Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Update (January 2025)

We are holding a recruitment event for the four medical schools in Puerto Rico in March in collaboration with the Yale School of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Associate Dean Marietta Vazquez, MD, and the Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) Graduate Medical Education office. We will send a delegation to showcase our diverse, supportive, inclusive culture and learning climate and the vast training opportunities at Yale School of Medicine and YNHH. Darin Latimore, MD, will give a talk, and we will hold workshops for the attending students.

We are also finalizing plans for The YNHH and YSM Diversifying the Healthcare Workforce Dinner at the Omni Hotel next month. As I mentioned in my update last month, this dinner allows underrepresented in medicine (race/ethnicity, first-generation, disabled, from low-income families, and LGBTQ+) candidates for our residency programs to get to know our faculty and residents who are, in most cases, URiM themselves. Attendance does not affect how our programs rank students, as programs will have submitted their final rank lists before the event.

Last month, I facilitated an interactive Equity Begins with Everyone (EBE) session on cultural competency and humility. We discussed the definitions of these concepts, their benefits to our patients and colleagues at work, and the steps everyone can take to increase their cultural competency and humility. In small groups, we shared different cultures we identify with and discussed barriers to learning more about other cultures.

This month, Aba Black, MD, and I will deliver grand rounds at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Rutgers New Jersey School of Medicine. At both lectures, we will discuss faculty DEI efforts and the academic appointment and promotion review process. We will also share how our innovation, the DEI Productivity Calculator, can contribute to capturing DEI-related efforts, help faculty as a professional development tool, provide a guide to incorporating DEI activities into promotion packets, and potentially help integrate these efforts into the academic and promotions review process nationwide.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, our EBE gathering on Monday, January 20, is canceled. We will see everyone at our February session.

Below are some of the secular and religious events during January:

January 4: World Braille Day
January 6: Epiphany/Three Kings’ Day
January 7: Christmas (Coptic and Eastern Orthodox Christian)
January 14: Pongal
January 14: Mahayana New Year
January 17: Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab
January 20: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

If you haven’t participated in our monthly column, “Voices of DEI,” please consider doing so. If you wish to be a featured voice of DEI, please complete the survey using this link.

I am committed to supporting and expanding DEI efforts within the Department of Internal Medicine; please join me. Equity begins with everyone. Together, we strive. Together, we rise.

Respectfully Yours,

Benjamin

Benjamin Mba, MBBS, MRCP (UK), CHCQM, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Vice Chair, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Department of Internal Medicine
Graduate Medical Education Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & Associate Designated Institutional Official for Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine