DRAFT – September 6, 2011
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Committee on Equity, Diversity & Civility ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS REPORT: September 2010 – August 2011
I. Communications and Education A.
Wall of Wonder display
The Committee partnered with the Office of Communications on a display on the
School’s projection screen in the main entrance hall. The theme of the piece was
“Diversity is Everybody.” It was a series of photos that included:
1)
Members of the Committee
2)
Faculty/Staff (including Housekeeping, Facilities, Security)/Students
3)
People of:
i.
Different ages
ii.
Different genders
iii.
Different races
iv.
Different religions
v.
Different sexual orientations
vi.
Different physical/mental abilities
B.
Event
The Committee hosted a School-wide session entitled Diversity, Civility, and the
Concealed Mind on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 from 12 – 1:30 p.m. The session
featured Howard Ross of CookRoss and Debbie Sampson, Senior Director of Talent
Management and Organizational Development. The session had these objectives:
•
Demonstrate the impact of the unconscious mind in shaping our assumptions about
diversity, civility and cultural competency in the workplace.
•
Explore how JHSPH faculty, staff, and students can actively “un-conceal” hidden
assumptions and perceptions.
•
Learn how JHU's Campus Conversations on Diversity & Inclusion offers the
JHSPH community an opportunity to develop and apply actions to create an
environment that supports diversity and civility in the workplace.
The video of the event was available on the Committee’s website in the JHSPH intranet
portal.
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Over 250 faculty, staff and students attended the Diversity, Civility, and the Concealed
Mind session. Many attendees raved about Mr. Ross’ presentation, and commented on
how useful the information would be to them in the future.
C.
CEPH reaccreditation and School diversity plan
During Fall 2010, CEPH (Council on Education of Public Health) circulated for comment
draft revisions to its accreditation criteria including a new criterion on diversity. At the
Committee’s November 2010 meeting, Senior Associate Dean Yager asked for the
Committee’s input. An ad hoc subcommittee met in December and prepared comments;
the comments were presented to the Committee which provided additional input.
Subsequently, the full comments were forwarded to Dean Yager.
CEPH adopted their revised criteria in June 2011, incorporating at least one comment
from the Committee. The new diversity criterion amounts to a request for a new diversity
plan for the School. It was decided that subsequent work on the CEPH self-study (due in
2013)—particularly on developing a School diversity plan—would be completed through
the Committee’s standing subcommittees. The subcommittees may complete such tasks
as pulling together information, proposing goals, writing portions of the plan, and
commenting on drafts. Dean Yager has organized a School-wide reaccreditation steering
committee; Dr. Trush is serving as Committee representative and Ms. Hobbs is back-up
representative.
During Summer 2011, subcommittees began meeting to discuss the criterion.
D.
Proposal suggesting a policy that all food served at any JHSPH event should be
labeled as to its ingredients
The proposal was made because knowing the ingredients in food served at the School is
especially important to persons from minority religious backgrounds which have
prohibitions on consumption of certain food items. It was reported that some minority
students do not eat at the School at all, either at events or from vendors, because they do
not know what the foods contain. This is an issue that potentially affects a sizable
number of School community members. This issue could be related to Howard Ross’
presentation in which he addressed unconscious bias. The issue was referred to the
Education Subcommittee for follow-up. The subcommittee met twice (once in person
and once by phone) with Mr. Scott McVicker, director, and Mr. Paul Adams,
administrator, of Support Services. They were very receptive to the proposal. As follow
up to the subcommittee’s first meeting with them, the subcommittee sent Mr. Adams a
memo listing the top eight food allergens from the FDA website. Mr. Adams agreed to
approach the contractors who operate the cafes to initiate conversations on the topic.
In July 2011, Mr. Adams reported back to the subcommittee that “Both of the School’s
food service vendors, Jay’s and the Daily Grind, have contracted with a third party
vendor to perform a complete nutritional and content analyses of all their menu items
offered for sale at JHSPH. The analysis will result in the production of printed and
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online documentation indicating the nutritional content and ingredients of each menu
item. In addition, the analysis will specifically list those menu items that contain any of
the food groups identified by the FDA as accounting for 90 percent of food allergies, i.e.,
milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans, as well as
those that are gluten-free, vegan, or vegetarian options. The information will be
conveniently available at each food service location and posted on each vendor’s JHSPH
websites.” Mr. Adams will alert the subcommittee as to when the information will be
available.
E.
Fall 2011 event planning
The Communications and Education subcommittee held in early June to begin event
planning. The recommended Fall 2011 event theme is “Learning, teaching, and working:
LGBT life at JHSPH.” Civility and equity will be highlighted. The format would
include a panel, which would be composed of LGBT individuals and at least one ‘ally,’
someone who is not LGBT but who is supportive of LGBT people and issues. A
question and answer session will follow panel presentations.
II. Faculty Recruitment and Retention A.
Proposed materials and process for faculty search committees
The objective of the proposed materials and process is to provide information to faculty
search committees on how to develop a diverse candidate pool, with the following subobjectives:
• Provide an outline of the steps a Search Committee can take to improve the
diversity of the candidate pool;
•
Clearly define how to document the efforts made to improve the diversity of the
candidate pool; and
•
Provide information on how to eliminate potential biases from the search process.
Committee approval of the documents was given by consensus with the proviso that
sections of text (included in the questions/comments listed above) would be clarified.
Subsequently, a small group met with Ms. Laguerre-Brown and reviewed specific
language and terminology. Language is being clarified and finalized. Then, the
subcommittee will present its work to Senior Associate Dean Yager, who has been very
receptive to Committee efforts. After incorporating any changes from Dean Yager, the
proposed process and materials will be taken to the Faculty Senate and the Committee of
the Whole. Committee members are asked to take the documents and process to their
departmental faculty meetings following the meeting with Dean Yager.
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III. Staff Recruitment and Retention A.
Staff retention statistics review
The subcommittee examined statistics on staff retention by gender and race and by
senior/support staff. The statistics did not reveal any significant disparities.
B.
Diversity Plan initiated
The subcommittee met and discussed the CEPH diversity criteria.
IV. Student Recruitment and Retention A.
LGBT curriculum and certificate program
In November 2010, a meeting with Dean Klag regarding curriculum addressing LGBT
health issues. Dr. Jernigan, Ms. Hobbs, and Dr. Trush represented the Committee and
Mr. Lau represented the Gertrude Stein Society, among other attendees. Dr. Jernigan
said the meeting was very productive. He said that Dean Klag is interested in pursuing a
LGBT studies program at the School. Dr. Jernigan said that recruitment at all levels—
staff, faculty, and student—was also discussed at the meeting.
The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health has such a program. Dr.
Ron Stall from Pitt came to the School, with the Dean’s sponsorship, for a day of
consulting and to present a seminar. A School ad hoc committee has been formed to
continue working on a certificate program.
B.
Diversity Plan initiated
The subcommittee met and discussed the CEPH diversity criteria.
V. Other business A.
Report on meeting with the Office of Communications
In February, Dr. Trush and Ms. Hobbs met with Ms. Stacey DiLorenzo, Senior Director
of Marketing and Communications, to discuss the possibility of including a diversity
‘lead’ on the School’s homepage. The lead would link to a page with additional
information regarding the School’s diversity efforts. Ms. DiLorenzo is very supportive
and told Dr. Trush and Ms. Hobbs that as Communications staff have looked at other
universities’ websites, they see diversity leads on some of those sites. Diversity
information will be incorporated into the School’s public website as Communications
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redesigns the entire site, which is a major undertaking. As follow up to this meeting, Ms.
DiLorenzo asked for and Ms. Hobbs sent a memo outlining basic information that the
Committee would envision on a diversity web page linked from the School’s main web
page.
B.
Potential collaboration with School of Medicine
Ms. Hobbs reported that she and Ms. Dunne met with Dr. Brian Gibbs, School of
Medicine Associate Dean for Diversity and Cultural Competence, who wanted to learn
about the Committee’s work and to discuss how his office might partner with the
Committee. He has a weekly radio show (also available via the Internet) on Thursdays at
11 a.m. on WOLB 1010 AM; he has had Dr. Thomas LaVeist on the show to discuss his
work on health disparities. There was discussion of the possibility of holding a joint
event with Dr. Gibbs’ office, or at least selecting a topic on which to partner. It was
commented that the Committee should not dilute its work, and that the Committee has
enough work maintaining visibility within the School. Dr. Trush commented that the
visibility and recognition the Committee has gained is due to the members’ hard work.
C.
School of Medicine OUT List
In April 2011, Student Affairs reported to the Committee that the School of Medicine had
established an “OUT” list. In July 2001, Dr. Sarah Clever, School of Medicine assistant
dean for student affairs, attended the Committee’s meeting. She said that the OUT list
was modeled after a similar list at the University of California, San Francisco. The goals
of the list include the following: 1) to be a resource to people in the institution, providing
networking and support for LGBT individuals; and 2) to demonstrate to those outside the
institution that Hopkins has a supportive environment, with the ultimate goal of recruiting
top faculty, students, and residents. Initially Dr. Clever’s focus was on the School of
Medicine; however, she networked with the Gertrude Stein Society (GSS) and the GSS
publicized the list to its membership, which consists of LGBT individuals in the Schools
of Nursing, Public Health, and Medicine. Dr. Clever received a good response from the
GSS email solicitation. As of July 2011, the OUT list has not yet gone live.
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