Departmental Development

    • We’ve developed a Mentorship Toolkit to support mentorship across faculty tracks and staff roles. Our goal is to encourage diversity within the department and beyond.
  • Diversity Dashboard:
    • The Diversity Dashboard allows us to monitor diversity, inclusion, and health equity across leadership, recruitment, faculty development, and training opportunities.
  • Statewide Lecture Series on Diversity Equity, and Inclusion:
  • Implicit Bias Training:
    • In partnership with the UW-Madison Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI), we  expanded training on racial and gender bias. Our efforts began with a workshop in November 2015 and continue to educate locally and nationally.
  • Strategies for Exit Interview Completion:
    • We’ve implemented strategies to enhance understanding of staff turnover and improve retention practices.
    • These caucuses provide department members with the opportunity to explore racial and ethnic experiences within their own racial/ethnic groups. Our aim is to foster deeper understanding and promote anti-racist practices.

Medical Student Education

  • Teaching “Health Care in Diverse Communities”:
    • We collaborate with colleagues from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) to teach the elective course “Health Care in Diverse Communities.” This course aims to provide insights into diverse health care contexts.

Resident Education

  • Health Equity Seminar Series:
    • Our DFMCH faculty and staff lead a longitudinal seminar series for residents. The focus is on health disparities and structural competency, covering topics such as racism, privilege, intersectionality, and resilience.
  • Community Health Learning Experiences:
    • DFMCH residents actively engage in community health learning experiences. We emphasize  applying an equity and empowerment lens with guidance from the Office of Community Health and faculty mentors.
  • Diversity and Inclusion Advocates Program:
    • We’ve partnered with UW SMPH’s Diversity and Inclusion Advocates Program.  Our joint efforts focus on training faculty and administrators to broaden the applicant pool and ensure fair evaluation criteria. Our goal is to foster inclusivity at SMPH.
  • Collaboration with SMPH’s Center for Collaborative Health Equity:
    • We work closely with SMPH’s Center for Collaborative Health Equity. Together we  advance initiatives to improve health equity in Wisconsin’s underserved areas through education, research, and community partnerships.

History

After learning about local disparities reported in the Race to Equity report by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families in October 2013, and after admitting a residency class lacking any people of color, the DFMCH began intentionally focusing on efforts to address issues of diversity, inclusion, and health equity.

From October 2014 through March 2015, the DFMCH sponsored the 2020 Initiative, an effort to engage our statewide department on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our objectives were to:

  • Increase awareness of diversity issues in our geographical community, patient populations, and department
  • Identify and prioritize potential interventions that can increase department responsiveness to diversity issues
  • Develop a strategy that assures a departmental commitment to health equity, diversity and inclusion

Identifying Gaps

We conducted a comprehensive cultural climate survey across the department, drawing from the Ring, J. Nyquist, J. et al. (2008) guide on culturally responsive health care and included evolving demographic data comparing our state and department to national trends from AAMC, as well as findings from our survey and local community disparity data,  including the Race to Equity Project report and presentation (October 2013) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation Race for Results.

Considering Best Practices

In 2014, we conducted sessions with residency faculty and with community physicians, APPs and clinic managers. These sessions introduced best practices in diversity and health equity, utilizing an equity and empowerment lens toolkit from Multnomah County, OR, and resources from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The initiative aimed to provide guidance on integrating these practices into departmental operations.

Brainstorming Strategic Intention

In 2014, we brought in professional facilitators to assist members from across the statewide department to brainstorm a strategy to address issues of diversity, inclusion and health equity across the educational, research and clinical arms of our department.

Developing Institutional Structure

In the spring of 2015, we developed a proposal for Phase 2 “Action Plan” that included creating a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee which was convened in the summer of 2015.

Our Charge

In 2020 Interim-Chair, Dr. William Schwab, charged the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee to lead anti-racism and social justice efforts within the department. This involved making recommendations to advance understanding of personal and structural racism, and implementing changes in collaboration with the DFMCH Executive Team and community input.

The initiative aimed to foster inward-facing anti-racism efforts, promoting cultural humility, empowering BIPOC individuals, and encouraging white allies to mentor and lead anti-racism efforts. Outward-facing goals included systemic anti-racism and health equity work across recruitment, retention, selection practices, research engagement, clinical improvements, educational curriculum, and accountability through a DEI dashboard.

In 2024, UW Health assigned a DEI Manager to our department, in an effort to continue DEI initiatives. More information on current DEI work throughout the UW-School of Medicine and Public Health can be found on the SMPH website.