We pledge:
To embrace the diversity of all individuals respecting such attributes as their sex, gender, race, ethnicity, age, class, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic status, religion, physical ability, mental ability and expression.
To strive toward social justice for all people in order to create and sustain a safer, more productive, and inclusive campus environment.
To refrain from using derogatory terms or statements that are harmful and disrespectful to others.
To not contribute to stereotypes or make generalizations about individuals.
To contribute to experiences and interactions to better understand and embrace all people.
To educate about cultures other than our own.
To engage in and contribute to the diverse campus and world around us.
To actively honor this pledge within our everyday life.
In addition to CODE Lab's commitment to diversity pledge, Dr. William Brown is Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the Bakar Computational Health Science Institute, which includes a budget for DEI programs and promotion. Dr. Brown also meets regularly with the Director of Faculty Diversity for the Department of Medicine, Dr. Meshell Johnson, to brainstorm ideas and share knowledge in an effort to improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented junior faculty at UCSF. As the Director of DEI he outlines three goals and 12 activities over the next two years towards improving DEI in informatics and data science at UCSF:
Work to measurably improve the number of URM BCHSIs faculty, trainees, and staff at UCSF
• Direct the strategic diversity presence and recruitment at one or two national and international conferences
- Establish a working group for underrepresented groups at AMIA (e.g., the African American Affinity group)
• Promote and inform current and new BCHSI faculty and staff to participate in DEI training, with support from BCHSI administrative team, as directed
• Track BCHSI faculty and staffs' DEI training and generate statistics and visualizations for reports, with support from BCHSI administrative team to collect these data, as directed
• Generate statistics and visualizations for reports pertaining to faculty DEI, with support from BCHSI administrative team to collect these data, as directed
- Number of underrepresented faculty, staff, trainees/lab members
• Develop and direct plans for retaining diverse faculty through faculty development, coaching, fostering community and support
Educate and support equity for URM BCHSI faculty, trainees, and staff
• Provide direction to BCHSI leadership team on issues of equity
Promote and support inclusion for URM BCHSI faculty and staff
• Keep BCHSI up to date on UCSF Differences Matters initiative, efforts, and opportunities
• Act as BCHSIs DEI liaison and representative for outside requests on DEI information
• Attend key meetings, both inside and outside BCHSI, that relate to improving DEI
• Establish and maintain strong links to key School of Medicine and Campus leaders in diversity (e.g., Meshell Johnson)
CODE Lab will grow by recruiting exceptional ethnically diverse trainees and mentees in biomedical informatics, mHealth, health disparities research, and community-based participatory research. Dr. Brown will help trainees and mentees, especially those underrepresented in academia and the field of biomedical informatics, to increase their academic output in both publications and grantsmanship. CODE Lab will also bring in biomedical informaticists from underrepresented communities to give seminars to faculty, staff, and students and provide inspiration in the biomedical and biotechnological fields to those from backgrounds that have little representation.
Dr. Brown's personal pledge is to continue to be dedicated to promoting diversity in his efforts to not only become an outstanding researcher and academic leader, but also an outstanding mentor for students, staff, faculty from underrepresented communities of color and LGBT populations, at UCSF.