Community and Equity
A Culture of Caring, Inclusion, and Community
We believe access to education and healthcare is a human right. This core belief guides our approach to educating the next generation of scientists, physicians, and physician-scientists.
We aim to promote a culture of inclusion to build and sustain a broadly based community of students, trainees, staff, and faculty within our department. We cherish the breadth of cultural backgrounds, of scientific perspectives, and of scholarly pursuits in our community and strive to ensure they have every opportunity to reach their full potential.
Our community is made up of talented leaders who care deeply and work to impact the world for good. We have a collective commitment to promote inclusion in healthcare, education, and our society at large.
Focus Areas
PEOPLE
We strive to increase the breadth of our academic community in Physiology by recruiting faculty, trainees and staff from diverse backgrounds; and by providing directed mentorship and career guidance for members from groups that are underrepresented in biomedical science.
CLIMATE
We aim to build a community of students, faculty and researchers that is inclusive, and supportive, and that creates a sense of belonging and pride.
STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS
We strive to decrease disparities resulting from current policies, procedures, and unwritten practices in the department.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT / EDUCATION
We aim to assess the goals, needs, and wants of department members and ensure that educational and professional development resources are available to all.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
We are working to identify points of collaboration across DGSOM (grants, community college, high school outreach). We plan to coordinate our efforts and meaningfully grow our programs by including more members of the community.
Committee Members
- Laura DeNardo, PhD (Assistant Professor)
- Sonal Srikanth, PhD (Adjunct Associate Professor)
- Daniel Gray, PhD (Postdoc)
- Sara Blagburn Blanco (MSTP / NSIDP)