Culture Corner

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Trainees,

This October marks the 80th anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). What began in 1945 as a week recognizing workers with physical disabilities expanded in 1988 to honor people with all disabilities. In the Department of Medicine, we recognize the vital role that our faculty, staff, and trainees with disabilities play across research, education, and patient care. The Stanford Medicine Alliance for Disability Inclusion and Equity (SMADIE) is hosting various events throughout the month to promote awareness and inclusion. 

Additionally, SMADIE is launching a Disability Champion pilot program. The Culture and Community Building Council is seeking volunteer faculty, staff, and trainees who are interested in serving in this capacity. As a Disability Champion, you will advocate for and advise DoM community members. Please use this link to express your interest by Monday, October 20th.

As we honor NDEAM, we also reflect on the many ways our community has come together recently to celebrate culture and community.

Our community shared your stories and engaged with colleagues as we celebrated Women in Medicine Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. Hosted programs included annual group photo shoots, a community poetry project, an Inclusion Rounds Panel with Latina faculty, and a community event honoring Latino contributions to medicine. 

Next week, join us as we recognize National Coming Out Day with an Inclusion Rounds Panel on Tuesday, October 21 from 12-1pm in the Clark Center Seminar Room S363. The panel will feature Dr. Leslee Subak, Dr. Tandy Aye, and Amy Whelan, Esq. Food and drinks will be provided. Register here. 

Thank you for your commitment to building a supportive and thriving culture within the Department of Medicine!

In solidarity, 

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Culture and Community Building

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Faculty Engagement and Leadership Development

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for Culture and Community Building

“The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.” – Gloria Steinem

We celebrate Women’s History Month each March; beginning as a Women’s History “Week” in 1981, it became its own month in 1987. International Women’s Day (IWD) started formally in 1911 by Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark and is now celebrated worldwide. This year’s IWD theme is #AccelerateAction – “a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activity that positively impact women's advancement, and to support and elevate their implementation.”

Over the course of the month, there are events – open to all across Stanford Medicine and the University – to celebrate and recognize Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8). Please see this post for more details, including a feature on Dr. Beverly Mitchell from our department. You can also download and display our newly designed International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month Zoom backgrounds.

To all of the women: we honor and celebrate what you bring to the Department of Medicine. At a time when women’s rights are under attack, we are especially grateful to you all for your passion, hard work, and perseverance.

In solidarity,

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Faculty Engagement and Leadership Development

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Last month, we celebrated the life, legacy, and impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose vision for equality and justice proved to be pivotal for the nonviolent civil rights movement and continues to be needed today. 

As part of that celebration, our own Joyce Sackey, MD, FACP, joined Lerone Martin, MDiv, PhD, the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute for a fireside chat on building a more equitable and just healthcare system for all. Members of the community also came together for a screening of Dr. King’s renowned speech, "The Other America," delivered at Stanford University in April 1967. This is a powerful critique of systemic racism, economic inequality, and social injustice in the US.  

February is Black History Month, a time to reflect and celebrate diversity across our department and showcase the many ways Black and African Americans have contributed and continue to contribute meaningfully to our collective health. 

As an opportunity to educate ourselves and others on the experiences of Black Americans in this country, we invite you to explore the many resources and events hosted across Stanford Medicine; you can also learn about the history of Black History Month, donate blood, support a Black-owned business, or attend the Black Joy Parade in Oakland on the 23rd of February.  

We hope you enjoy this month’s Black History Month Grand Rounds series, which has been running for five years. This year, the series features guest speakers from UC San Francisco and UC Los Angeles alongside our own faculty, Dr. Melody Smith. All series event recordings will be posted to our YouTube channel as soon as they are available. 

Our department is also hosting a special Inclusion Rounds on February 13th with CEO and Founder of Equify Health (and Stanford patient), Sylvie Leotin; together, we will examine how common clinical practices can unintentionally contribute to health disparities. We hope you will join us in person or online for these community gatherings. 

With the significant changes and challenges our country is currently facing, we want to take this opportunity to restate our ongoing commitment to building an academic community based on mutual respect, celebration of differences, and a sense of belonging for every member. 

In solidarity, 

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Dear colleagues,

Happy Fall! We hope everyone had a wonderful summer and that you are now feeling re-energized as we embark on a new academic year together. As we look forward to the months ahead, we want to share our enthusiasm for the many events that will celebrate our rich, diverse community within the Department of Medicine.

First, we are excited to recognize National Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) from September 15 to October 15. This month we uplift the heritage of fellow Americans who identify as Hispanic/Latine, and encourage everyone to participate in upcoming events, including Medicine Grand Rounds with AHRQ Director Robert Valdez, PhD, MHSA, on Wednesday, October 16 (to be held in Li Ka Shing Center Room 120 and on Zoom). We also invite you to catch up on the department’s written and video spotlights (we kicked off with former DoM interim chair Bonnie Maldonado), and Stanford Medicine Residency’s spotlights for National Latino Physician Day (October 1) Twitter/X campaign. 

October also marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), in which we, as a community, embrace and celebrate the talents and skills of workers with disabilities and to promote the right to equal employment opportunity for all. In the spirit of this important observance, the DEI Council will host “Allyship in Action: Addressing Ableism in Medical Training” on October 29. This special panel discussion will feature trainees Maite Van Hentenryck, Zainub Dhanani, and Meaghan Roy-O'Reilly, as they share their experiences navigating medicine with disabilities. 

Additionally, though September’s Women in Medicine Month (WIMM) has officially come to an end, it’s not too late to visit our DoM WIMM 2024 website and catch up on original perspectives of inspiring women, recordings from this month’s themed Medicine Grand Rounds, and our annual group WIMM photos. You can be certain we will continue to highlight the invaluable contributions of women in medicine all year long. Let Winnona Alba (winnona@stanford.edu) know if you would like to watch the Ms.Diagnosed Inclusion Rounds film panel discussion. The recording is available upon request. 

Last, but certainly not least, we hope you have been enjoying our Inclusion 2024: Allyship initiatives. You may have already watched the first instances of our Acts of Allyship video series, which feature community members reflecting on what allyship means and looks like to them and sharing their most cherished memories of when people showed up for them, in big and small ways. Thus far, it has been our distinct pleasure to highlight faculty members Maria Juarez-Reyes and Tara Chang and administrative staff members Jacqueline Baliton and Nicole Corso. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone you know with a great perspective on allyship or a unique allyship story to tell, please contact the central communications team at domcentral-comms@stanford.edu. 

We are excited about all these initiatives and look forward to celebrating our vibrant community together. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our department. As a helpful reference for your event planning, we are providing a list of upcoming religious holidays and observances. 

In solidarity,

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Upcoming Notable Dates (2024) 

Access full ORSL list of religious observances

• Oct 3-12 Navaratri (Hindu)
• Oct 11-12 Yom Kuppur (Jewish)
• Oct 16-18 Sukkot (Jewish)
• Oct 23-24 Shemini Atzeret (Jewish)
• Oct 24-25 Simchat Torah (Jewish)
• Oct 31 Samhain (Pagan, Wiccan)
• Nov 1 Diwali (Hindu)
• Nov 2-3 Twin Holy Birthdays: Birth of Bab/Baha'u'llah (Baha’i)
• Dec 24 Christmas Eve (Christian)
• Dec 25 Christmas (Christian)
• Dec 25-Jan 2 Hanukkah/Chanukah (Jewish)
• Dec 26-Jan 1 Kwanzaa (Pan-African)

You voted and we listened! As we embark on our fourth year of Inclusion-focused programming, we are thrilled to announce that Inclusion 2024 is focused on the theme of allyship. We are excited to explore together what allyship means to each of us and shed light on the big and small ways people have shown up for others and how others can show up for us. 

What is allyship? 

Guided by an understanding of allyship as a verb, not a noun; as an action, not an identity, we will spend 2024 cultivating shared spaces for the exploration of our diverse and multifaceted experiences with allyship. 

As in the Association of American Medical College’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) report quoting Forbes, we define allyship as “a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people.” Through allyship we develop strategies that support everyone as we create more respectful and inclusive workplace environments.

We invite everyone in the Department of Medicine community to review and carefully consider the conceptual framework for allyship outlined by GWIMS below. We hope it will provide us all with a solid foundation for our joint learning journey with Inclusion programming, and a helpful reference point we can return to, again and again.

If you would like to learn more about allyship, including what it means, its history, and what has been written on the subject, check out the AAMC’s full GWIMS Toolkit, “A Guide to Allyship.”

Announcing our new Community Allyship Video Spotlight Series–Participate now!

In addition to asking our Inclusion Rounds presenters this year to engage with our annual theme, we are looking forward to Inclusion 2024’s new Community Allyship Video Spotlight Series, which will feature (faculty/staff/trainee) community members each month talking about what allyship means and looks like to them and sharing their most cherished memories of when people showed up for them, in big and small ways. 

If you would like to nominate someone with a great perspective on allyship or a unique allyship story to tell, please contact the central communications team at domcentral-comms@stanford.edu. 

We hope you will participate in this new series–the more voices represented, the better!

In solidarity, 

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Like everyone else, we were deeply disturbed to hear about the horrifying hit-and-run currently being investigated as a hate crime that occurred on campus Friday afternoon. Attacks on Muslim, Arab, and Jewish students—fueled by rampant Islamophobia and antisemitism—are on the rise nationally, and this shows that, unfortunately, Stanford is no exception. We are deeply concerned for our Muslim, Arab, and Jewish community members: We must all continue to strive to make our community safe for everyone.

We join the Vice Provost of Student Affairs (VPSA) leaders who recently expressed gratitude that the student who was injured is receiving medical care and that the Dean of Students’ team has been in touch with the individual to offer support. We echo their appreciation for The Markaz Resource Center and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, who responded quickly and poured their hearts into being there for this student and for the Stanford community at large. We are likewise grateful for the staff at Stanford Hillel who have been working overtime to support Jewish community members during this scary and upsetting time.

We would like to take this opportunity to share a couple of important safety resources currently available to our DoM community members: 

• For those working at Stanford Health Care (SHC) buildings on campus (e.g. the hospital or the clinics), please know you can call SHC Security to request an escort for safety (e.g. for walking to your car). They need only 1-2 hours advance notice to be there at a specific time. The number is 650-723-2222 (and is printed on everyone's badge for quick reference).

• Contact 5-SURE Safe Ride for an on-campus after hours ride service (operating 8pm-2am), available to Stanford faculty, staff, and students.

Our DEI team has also been sharing community circles that are being organized by the University. To be notified of these, please join our DEI listserv by emailing Winnona Alba (winnona@stanford.edu). Our hearts go out to our entire community, many of whom are hurting right now.

In solidarity, 

Bonnie Maldonado, Interim Chair

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Katie M. Kanagawa, Director of Communications

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

This month we uplift the heritage of fellow Americans who identify as Hispanic/Latine.  We are not a monolith.  We are people who honor family and ancestors who called over 40 countries—from Spain, North America, Central and South America to the Caribbean Islands— home.  We are people who speak English, Spanish, French, Quechua, Zapotec…this list is not exhaustive.  We are black, white, indigenous, mestizo and multi-racial. 

We have called the Bay Area home our entire lives; our families planted roots here to provide us opportunities. Our families hail from different parts of Mexico, but their respective journeys to the US were similar— arduous, lengthy, and sometimes heart wrenching. Their migration journeys resonate with many communities served by Stanford Medicine; nearly 25% of the Bay Area identifies as Hispanic or Latine.

We can tell you that we prefer the terms Chicana, Latina, Mexican and Mexican-American to describe ourselves, and even amongst the women who identify as such, we are different. While one of us is first generation, raised by Catholic immigrants who came here as adults with no formal education, the other one of us has called the Bay Area home for generations and has parents who navigated institutions of higher learning.  We can both say that us obtaining college degrees changed the trajectory for our families.  We were taught that education was the key to a career, upward mobility, stability, and the fulfillment of the dreams of our ancestors who left their homes for a better life. Despite our multiple degrees and certifications, we have learned through our lived experiences that education is not enough in a world left with the residue of xenophobic laws and outlooks that can look like unconscious bias in the hiring process, pay disparities, or a lack of career development opportunities masked by words such as “you are not a fit” or “you lack business acumen.”

We are thankful for the space we have been given—that we earned—to amplify voices of the Hispanic/Latine Community and to make space for our community. Latines represent nearly 40% of California but only 11% of Stanford School of Medicine (SOM) staff and 6% of US physicians. Encouraging representation in academic medical institutions, including senior roles where decisions are made, can lead to a more inclusive workforce, and foster positive relationships with the communities we serve.

In our department, the Department of Medicine, this has translated into programs and initiatives to recruit, retain, and engage staff, such as outreach to local universities, including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), career development through our Leadership Development Program for Non-Academic Staff, and our #DOM-Staff-Inclusion Slack channel that includes over 300 members.  

We know we can do better; 11% is not enough and nationally earning 54 cents to the dollar is not either.  What can we do at the Stanford SOM to create a more inclusive work environment, especially for Hispanic/Latine staff? We encourage you to leverage existing resources that promote inclusion in the workplace. The Stanford SOM’s JEDI Team has created resource guides to support managers throughout the employee lifecycle. The University has curated ongoing curriculum through the IDEAL Learning Journey. 

Additionally, if you are a manager, ask yourself how you can invest in and develop your staff who belong to social identity groups that have been historically excluded and minoritized in academic medicine. It is through your investments and their successes that we can create the cultural transformations we hope to see in the workplace, so that we may one day increase visibility and representation in leadership and amongst all staff communities.

In solidarity,

Cecile Bonini and Karina Delgado-Carrasco 

Cecile Bonini (she/her/ella)

Director of Staff HR, Department of Medicine

Stanford School of Medicine

Karina Delgado-Carrasco (she/her/hers)

Director of Education Programs, Department of Medicine

Stanford School of Medicine

Dear Colleagues,

As we contemplate our shared focus on increasing belonging in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, we would like to share a joint statement on religious and spiritual diversity. 

We embrace diversity and the richness it adds to our community, including the diversity of faiths and spiritualities present among us. 

It is important to foster inclusivity regarding individuals’ religions, spirituality, and world view, such that people feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work—if they so choose. We also recognize and honor that some prefer to keep their religious beliefs or spirituality private. 

In that spirit, we share the following tips to build inclusivity around religion and spirituality:

• Add the Office for Religious and Spiritual Life’s religious observances calendar to your Stanford calendar.

• Refer to the calendar and avoid scheduling events or programming on religious holidays. 

• Be mindful of how religious symbols or traditions are incorporated into holiday and end-of-year messaging. 

• Provide accommodations for people’s religious observances, such as midday prayers or dietary restrictions. (Religious accommodations are also required by federal law.) If you have questions about accommodations, please reach out to your HR team or the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

Given that the religious observances calendar is an exhaustive list of observances big and small, we have included a short list of significant holidays that fall (or can fall) on weekdays within the academic calendar below to serve as a starting point. 

Significant Observations That Can Fall During the Academic Calendar and Work Week:

• Rosh Hashanah

• Yom Kippur

• Passover

• Good Friday

• Eid al-Fitr

• Eid al-Adha

• Shavuot

This list is a starting point and there may be other significant observations during the academic calendar. As a best practice, consult the Office for Religious and Spiritual Life’s religious observances calendar when scheduling events.

We look forward to learning from our colleagues who are already supporting inclusion and belonging for these observances and others as we work to support religious and spiritual diversity in our departments. To further explore inclusivity in this area, we will be having an Inclusion Rounds with Tiffany Steinwert, a Dean for ORSL, on September 14th at 12pm PT.

The university does not promote a particular religion or spirituality, nor does it discriminate against any student, staff, faculty, affiliate, or community member on the basis of religion or spirituality. 

In solidarity, 

Your DEI Leaders from the Departments of Medicine and of Pediatrics

Wendy Caceres, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion, Medicine

Tamara Dunn, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion, Medicine

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair of Women in Medicine, Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs, Medicine

Baraka Floyd, Associate Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice, Pediatrics

Allison Guerin, Senior Director of Education and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice, Pediatrics

Emmett Griffith, Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice, Pediatrics

Avani Chitre, HEAL Initiative Coordinator, Pediatrics

Dear colleagues, 

Following up on the Update on Mifepristone Legal Developments sent to medical providers late last week by Elaine Ziemba, Sarah DiBoise, and Erin Abood (forwarded below), we would like to make the following internal statement: 

As a department, we all value providing compassionate care and decreasing barriers to healthcare access for our patients. Abortion is healthcare, and we, as department leaders, want to take this opportunity to recommit ourselves and our combined efforts to doing what we can to ensure continued and expanded access to abortion both locally and nationally. 

Here are four actions we can all take today:

1. Donate. Consider donations to national organizations such as the National Abortion Fund, NAF, and ACLU. 

2. Speak up and encourage our colleagues to do so as well. Destigmatizing abortion and all reproductive healthcare is critical. 

3. Practice self-care. Understandably, many of us feel personally and professionally affected with this news, and it undoubtedly adds to stressors we are already experiencing. Please care for yourself in whatever way you need, whether that is via activism, rest, gathering with others who feel similarly, or something else.

4. Vote in every election. If you reside in CA state, check your voter registration status and register to vote.

If you are interested in learning more:

• ACOG summary

• ACLU “At Liberty” Podcast (30 minute listen on the legal merits of this case)

• This case will likely head to the Supreme Court, but what the status of mifepristone will be is still unclear.

• For a perspective of the case from a legal expert, check out this article from the other Kate Shaw.

In solidarity,

Wendy Caceres, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion

Tamara Dunn, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair of Women in Medicine

Katie Kanagawa, Director of Communications

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Dear Colleagues,

We strongly condemn the antisemitic incident on campus earlier this month in which swastikas and an image of Adolf Hitler were left on a student’s residence hall door. Unfortunately, as university administrators shared in a letter to students, it is not the first antisemitic incident reported at Stanford this year.

The recent events on campus are part of a broader increase in antisemitism across the United States. Antisemitic incidents hit a record high nationwide in 2019 and again in 2021, according to data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). (The ADL has not yet released tracking data for 2022.) Last month, white supremacist groups called for an antisemitic National Day of Hate. This has taken a significant toll on Jewish Americans–the ADL found nearly two-thirds of American Jews feel less safe than they did a decade ago.

We also recognize antisemitism’s long historical roots—it is often referred to as the oldest hatred—and how it has impacted past generations of Stanford students and applicants. In 2022, a task force found the university actively limited the admission of Jewish students in the 1950s. These practices and the subsequent denial of them are reprehensible.

Let us be clear: There is no tolerance for antisemitism in our department. Everyone has the right to feel safe on campus, without fear of bias, persecution, or harm. We stand with the Jewish community on campus and beyond.

If you experience or have experienced antisemitism within the department or on campus, we urge you to share your experience with someone you trust, whether a supervisor, HR staff member, or one of us. We are ready to provide support, connect you with resources, and hold perpetrators accountable. 

Below, we list resources and recommendations that are actionable for all department members, the latter based in part on the 2022 task force’s recommendations for enhancing the experience of Jewish people on campus. 

In solidarity,

Wendy Caceres, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion

Tamara Dunn, Associate Chair of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair of Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Resources:

• Office for Religious and Spiritual Life

• Hillel at Stanford

• Jewish Student Groups on Campus

• Ruach, a network of Jewish emotional and spiritual volunteers providing short-term support to help meet immediate emotional and spiritual needs.

Recommendations:

• Do not schedule events or programs over the Jewish High Holidays, specifically Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. 

  • These holidays fall near the beginning of the academic year, so take particular care not to schedule welcome events or orientations on these important holidays. 

  • Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 15 and ends on September 17 in  2023. 

  • Yom Kippur begins at sundown on September 24 and ends on September 25 in 2023. 

• Educate yourself on Jewish history and culture, as well as antisemitism and its long history. 

• Include Jews and Jewish identity in training and programming intended to increase equity and inclusion. To quote the task force report:

  “Failing to address Jews and antisemitism in specific campus-based educational efforts intended to embrace the diversity of the Stanford community sends everyone the message that Jews are not an American minority that still faces systematic hatred. This, in turn, reinforces the sense that antisemitism is not an issue worthy of attention and that serves as tacit support for or tolerance of antisemitic beliefs or actions.”

A message for Women’s History Month 2023

Women’s History Month began as “Women’s History Week” in 1981 and became its own month in 1987. Each year across the whole campus, we celebrate the contributions and achievements of women, cis-gender and transgender. This past year, we also witnessed and continue to witness the reversal of Roe vs Wade and the ensuing cascade of states limiting access to abortion; human rights atrocities in Iran after the murder of Mahsa Amini; most recently the intentional poisoning of classrooms of schoolgirls; state laws that harm and condemn the personhood of trans people; disparities in maternal mortality. We acknowledge the magnitude of the work that remains. 

Over the course of the month, there are multiple events both within our department and across Stanford Medicine and the University to celebrate and recognize Women’s History. Tomorrow, March 8th also marks International Women’s Day.

March 8th, 8am: Dr. Michele Barry will be presenting on WomenLiftHealth for Medicine Grand Rounds for International Women’s Day

March 8th, 3pm: Stanford University’s Faculty Women’s Forum hosts Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, Stanford Graduate School of Business, on Acting with Power. This event is in person at the Knight Management Center from 3pm-4:30pm. Register here.

March 28th, 1pm: DoM All-Staff Meeting celebrating Women’s History Month–Panel discussion in person (location TBD) and on zoom. 

On campus: check out this post on further University-wide events.

We are all on this journey together, recognizing we cannot build the brightest future unless we gaze at our past rather than looking away. How will you celebrate Women’s History Month? If there’s something you’re reading or watching, we’d love to hear about it. And to all the women out there, we see you and value what you bring to the Department of Medicine.

Stephanie Harman

Arghavan Salles

Tamara Dunn 

Wendy Caceres

"There is no American history without African American history," said Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C. The Black experience, she said, is embedded in "everything we think of as 'American history.'" [Read more]

What is Black History Month?

According to NPR, “It was Carter G. Woodson, the ‘father of Black history,’ who first set out in 1926 to designate a time to promote and educate people about Black history and culture… Woodson envisioned a weeklong celebration to encourage the coordinated teaching of Black history in public schools. He designated the second week of February as Negro History Week and galvanized fellow historians through the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which he founded in 1915.

The idea eventually grew in acceptance, and by the late 1960s, Negro History Week had evolved into what is now known as Black History Month. Protests around racial injustice, inequality and anti-imperialism that were occurring in many parts of the U.S. were pivotal to the change.”

Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history.

Why we celebrate Black History Month

As an academic community wholly committed to reflecting and celebrating diversity, we embrace Black History Month as an opportunity to: educate ourselves and others on the rich cultural heritage, triumphs and adversities of Black and African Americans; ensure a sense of belonging for our Black community members; establish a culture of anti-racism; and move towards justice through our daily work together.

We hope you enjoyed this month’s Black History Month Grand Rounds series, which has been running for three years now. Here are the recordings in case you missed them or would like to revisit!

• Achieving Pharmacoequity: A Prescription for Justice in Health (Utibe Essien)--please do not share this recording outside the internal Stanford DoM community

• Cardiac Amyloidosis: An Underdiagnosed, Not Rare Disease (Kevin Alexander)

• Race, Inequality, and Health in America (Linda Villarosa)

• Striving Towards Health Equity and Justice (Joyce Sackey)

We were looking forward to capping off our month-long celebration with a live performance of West African Dance from Tyre Garrett and the Kuumba Dance Team on February 28th. However, given the inclement weather in the Bay Area, we have opted to reschedule. Please stay tuned for new event details.

What you can do next

• Support a Black-owned business

• Mentor someone from the Stanford HBMC Summer Mentorship Program [2022 cohort pictured above]

  • Mentors from all of our divisions/units are most welcome to volunteer; please review the program/dates/logistics/expectations here. If interested, reach out to your division manager or DoM DFA Cathy Garzio (cgarzio@stanford.edu).

• For more actions non-black health care professionals can take, read Everyone Must Address Anti-Black Racism in Health Care.

In solidarity,

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

“If you want people to thrive and be at their best:

It’s simple.

Create the conditions for belonging.”

-Carin Taylor

You voted and we listened! As we embark on our third year of Inclusion-focused programming, we are thrilled to announce that Inclusion 2023 will be focused on the theme of belonging. We are excited to explore together what belonging means to each of us and shed light on the diverse and shared conditions we need to feel we belong. 

What is belonging? 

“Belonging” is an important way that all people evaluate, interpret, and process their selves, their social communities, and their lived experiences, and it is also a key predictor of professional and academic success. 

Research by Dr. Gregory Walton (Stanford Psychology) has shown that one of the most powerful sources of influence on students’ motivation is their sense of belonging, i.e. “their feeling of membership in the social community and belief that they are valued and respected.” However, this sense of belonging is at risk for individuals from groups that are negatively stereotyped  and/or underrepresented in an academic environment. They reasonably worry about whether they–or people “like me”–will belong. 

This insight led Dr. Walton to develop the social-belonging intervention, which uses information and stories to show that common challenges–like getting criticized, or feeling lonely–are normal experiences that improve with time, and that belonging is a process, not a fixed quality. 

Guided by this understanding of belonging as a process experienced by all people but in very different ways, we will spend 2023 cultivating shared spaces for the exploration of our nuanced perspectives on belonging. 

Announcing our new Community Belonging Spotlight Series–Participate now!

In addition to asking our Inclusion Rounds presenters this year to engage with our annual theme, we are kicking off Inclusion 2023 with a new Community Belonging Spotlight Series, which will feature 2 (faculty/staff/trainee) community members a month. 

We invite written or video recorded responses from DoM community members from across all 14 of our divisions and all of our affiliated organizations to one or more of the prompt questions below: 

1. Share something interesting about your name. 

2. List 3 words that come to mind when you think about belonging.

3. Tell us about a time you felt a sense of belonging in our department.

Short videos recorded on smartphones or Zoom are welcome–no editing required. Community submissions for the current month will be accepted until the end of the third Friday, but also on a rolling basis until all slots for the year are filled. Please direct written and video submissions–and nominations for community members you would like to see spotlighted–to the central communications team at domcentral-comms@stanford.edu. 

We hope you will participate in this new series–the more voices represented, the better!

In solidarity, 

Tamara Dunn & Wendy Caceres, Associate Chairs of Diversity & Inclusion

Stephanie Harman, Associate Chair for Women in Medicine

Arghavan Salles, Special Advisor for DEI Programs

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the histories, cultures, and achievements of people whose ancestors come from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

The celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th to October 15th. The month includes many notable dates. September 15th is the independence day for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Hispanic Heritage Month encompasses Mexico’s and Chile’s independence days as well, on September 16 and September 18, respectively.

We have several Department of Medicine events organized in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month:

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●      On September 21st, Monica Vela, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and of Medical Education and Director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence at University of Illinois College of Medicine, gave a powerful talk about structural violence against Hispanics in the United States, including the ongoing trauma of deportation and inequitable outcomes for patients with limited English proficiency. You can watch her talk here.

●      On September 28th, Elena Rios, MD, MSPH, MACP, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA), will speak about future directions for Latino health, which you can attend via Zoom or in person in Li Ka Shing Center Room 120.

●      On October 11th, Ensemble Folclórico Colibrí will give a live performance in Grant Courtyard in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and National Coming Out Day. Ensemble Folclórico Colibrí promotes the pride of identifying as an LGBTQ+ Latinx through the art of Mexican Folklórico dance.

Please join us in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month!

Wendy Caceres and Tamara Dunn

Associate Chairs – Diversity and Inclusion

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We have entered the month of May, more than a year into the COVID pandemic, and almost a year since the murder of George Floyd. Floyd’s murder rocked our nation’s consciousness, illuminating the disproportionate violence towards communities of color and highlighting the insidious ways that this violence affects those communities daily. Since we last wrote, a guilty verdict was reached in the trial of Derek Chauvin. The trial and verdict produced a wide range of emotions. We personally realized how conditioned we had become to our communities being disparaged without accountability, since we were so worried the outcome would be different. In some ways this feeling is still part of the reality, as we witness ongoing attacks on individuals and communities for who they are.

Meanwhile, we continue to battle COVID, and we are actively working to ensure our communities are vaccinated. Many of you have volunteered your time and energy to help the Ravenswood clinic (and others) get our local community vaccinated. In an effort to combat vaccine hesitancy across multiple groups, members of our department have filmed short Public Service Announcements which have just been released and are being disseminated widely. If you are interested in being part of this effort, please contact us.

We hope you were able to attend this month’s faculty meeting where our chair, Bob Harrington, reviewed the department’s efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Inclusion 2021 is well underway, and we would like to introduce to you a new forum we are starting called “Inclusion Rounds.” These will occur periodically throughout the year.

The first session will be held on May 13 at noon and will feature Dr. Jennifer Young from the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, who will review the history of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. and will outline steps to take to combat anti-Asian hate. The session will be moderated by our colleague Dr. Joy Wu. We’ll hold another Inclusion Rounds in June on anti-Black Racism and the history of Juneteenth.

The larger Medical Grand Rounds series will also continue to bring a focus to inclusion, with Drs. Latha Palaniappan and Bryant Lin kicking off Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month this week and Dr. Mitch Lunn and his colleague Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver speaking about LGBTQ+ health during the June PRIDE month.

One other notable event will take place this month: Annual Diversity and Inclusion Forum, which will be held on Friday, May 21 from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. This forum will showcase the workshops of the LEAD scholars, some of whom are trainees from the department.

We’re also including a request for a voluntary survey by our colleagues in Ophthalmology, led by Dr. Caroline Fisher. This survey seeks to understand the use of language and terminology around diversity, equity, and inclusion among medical school faculty. You can participate here.

Thank you as always for your engagement and please join us as we continue to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and equity in all forms.

Wendy Caceres and Tamara Dunn

Associate Chairs – Diversity and Inclusion

At its heart, respect for diversity in our workplace is respect for humanity. While we strive to find ways to incorporate anti-racism in our daily lives, we are constantly reminded of the  presence of racism in our society, most recently through the rise of anti-AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) violence in our country.  From the horrific fatal shootings in Atlanta to the unthinkable violent attacks against elders in our own Bay Area, we are saddened and sickened by these displays of hate.  

We have been deeply affected by the stories we have heard. The pain of the recent attacks runs deep, directly impacting members of our department and instilling fear in the broader AAPI community.  

Unfortunately, anti-AAPI racism is not new, and these attacks remind communities of past traumas and a lifetime of being targeted because of who they are. Our country has long tolerated anti-Asian biases, which have been exacerbated recently by the irresponsible rhetoric of some people in positions of power, as documented by a 2000% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in the last year alone.

We both know this pain. On the national stage, we have also witnessed the dehumanizing mistreatment, beating, and killing of people who look like us. We stand with our colleagues in these painful moments, hoping that we can all move together toward a state where common respect for the humanity in each of us helps us see the “other” as “us.” The pandemic has revealed many painful realities but underscoring it all is our deep interconnectedness. To our AAPI colleagues: we see you, we hear you, and we support you.

We thank our colleagues who have spoken up and shared their stories: Joy Wu, Joseph Wu, Sean Wu, Linda Nguyen, Stephanie Harman and many others, and hope you all have an opportunity to join our department in a Grand Rounds on April 14, 2021 to hear Michael Lu, MD, MS, MPH  Dean of UC Berkeley School of Public Health speaking on taking a stand against Anti-Asian Racism. Below is an excerpt of a statement that Joy Wu, Joseph Wu, Sean Wu have already shared with the cardiovascular institute:

“As we became a part of the medical and research profession, the sense of alienation was reinforced by being told constantly by our patients, our professors, our classmates, our colleagues: “You all look alike,” “you are too quiet,” “your English is pretty good,” - reminders that we never fully belong. These near-universal experiences of racism by us and our AAPI peers growing up in the US have unfortunately remained for far longer than they should.

For all of AAPI students, staff, faculty, we want you to know that we are here for you and to support you during this most difficulty time. We understand your fears and your frustrations and want you to know that you have allies here at Stanford who will help you with what you need. For our non-Asian colleagues who are willing to take a stand against anti-Asian hate and violence, we ask that you reach out to your friends in the AAPI community and let them know that you are thinking about them and are willing to help with their needs, contact your government officials and ask them what they are doing to support the AAPI community right now, and to call out racism and stop it anytime you see it happening to make it known that anti-Asian racism is not tolerated by anyone, whether or not s/he is a member of the AAPI community.”

Please be on the lookout for a fireside chat to further discuss the events in the AAPI community.

And as always, a list of resources:

Report a hate crime

         Off-Campus:

        https://stopaapihate.org/

        https://stopaapihate.org/

        On-Campus: Acts of Intolerance

Counseling:

            CAPS – Talk with a Psychologist

            Well-Being @Stanford – Talk with a well-being coach

            Bridge Peer Counseling – 24/7 peer support counseling and support on the phone

            Grieving at Stanford

Sexual Harassment/Assault Response  Education – Talk with staff members who are professionally trained in matters related to sexual violence, stalking, sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, positive sexuality and health relationships.

General Resources:

Harassment & Hate towards Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders during COVID-19

President Biden’s Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism and Xenophobia, and Intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Anti-Asian Violence Resources

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Hate Crime Resources

Movement Hub: Created to amplify on-the-ground activism and organizing within the AAPI communities across the country

Stanford Medicine Stop Asian Hate Town Hall

Stand with Asian Americans: A commitment from Asian American business leaders to donate $10M to combat Anti-Asian violence and racism

Wendy Caceres and Tamara Dunn

Associate Chairs – Diversity and Inclusion

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February 2, 2021

Happy Black History Month! As we acknowledge that Black history is important to our nation’s narrative on a daily basis, we also want to celebrate during this month (established in 1976) that commemorates the many African-American stories and voices that have enriched our country’s history. Too often these stories and voices have been stifled or silenced by the structural racism that is a direct consequence of slavery. We want to give voice to the Black community that has been marginalized and create an anti-racist community.

Please join us for February Grand Rounds where we will honor Black History Month by welcoming all Black speakers. This month we are thrilled to have Michelle Albert, Quinn Capers, Carla Pugh (along with panelists), and Rhea Boyd presenting. This is the perfect segue to our yearlong commitment to diversity, and only the beginning of our efforts; we are not limiting Black speakers to February alone. As Bob mentioned in his recent message our department’s diversity and inclusion efforts will be showcased year round. So stay tuned!

Part of the journey to anti-racism involves educating ourselves about our real history. The history most of us learned growing up was incomplete, and unfortunately even in medical school there are often glaring omissions. To begin to remedy this, we invite you to educate yourself. Last month we recommended Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. If you haven’t had a chance to read this important book, put it on your list! And this month, we’d like to share a few more resources:

·      1619 is a podcast that looks at our country’s history through the context of slavery and reports on the many contributions of Black Americans.

·      The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a powerful book that investigates the ethics of race and class in medical research.

·      The Stanford Center for Racial Justice hosts Tuesday Race Talks, a presentation that explores current issues related to race and racism. View upcoming events.

·      Finally, we encourage you to join the Department of Radiology’s four-month Racial Equity Challenge. Participants will be provided with a list of resources on topics like implicit bias and systemic racism and will be challenged to engage with several of these sources each month. They will then share what they’ve learned in a monthly discussion group. You can sign up to join here and you can view the monthly discussion group schedule below.

• • Friday, March 5, 12-1pm – Groundwork: Defining “Racism;” How to Talk About Race and Racism
  • Friday, April 2, 12-1pm — Race and Power in our Individual Interactions: Microaggressions & Tone Policing
  • Friday, April 30, 12-1pm – Race in Society: Police Brutality, Affirmative Action, & the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Thank you, and we hope you have a great February!

- Wendy & Tamara

January 19, 2021

Colleagues - 

As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy this week, we thought it would be a perfect time to introduce ourselves and this corner to you, and to reflect on the America Dr. King envisioned. I’m Tamara Dunn, an Assistant Clinical Professor and Program Director of the Hematology Fellowship, and I’m Wendy Caceres, an Assistant Clinical Professor and Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency. We are the newly appointed Associate Chairs for Diversity and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine and together we are committed to ensuring that our community remains supportive and inclusive. We also want to be intentional about helping establish an anti-racist environment.

We know many of you were horrified, appalled, and galvanized to action after witnessing yet more murders of unarmed Black people in our country this past year, as well as the stark disparities in COVID-19 mortality rates. We also know that the insurrection at the capitol on January 6th was a devastating blow to our democracy and further exposed the deep divisions in our country. We are part of a profession that is committed to the health of all our patients and to do no harm or injustice. In the spirit of lifelong learning, we will regularly share recommendations on readings and events so you can join us and others in the conversations that will help propel us towards the goals of equity and inclusion.

With that in mind, we welcome you to explore the resources at the Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute right here at Stanford. There you will find The King Papers among other initiatives and research supported by the Institute.

We also invite you to read Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, which provides an important analysis that contextualizes the current plight of Black people in our country, including the role of slavery. Ms. Wilkerson will be coming to Stanford on January 28, 2021. 

Also on January 28, 2021, Stanford will host the 14th Annual Clinical Excellence Summit with the theme of “Bridging for Health Equity” led by our very own Megan Mahoney, Chief of Staff at Stanford Health Care. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Rhea Boyd, MD, MPH, (@RheaBoydMD) who is a former Stanford trainee, adjunct faculty, and active social justice scholar as the Director of Equity and Justice at The California Children’s Trust. She will discuss the “The Antiracist Imperative for Clinical Excellence.” You can register here: https://stanford.cloud-cme.com/course/courseoverview?p=3000&eid=39125&autosend=true

We choose to focus on the hope that this week brings, including the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this Wednesday – the first time a Black/South Asian woman will hold the office of Vice President. We choose to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the tremendous contributions he made to the country and the entire world and continue his legacy. Please join us.

Tamara Dunn and Wendy Caceres