DEI

The Medical Students Pride Alliance at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is piloting a new mentorship program this fall to pair LGBTQ+ medical students with physicians in Pittsburgh. The program aims to connect students with faculty members who can help them navigate all aspects of their medical education, especially those that relate to being a sexual or gender minority. Ideally, mentors and students...

Two recent presentations offered audiences from the Department of Psychiatry and beyond a nuanced look at health disparities and trauma in psychiatry. Eraka Bath, MD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California / Los Angeles) delivered a Department of Psychiatry Distinguished Scientist Lecture, “Addressing Reproductive...

In late July, the University of Pittsburgh Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion hosted their 2021 Diversity Forum, “Dismantling Oppressive System: Building Just Communities.” The three-day Forum was designed to engage and equip participants with the knowledge, skills and resources to identify sources of systemic oppression, consider strategies for dismantling that oppression, and identify actions critical in...

On May 25, 2021, physicians, staff, nurses, and medical students across the UPMC network knelt for nine minutes and 29 seconds to honor the life of George Floyd, who was killed one year ago. The White Coats Against Racism Kneel is also an opportunity for health care workers to gather in protest against the racism experienced by Black, Brown, and Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) members of our community...

The Coalition for Residents and Fellows of Color (C-ROC) is a UPMC Employee Resource Group that provides networking, social, and community engagement opportunities for residents who are under-represented in medicine (URiM). Psychiatry residents Piper Carroll, MD (PGY4), and Daniel Salahuddin, MD, MPH (PGY4), are C-ROC founding members, steering committee members, and co-chairs. We spoke with Dr. Carroll and Dr...

“A common approach to health disparities research is to take a sample of Black women, and a sample of white women, and compare them,” said Alison Hipwell, PhD, of a recent National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded R01 focused on the association between perinatal stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Black women, which she co-leads with Michele Levine, PhD. “But the current crisis in maternal health and...