Equity hands

"Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance." - Verna Myers

Diversity and Justice

Department of Medicine

​Diverse voices among our faculty, trainees and staff promote cultural competency throughout the department, help us care for our patients, support research impacting underrepresented populations, and encourage our trainees and faculty to find ways to reduce health disparities. More importantly, it makes us better clinicians, educators, and investigators, and allows us to build meaningful bridges with our surrounding community.

Vision:

The Department of Medicine will create an environment where everyone matters and all voices are equally heard. 

Mission:

  • Create a courageous space for honest and meaningful conversations and healthy conflict resolutions through mutual respect and trust
  • Infuse justice and inclusivity into every aspect of research, education, citizenship, service and clinical activities
  • Enhance awareness of implicit bias in all faculty and staff
  • Develop tools to explore and address implicit bias
  • Develop the procedural and cultural infrastructures to reinforce and sustain an inclusive and diverse environment
  • Continually evaluate and improve our approaches and outcomes in achieving our vision


Programs and Commitees

Bias Reduction in Medicine (BRIM)

The Wisconsin BRIM team, led by Dr. Molly Carnes, visited our campus Dec. 9-12, 2019 and facilitated the bias reduction workshops for DOM Group 1 divisions (Cardiology, Geriatrics, Renal, GIM, Hematology, Oncology, Pulmonary).

In the workshop we discussed how implicit bias functions as a habit, several manifestations of implicit bias, and strategies one can practice to break the bias habit. At the end of the workshop, participants wrote “commitments to action” based on the bias habit-reducing strategies covered. Due to COVID-19, workshops for the Group 2 divisions have been canceled and additional communications are forthcoming to reschedule. In light of this, the expectation for all divisions to have participated in BRIM by August 2020 will be adjusted as needed.  

Equity and Inclusion 

The Equity Oversight Committee and its Equity Oversight Committee Charter serves to ensure that all DOM committees are composed of a balanced representation that reflects the ethnic, racial, and gender balance of our campus, that there is transparency about this representation, and that committees whose members are not representative of our campus are helped to achieve such balance in a timely fashion.

The Equity and Inclusion Policy applies to all Department-level: 

  • Standing committees
  • Search committees
  • Ad-hoc committees
  • Any department-level committee with decision-making responsibilities
Department of Medicine Equity Oversight Committee Representatives:
Joseph Walker Keach, MD             Amira Del Pino-Jones, MD
Geoff Connors, MD                        Sonia Okuyama Sasaki, MD          
Lavanya Kondapalli, MD                Kasey Bowden, FNP, NP, MSN, RN        
SoniaFloresSonia C. Flores, PhD
Vice Chair for Diversity and Justice
Sonia.Flores@cuanschutz.edu
303-724-6084

Sonia Flores, PhD is a professor in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, and was the program director of an NIGMS-funded Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity; she has been the Program Director of the NHLBI-funded GEMS (Graduate Experiences for Multicultural Students) program for the past 16 years. Dr. Flores is committed to increasing diversity among housestaff, fellows and faculty by incorporating social science theories and focusing on cultural competence.