Culture, Engagement, and Impact Blog

The DPHS DEI Committee wishes you and yours a holiday season filled with kindness, peace, and hope.

Creating a working and learning environment that is truly welcoming, inclusive, and equitable for everyone requires that we all do our part to speak up and actively discourage acts of harassment, microaggression, and discrimination. By doing so, we are taking a stand, advocating for and protecting our colleagues and friends, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. 

Join us for this community-building event around the topic of mental health and wellbeing, marking World Mental Health Day on October 10th! This topic feels especially relevant in the changing climate of the COVID pandemic.

For International Overdose Awareness Day, join your colleagues and friends in community service to help save lives from overdose. Ways to participate include: Assemble life-saving naloxone rescue kits, Send much needed supplies, Educate yourself and get naloxone, and/or Donate funds Join us and the NC Harm Reduction Coalition (NCHRC) for a hands-on, interactive opportunity to assemble life-saving naloxone rescue kits, and learn how to identify an opioid overdose and administer naloxone in an emergency.

SubCommittee 3 within the DPHS DEI Committee addresses the lack of knowledge on foundational DEI principles. This subcommittee focuses on organizing DEI educational offerings, including the DEI Foundational Series.

SubCommittee 4 within the DPHS DEI Committee clarifies the steps to report experiences or observations of microaggression or discrimination. This subcommittee has developed a Reporting Structures Infographic with live links to resources and a process to provide two-way feedback between supervisors and direct reports, faculty, and staff. This subcommittee has also started centralizing the DPHS DEI Committee's metrics and evaluation processes.

SubCommittee 5 within the DPHS DEI Committee addresses the integration of DEI principals into teaching and learning at DPHS. This work includes: integrating DEI principals into the admissions committee process, establishing the BRIDGE Program to link students from marginalized groups with DPHS faculty and training programs, conducting a gap analysis of the first-year Master's program curriculum and implementing study findings, creating resource lists, and offering trainings/orientations for trainees. 

The DEI Committee will be hosting three Roundtable Discussion Events following the topics of three of the DEI Foundational Trainings. SubCommittee #3 has created LMS Courses for each of the trainings which can be references ahead of each of the discussions.

The DEI Committee would like to invite you to a Virtual Happy Hour/Pride Musical Bingo event in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride month! We have curated a playlist of LGBTQ+ artists, spanning through the years and across different genres to test your knowledge of LGBTQ+ music. LGBTQ+ artists haven’t always been as visible as they are today, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t always there – and always a vital part of pop music and the cultural fabric, and we want to celebrate that and so much more with you! Join us on June 25, 2021, at 4:00 - 5:00pm.

One of DPHS' Master's students, Aikya Soni, presented a mixed-methods analysis of inclusive pedagogy. The presentation was created as part of the first-year population health sciences' curriculum. View Aikya's presentation.