To help the academic community address the challenges of racism, social injustice, and inequities in diversity and inclusion, the APS will be hosting a series of Town Hall Forums entitled, “At the Intersection of Equity, Science and Social Justice”. This series will help identify critical issues regarding the roles and approaches of academic medicine to develop more successful strategies to achieve our goals of improving child health by developing more expansive approaches in medical education, training, research and clinical care.
Episode 1 – Promotion of URM Leadership in Academic Medicine: Effective Mentorship, Sponsorship and Coaching Strategies
December 14, 2020 – 4 pm CT
Panel Members: Jean Raphael, Glenn Flores and Tina Cheng
Despite large-scale initiatives to promote workforce diversity in academic pediatrics, the current state of those underrepresented in medicine (URiM) reflects marginal improvements in some areas and clear regression in others. Historically, efforts to improve diversity have primarily focused on mentorship. However sponsorship and coaching also offer powerful relationships that can be leveraged to support URiM. We will discuss the role of institutional leadership in developing best practices and outcome metrics for mentorship, sponsorship, and coaching of URiM.
Episode 2 – Challenges and Opportunities for the Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Learners in Academic Medicine
January 11, 2021 – 4 pm CT
Panel Members: Tamera Coyne-Beasley, Clifford Bogue, Marietta Vazquez and Leslie Walker-Harding
Academic medicine represents a unique and necessary platform from which to address professional and societal inequities.
This Town Hall will discuss undergraduate medical education and postgraduate medical education’s responsibility and challenge to systematically identify and eliminate bias and racism in medical education. We will also discuss how increased diversity in medical learners and greater inclusion of URiM faculty will help to improve medical education content and opportunities for learners.
Episode 3 – Organizational Solutions: Calling the Question
February 8, 2021 – 4 pm CT
Panel Members: DeWayne Pursley, Tamera Coyne-Beasley and Gary Freed
No health care or professional organization is immune to the harms of racism. Addressing structural bias and inequity at the organizational level requires authenticity, committed leadership, and transparent acknowledgement of transgressions both past and present. In this Town Hall, we will discuss opportunities for organizational change and the difficult work to ensure that it is sustained.
Episode 4 – Racism as a Public Health Issue
March 8, 2021 – 4 pm CT
Panel Members: Leslie Walker-Harding, James Jarvis, Lee Pachter and Joseph Wright
The social unrest of the past several months highlights the importance of ensuring that science and fact-based objectivity align with the public discourse. A deepening body of literature makes clear the historical association of bias, discrimination, and injustice on Black, indigenous, and people of color and the deleterious impact experiences of racism can have on healthy child development. This discussion focuses on recent and rooted evidence defining racism as a public health issue.