After the forum for racial justice, hosted by the School of Medicine in June, we compiled a listed of questions that team members wanted answered. To start, we have selected and answered two of those questions.

Will you provide or offer any support groups for African American employees to cope with racial issues we face every day and trauma and social anxiety experienced because of unfair treatment?

We are sensitive to the stress caused by racism and inequality being experienced by some of our employees. In addition to the support provided by our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), we are gathering data and employee input in order to determine the most appropriate ways we can provide support now and in the future.

What can be done regarding diversity among medical residents? IMgs most of the time have the mindset that they won’t be accepted after applying.

Increasing the diversity of those underrepresented in medicine within our trainee group is a high priority for the School of Medicine. We are working with each of our training programs to ensure the inclusion of minority applicants in their pools of prospective residents and fellows. Most of our programs accept applications from international medical graduates and these applications are reviewed along with those of U.S. medical school graduates. We recognize our responsibility to have a staff that reflects much of the population we serve. Our trainees are an important part of that. We continue to work with all of our programs to increase the diversity in this group.

At the time this article was published, the School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion was in the process of conducting interviews, focus groups, and developing a survey. Each of these will be used to help inform our next steps. As more questions are answered, we will continue sharing them through our email communications. Click here to continue learning about the Office for Diversity and Inclusion.