On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, fifty members of the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) community joined together on Zoom for a special 90-minute training on inclusive practices in hiring. The goal of the session was to explore foundational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) concepts and apply them to data-informed best practices to enhance understanding of inclusive excellence related to serving on search committees, and in general hiring practices.
The session was coordinated by Tara Davila, LCSW, YCSC chief diversity officer and vice chair for DEI, in collaboration with Paris Lawrence, the inaugural associate director of DEI training and development for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Lawrence led the training, titled "Best Practices: Guide to Search and Hiring Processes" and said he has facilitated similar sessions a few times over the last two months.
The YCSC – which also serves as the YSM department of child psychiatry – was the first department to request the session and is one of four YSM departments having engaged in the training so far. Feedback from participants was extremely positive, with several comments and questions from faculty and staff engaged in the session. “I really enjoyed facilitating this session for Yale Child Study Center faculty and staff. They were really engaged in the content,” commented Lawrence after the session.
“I was so pleased with the session and the turnout,” said Davila. “We are requiring this of all who wish to serve on search committees at the center and will be offering it twice annually going forward, in September and February, in order to keep us up to date and further our commitment to inclusive hiring practices.” This is not limited to faculty searches and includes all who plan to be part of the selection process for new community members, including interns, fellows, postgrads, faculty, and staff.
I am pleased to see a consistent growing appetite for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content across the YSM enterprise, and I’m excited to continue these much-needed discussions throughout the year.
Paris Lawrence
“I am pleased to see a consistent growing appetite for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content across the YSM enterprise, and I’m excited to continue these much-needed discussions throughout the year,” added Lawrence.
Due to a high level of interest and requests from community members who had scheduling conflicts with the initial session, a third session was scheduled for this fall, on October 26, 2022 from 2:30-4 p.m. in addition to a February 2023 session.