Fostering a sense of belonging, leadership’s role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the importance of representation and training were among highlights of a special OUWB event held Monday.

OUWB’s Diversity & Inclusion team, along with the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC), presented a “lunch and learn” to help kick off OUWB Diversity Month.

The event featured welcome messages from school administrators, staff, and students, a presentation from members of the DEIC, and a panel discussion — all focused on DEI-related topics and how they relate to the OUWB community.

Tonya Bailey, Ph.D., associate dean, Diversity & Inclusion and Community Engagement, welcomed everyone in attendance, explaining that programming will showcase the theme, “I am Diversity.”

“We’ve got lectures, panels, films, and so much more planned with you in mind and we definitely hope that you take advantage of it,” said Bailey. “I’m super excited to welcome you to our annual diversity month…we want you to be part of it all.”

“From my heart to yours, welcome to diversity month, we can’t wait to celebrate you,” she added.

Welcome

Brandon Harris, program coordinator, Diversity & Inclusion, and Shreya Desai, M2, president, Medical School Government (MSG) delivered additional messages that personalized and reinforced the month’s theme.

Desai talked about how her parents — both born in India — have played a big role in her understanding of the meaning of diversity.

“(That) has allowed me to see that being diverse isn’t always about the color of your skin, your culture, or your background,” she said. “It’s about understanding other people’s cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives.”

“That’s the main theme…don’t only think of diversity as what you’re seeing or what you might know about somebody,” she said. “Really try to initiate conversations.”

Harris highlighted some of the events that will be held during the OUWB Diversity Month celebration. (The full list can be found here.)

‘A sense of belonging’

The kickoff continued with members of the DEIC presenting priorities for four council subcommittees.

The members were: Trini Mathew, M.D., MPH, associate professor, Department of Internal Medicine, OUWB, and medical director of Infection Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship, Corewell Health Taylor Hospital; Tracey Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Foundational Medical Studies, and assistant dean, Diversity & Inclusion; Katie Weyand, program coordinator, Faculty Affairs; and David Stewart, assistant professor, Medical Librarian.

Weyand represented the enhancement of culture and climate subcommittee, which leads “assessment of students, staff, and faculty to identify trends and perceptions of (the) campus climate to support action plans for transformational and sustainable institutional action.” The subcommittee also includes three students.

She said one initiative the subcommittee is working on is a digital and interactive resource and business guide for the OUWB community. It would offer a list of local resources and events. Information would be updated regularly and with input from the OUWB community.

“It would help foster a sense of belonging…especially for newer members of the OUWB community that might be from out of town, or students who are from all the way across the country,” said Weyand.

Weyand said another initiative being looked at by the subcommittee is having mental health days for M3s and M4s during each clinical rotation.

Next, Stewart talked about the four-member Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) subcommittee, and its work to create a database of DEI-related groups to help people connect. JEDI also is in the planning stage of a team-based learning program to help people understand how to navigate potentially diverse conflict.

Taylor then talked about the DEIC curriculum subcommittee’s work to identify any parts of the OUWB curriculum that has the potential to be improved with regard to DEI.

Last, Mathew featured the stakeholder resource group subcommittee’s work to find new ways to talk about the various DEI-related initiatives underway at OUWB.

Tackling challenges

Along with the DEIC updates, Mathew was part of a panel discussion that also featured Pierre Morris, M.D., associate dean, Clinical Education, OUWB; Chaundra Scott, Ph.D., professor, Human Resource Development, School of Education and Human Services, Oakland University, and Deena Sukhon, M3.

The session was moderated by Aura Cazares, Ph.D., assistant dean of students and director of DEI, Oakland University, and Deirdre Reddix, Ph.D., associate dean, Faculty & Staff Affairs and Professional Development, OUWB.

Panelists were asked to share stories about when they felt a strong sense of community and/or belonging and how that made them feel. They also were asked to talk about the role of leadership in fostering an inclusive culture, what they view as effective models of DEI and DEI training as well as the challenges that are faced in creating “truly diverse and inclusive environments in the workplace” and how those challenges might be addressed.

“The most important thing to tackle those challenges is to have uncomfortable conversations, no matter what,” said Sukhon.

“The challenge is really understanding what our individual role is and living through it,” said Mathew. “(It’s) being intentional and thinking…’Am I doing something that is really adding to the conversation of equity and inclusion or am I doing something that’s detracting from it?’”

Panelists later talked about DEI at OUWB and what needs to be done to promote it at the school.

“We need to have a counter narrative and a counter force,” said Morris. “There’s a lot of assault on DEI at the local, legislative, and judicial levels…our counter measure has to be equal if not more forceful to counteract the onslaught of challenges.”

For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, senior marketing specialist, OUWB, at [email protected].

To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.

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