UMass Chan Medical School
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

Reos Partners, in collaboration with the Diversity and Inclusion Office (DIO), is supporting collective actions to create a more inclusive UMMS institutional culture. Approximately fifty people across multiple institutional sectors and demographic groupings, have been involved in interviews, feedback meetings and capacity building sessions. With Phase 1 completed, the work is centered in the Culture Building phase. CEOD and DIO members, staff, and a group of students have developed recommendations that they believe will create more inclusive processes and practices across the institution.

Through a culture assessment by REO's Partners LLC., six recommendations have been set forth: (1) Operationalizing the Mission and Accountability. Operationalizing the mission and defining accountabilities advance directives emerging from diversity and inclusion. There are three components to this recommendation: a new diversity statement, diversity specific orientations and trainings, and developing a diversity organizational chart. (2) Create a Welcoming Environment Through Our Physical Space Building an inclusive and diverse community requires breaking down physical and perceived barriers. It opens channels of communication and increases opportunities to learn, collaborate and expand knowledge of others in the academic community. The green space in the quad is incredibly inviting but students and staff are prohibited from using the space. Consider perhaps taking the lower green space, adjacent to South Road, and re-landscape it with paths, benches and bushes to transform it into a welcoming place for all. (3) Strengthen Professional Development Develop and enhance career opportunities (in-person and virtual) to allow a more diverse population to be identified and progress along a career path with opportunities for promotions and into management positions. (4) Support and Resource a Culture of Respect Initiative. It will change the culture by providing a more inclusive and healthier work/learning environment, and increasing engagement, satisfaction and retention for faculty, staff and students. A more inclusive and healthier work/learning environment will lead to an increase in engagement, job satisfaction and retention for faculty, staff and students. (5) Communications and Transparency Adopt a leadership style of transparency and open communication (model it to all levels of the organization including faculty, staff and students) (6) Building Community from the Ground Up Originally called the “Buddy System”, this recommendation has evolved to “Building Community from the Ground Up”. The idea is to work collaboratively with all new staff by integrating them into the UMMS culture with the support of current staff who volunteer to be mentors or buddies. Also, to team new employees with each other to create new and lasting relationships across different groups within the workplace.

While there are many elements to the medical school’s strategic focus on diversity and inclusion, UMMS, over the past three years, has coalesced around a series of “Diversity Summits,” the underlying purpose of which has been to “move the needle” on the institution’s efforts to become more diverse and culturally competent among the ranks of UMMS faculty, staff and students. Over 100 faculty, students and staff have participated in the three summits.

This targeted initiative emanated from the outstanding work of the Executive Council’s Ad Hoc Work Group on Underrepresented Minorities in Academic Health Sciences, which was chaired by Catarina Kiefe, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences.

The Work Group, initiated and led by UMMS faculty members, developed ten core recommendations to enhance diversity within the faculty and across the student body. Upon receiving the Work Group’s final report, Chancellor Michael F. Collins, MD and other senior campus leaders endorsed the recommendations put forward and spearheaded a comprehensive process to develop focused implementation plans for each of the ten recommendations. Diversity Summit IV will be convened in September to review the recommendation put forth from the collaborative effort with Reos Partners.