEDO — school diversity officers participate in an annual meeting of the Alabama Association of Higher Education Diversity Officers.
• Portfolio Assessment — students develop and carryout group and individual community service projects. One of the outcomes is dental students come to understand access to dental care is not equitably distributed. Now, students willingly volunteer to spend 2-4 weeks providing care at 20 different underserved sites. Through these experiences, students are addressing an important aspect of equity and inclusion and opening the doors to equalize access to care.
• Poverty Simulation — is a joint venture between the College of Arts and Sciences, Schools of Nursing, Health Professions, Public Health, Dentistry, Medicine and the UAB Health System through the Office of Inter-professional Simulation for Innovative Clinical Practice. At the end of the simulation, students break into small inter-professional groups to discuss their experience of living the life of a low income family.
• Alabama Chapter of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) — a 200-hour service project to improve the health of vulnerable people by developing a corps of emerging professionals who enter the workforce with the skills and commitment necessary to address unmet health needs. This year-long educational experience provides Fellows with the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge and skills rarely found in traditional training.
• International Women’s Day — an annual celebration of the economic, cultural, political and social achievements of women.
• Lessons In A Lunchbox — an SNDA sponsored community oral health literacy program designed specifically for elementary schools:
  • Demonstrates proper oral hygiene and exposes students to dentistry.
  • Each student receives a lunch box of oral health brochures and goodies such as toothbrushes and toothpaste.
• Give Kids A Smile — is an event to provide a free day of dental care to underserved children.
• TeamSmile — partnership with the SOD and UAB Athletics to provide free oral health education, screening, and treatment to underserved children in the community.
• UAB Grand Challenge — designed to energize the outstanding talent on and around our campus to participate in identifying and solving complex societal problems. The School of Dentistry faculty, in collaboration with the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Engineering and two SOD alumni, submitted two applications:
  • REACH (Re-engineering Equal Access to Comprehensive Healthcare)
  • Opioid Overdose Prevention and Treatment Using Precision Medicine

Creating cross-functional teams comprised of men and women who are intergenerational and unique stimulates new thinking, which leads to greater creativity and possibilities. Where gaps and barriers in diversity and equity are identified, inclusion plays a vital role in addressing deficiencies. Our inclusive efforts include:

• Food for Thought — meetings with students to gather their input on how to improve the student experience
• Faculty Town Hall — meetings with faculty to gather their input on how to improve the faculty experience
• Message From the Dean/Showcase of Success — email to faculty, staff, students, and alumni where we share our successes and various aspects of leadership and diversity
• Faculty and Staff Meetings/Town Halls — a series of meetings where we share school and campus information, and encouraging feedback
• Department Meetings
• Focus Groups — small groups of faculty, staff, and students brought together for the purpose of improving the school’s culture
• Digital Signage — use digital signage to communicate school and university-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives