Diversity and Inclusion

For almost a decade, the Department of Pediatrics has worked to push the boundaries of inclusion, representation, and equality among our faculty, staff, and training programs and to reflect the diverse populations we diagnose, study, treat, and heal. This past year we listened to the voices of our healing community, including the inspirational call to action within our own residents’ Anti-racism Credo, and developed our departmental anti-racism commitment:

A Department-Wide Focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Departmental leadership, including Marina Catallozzi, MD, MSCE, Vice Chair for Education, Linda Aponte-Patel, MD, Associate Vice Chair, Education, Diversity & Inclusion, and Hetty Cunningham, MD, Associate Vice Chair, Education & Learning Environment, have together embarked on a number of initiatives to broaden the department’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work, including:

• A departmental listening tour to understand divisions’ needs in the realms of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the learning environment, and well-being
• Professional development trainings in partnership with departmental and divisional leaders. Topics have included anti-racism, implicit bias, and mitigating bias in evaluations and in letter writing
• The launch of a bias and learning environment online feedback portal and response system for house staff (pedsbesafe.com), developed in partnership with the pediatric residency and Pediatric Diversity and Inclusion Council (PDIC) leadership
• Collaboration with pediatrics faculty to develop a departmental inclusive language guide, to support our community, and to enhance health equity through language
• The initiation of brief health equity presentations at faculty meetings
• Serving as members of key divisional search committees
• The establishment of an ongoing partnership with the department’s newly appointed chief diversity officer, Shydeka Richards
• Serving as members of the CUIMC Diversity Officers Group

New Diversity Role

In August 2021, the department appointed its inaugural chief diversity officer, Shydeka Richards, who has served as our manager of human resources and faculty affairs since 2016. In her new role, she will work to:

• Reinforce and strengthen the work of the PDIC
• Strengthen focus on diversity with all major leadership searches
• Broaden our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the entire department, including among staff members

Furthering Our Mission

The Pediatric Diversity and Inclusion Council (PDIC), founded in 2013 to provide a supportive environment for underrepresented-in-medicine residents, has undergone tremendous growth over the past seven years, broadening the department’s focus to initiatives such as recruiting a diverse house staff and providing structured diversity and inclusion programming as core elements of our residency experience.

The PDIC is open to all health care team members in the department. Activities include annual welcoming social events for members, bimonthly meetings with resident and fellow members, quarterly meetings with faculty members, and matching diversity faculty mentors with resident members. In 2020, the council expanded further with the appointment of fellow and faculty liaisons and members developed additional programming for fellows, faculty, and administration.

This year, PDIC leaders were honored to receive a Columbia Provost Anti-racism grant: “Enhancing the Reach and Scope of the Pediatric Diversity and Inclusion Council Curriculum.”

Additionally, PDIC Fellow Liaison Patrice Pryce, MD, was awarded the AAP Section on Critical Care (SOCC) 2021 Small Project Award for her project, “Combating Health Disparities Among Critically Ill Children: A Health Equity Curriculum.”

In addition, as part of PDIC growth, members have:

• Developed resident-led workshops for the core residency morning educational conferences
• Hosted (or offered) programs on difficult conversations about race in America, implicit bias, and microaggressions
• Initiated/launched a diversity and inclusion grand rounds series and an annual celebration of diversity symposium
• Partnered with the Office of Medical Education, Diversity, and Inclusion to deliver and implement faculty implicit bias training and anti-racism workshops

Learn About Our Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives

The PDIC’s long-term objective is to expand our efforts to a national level and for our program to be recognized as a hub for diversity in training, research, and patient care. To that end we presented our work at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in 2018.

Our work and accomplishments underscore the department’s considerable commitment to training pediatricians who provide patient-centered and culturally competent care to our diverse patient population. Among our future goals: fostering our relationship with local community programs, especially capitalizing on the expertise and guidance of our new Vice Chair for Community Health, Dodi Meyer, MD, strengthening our presence within our department as well as our institution, and creating opportunities for residents to participate in diversity and inclusion-related research initiatives.

Diversity Day Symposium

Our annual Celebration of Diversity Symposium, launched in 2017, is a daylong event featuring a keynote speaker, presentations that highlight community health programs, peer-to-peer workshops led by pediatric trainees, and a town hall with invited guests. In 2021, we welcomed Maria Trent, MD, MPH, as the keynote speaker for our Fifth Annual Celebration of Diversity Symposium. The topic of her talk was “Brave Enough to Be it and See it: Using Science & Innovation to Address Inequities in Health.”