Panel: Confronting History, Rebuilding Trust
Following David Blight’s lecture on September 24 on the findings of the Yale and Slavery history project, Yale School of Medicine convened a panel of faculty to discuss efforts to confront that history, restore, rebuild trust, and build authentic community.
The talk and panel kicked off YSM's new Perspectives for Inclusion lecture series.
New Haven Community
Tara Davila opened by saying that the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) has been “digging into this history ...to hold the reality that while Yale has the reputation of being at the forefront of innovation, we also have this history,” and the biggest challenge is realizing that “these two realities exist together.”
At YCSC, Davila is Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work, associate director of outpatient youth services, and vice chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She identifies as multiracial, or Afro-Latina, of Puerto Rican descent.
Davila’s experience working directly with families in greater New Haven, both in community health centers and at Yale, has taught her that families see the institution first “I might as well be Elihu Yale, because I’m representing the institution. We didn’t pack the institution’s bags, but we carry its baggage.” She recognized that a long history of distrust – including “Yale benefiting from redlining and urban development, and an oral history of research that happened before IRBs” – prevents families from engaging fully and openly.
Four years ago, Davila constructed trainings for YCSC staff and faculty, “ that incorporated this history and to help providers understand their own biases and the dynamic in the room, and to work through it.” She said, “cultural humility is one of the main tenets, and self-reflection is key to anti-racism work. Mitigating the power imbalance, using language that invites [patients] in as experts in their experience. There is a history of power over, and we want power with.”
HBCU Partnerships
Among the university's forward-looking commitments in response to the history project is the ASCEND Initiative, a fund to strengthen Yale’s partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by supporting research collaborations between faculty, and pathway programs for HBCU students.
Gary Désir, MD, Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, is originally from Haiti and first came to Yale as a medical student. Speaking in his role as Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Désir recalled that, starting in 2020, at the request of then-President Peter Salovey, he began working with Kimberly Goff-Crews to form a committee addressing high-level goals around campus climate, which became Yale’s Belonging Initiative. The committee met through the pandemic, and the final report was informed by current events, including George Floyd’s murder.
The committee’s formal list of recommendations, which were approved by President Salovey and the Board of Trustees, included an investigation into the university’s history with slavery. That archival research project learned of a moment in 1831, when New Haven was denied the opportunity to build a college for Black men, and that discovery led to Yale’s newly-created collaborations with HBCUs.
Daniel Sarpong, PhD, brings three decades of experience with HBCUs to his role as Executive Director of YSM’s Office of Health Equity Research. A native of Ghana, he immigrated to the US in 1984 and is trained as a biostatistician. At Jackson State University, he spent ten years working on the largest epidemiological study of African Americans and cardiovascular disease, and as part of that research, he got involved in community engagement. In coming to Yale three years ago, the most exciting aspect was "the opportunity to change that narrative here in New Haven ... in terms of, how do we work hand-in-hand with the community to advance research and make our communities healthier.”
Pathways Partnerships
Darin Latimore, MD, YSM Deputy Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, who identifies as African American and a descendent of slavery, pointed to George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement as pivotal to institutional support for collaboration with HBCUs. “Things changed drastically in the work that I’ve done, and it allowed me to start helping Yale School of Medicine think more comprehensively about pathway programs and who we partner with.”
When Latimore began building pathway programs for undergraduates, he assumed that “they would be falling over themselves to participate.” But in that first year, “there was a dearth of applicants.” Latimore recalled speaking to an advisor at an HBCU who didn’t know why he was surprised, saying “’Honey, we need to know where we’re sending our babies. We really don’t think they’re going to be safe up there.’” With that advice, Latimore began the effort anew by first bringing HBCU pre-med advisors to Yale so they could see who would be taking care of their students – including the classrooms where they would be studying and where they would be living -- to transform their perceptions about the environment. After a few years, Yale was able to relaunch the pathway programs for HBCUs and Tribal Colleges. The past three summers saw students from 23 HBCUs come to Yale for programs providing academic preparation before medical school.
When it comes to summer research programs for medical students from HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), it has also proven “a humbling experience” that required training of PIs about subtle forms of communication which undermined their good intentions. Latimore also continued to build relationships with HBCU medical schools to encourage applications for Yale/ Yale New Haven Health system residency programs, with the goals of both improving the health of greater New Haven and within time increasing the diversity of the Schools’s faculty.
When it comes to challenges for students of color, Sarpong said they are assumed to be recruited for athletics, or these students perceive that “it’s a revolving door here to get the numbers up. They're looking for signals to confirm these fears.” He said, “people who've been disenfranchised are not going to speak up. They toughen up to make sure they get through. It’s not the academics, it’s the social dynamics. In HBCUs, people know you by your name. You feel this sense of support.” Sarpong commented that “even in summer programs, it’s important to integrate them with other students.” Students spend the summer in the shelter of small cohorts, and then enter big classrooms where they are “outnumbered and overwhelmed.”
Sarpong added, “If we’re really true to doing this work and doing it well, we need to codesign the programs with HBCU partners. ... Understand the history, move forward.”
Research Partnerships
Sarpong said of research partnerships between HBCUs and PWIs (predominantly white institutions), the intent is good, and PWIs often provide the necessary resources. “The problem is that they’re not co-designed.” Regarding research, generally speaking, “people want to partner with HBCUs for access to their populations. Once they get the grant, shared governance is out of the window. People develop mistrust, feel they’re being used. ... People know what’s going to work in their community.”
Désir discussed MOUs created with HBCUs, and the trajectory for this 5-year program. He had wanted it build upon programs for students, to focus to focus instead on relationships between faculty across campuses. And, he wanted to form “bi-directional” rather than transactional, relationships. Désir focused on true collaborations in teaching and research, and funding research grants for faculty with matching interests. So far, formal relationships have been created between Yale and nine HBCUs, with MOUs signed by the university presidents, and with the goal of adding four more partnerships.
What Success Looks Like
In closing, moderator Nii Addy, YSM Director of Scientist Diversity and Inclusion, asked how panelists would define success for the 5-year HBCU partnership.
Désir responded: “Faculty developing research collaborations [using the internal funding] to obtain external grants. [That] the relationship develop further so faculty from HBCUs can come to Yale to teach and do research in summer,” and the reverse. He added the goal of supporting library services and historical archives at HBCUs. As another example,one HBCU campus is building a quantum computer with support from quantum researchers at Yale. Ultimately, Désir would like to continue beyond the 5-year program and “move away from transactional relationships” with bidirectional movement of students and faculty between the campuses.
Latimore added that success includes creating collaborations based on what the HBCUs say they are interested in and need, rather than only what Yale wants. For example, Tuskegee researchers are most interested in cancer biology, so plans are in the works for a symposium at Yale in fall 2025 to gather several faculty scholars from Tuskegee and other HBCUs, and from Yale, based around mutually agreed upon research themes.
Désir commented that “the Belonging at Yale Initiative is rooted in the fact that, if you are bringing somebody to Yale, you want to welcome them and ... give them the resources to be successful. And a lot of that has to do with mentorship and sponsorship, ... so understanding faculty needs is really important. ... When we bring someone here, the culture and the environment they are coming from may be very different. We have to be sensitive and make sure they thrive. That is done at the local level, and that’s our job at the school.”
Panelists (l-r in photo):
Gary Désir, MD – Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity; Chair, Department of Internal Medicine; and Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine
Tara Davila, LCSW – Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work; Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Child Study Center
Daniel Sarpong, PhD – Senior Research Scientist and Executive Director of the Office of Health Equity Research
Darin Latimore, MD – Deputy Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer; Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Moderator: Nii Addy, PhD – Albert E. Kent Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology; Director of Scientist Diversity and Inclusion at YSM