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UMass Chan Medical School •

2024 Diversity Summit speakers to help reignite collective passion for diversity, equity and inclusion

The Diversity and Inclusion Office at UMass Chan Medical School has opened registration for its annual Diversity Summit to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 30, in the Faculty Conference Room of the Medical School building, with a virtual option from 10 a.m. to noon. for those unable to attend the event in person.
The program will begin with a poster session where members of the UMass Chan community will present the transformative work they are doing related to diversity, equit...
UMass Chan Medical School •

‘A Day in the Life of an OB-GYN’ event sparks ideas for cross-departmental collaborations and community outreach

Organizers of the “Day in the Life of an OB-GYN” event for local high school students hope it will become a catalyst for inspiring young people to pursue future careers in STEM.
Organized by the UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, with support from a generous donation from the Schwartz Charitable Foundation, the event on July 22 invited students from the Eureka! program at Girls Inc. to shadow OB-GYNs.
“The OB-GYN department is...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Annual lecture at UMass Chan addresses racism in health care; calls for commitment to dismantle it

This year’s annual Steven Putterman Lecture, organized by UMass Chan Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, “Moving Towards Health Equity: Why Anti-racism Must Be a Core Value in Medicine,” was presented on Sept. 21 by J. Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH.
Dr. Olayiwola, who serves as chief health equity officer and senior vice president for Humana, Inc., said racism is a public health crisis that has been upheld by structural detriments. She shared strategies and tools to co...
UMass Chan Medical School •

At Second Look Day, presence and intentionality connect students to UMass Chan

From April 3 to 5, students accepted to the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2028 were invited to participate in Second Look Days at UMass Chan Medical School. The event gives accepted medical students an opportunity to gauge what studying at UMass Chan and living in the city of Worcester is like. The event included detailed informational sessions on the MD/PhD program, the new UMass Chan-Lahey track at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, called LEAD@Lahey—for lead, empower, ad...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Deborah Harmon Hines, PhD, Graduation Celebration celebrates successes of students underrepresented in medicine

The second annual Deborah Harmon Hines, PhD, Commencement Celebration took place on Friday, May 31. Organized by the UMass Chan chapter of White Coats for Black Lives and the Diversity and Inclusion Office, the event honored graduating UMass Chan Medical School students of color from the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences by presenting them with Kente and multicultural stoles to wear at the 51st Com...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Department of Dermatology uses evaluation and mentorship to lean into diversity, equity and inclusion work

As UMass Chan Medical School continues to pursue a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community, robust approaches such as evaluating and improving departmental practices and building transformative relationships through mentorship are proving to have an impact as demonstrated through the work of the Department of Dermatology.  
Faculty, staff and students have worked together to make progress, such as the capstone project by a recently graduated medical student focused on diversifying the sk...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Diversity, equity and inclusion pillar added to UMass Chan strategic plan

UMass Chan Medical School has added a diversity, equity and inclusion pillar to its IMPACT 2025 Strategic Plan.
“When we created IMPACT 2025, diversity, equity and inclusion was intentionally incorporated into each of the five pillars as a reflection of our belief that DEI must be woven into and considered in everything that we do. However, we have come to recognize that targeted refinements can be extremely beneficial,” said Chancellor Michael F. Collins.
IMPACT 2025 was launched two years ago...
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA •

Faith Lens: Personal faith is political — Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA

Janjay Innis, Tucker, GAWarm-up QuestionsPersonal Faith Is PoliticalAccording to Wikipedia, politics, from the Greek politika (“affairs of the city”), is the set of activities associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. It’s jarring to see such a definition because politics is currently far from what it was intended to be.At home we see the political parties in the United States determined to te...
Medium •

How Black Panther’s “Wakanda”Could be an Impetus for the Black Diaspora Embrace of Africa.

In the wake of some of the most tragic modern day lynchings of Black bodies and the acquittal of their White police perpetrators, the Black Lives Matter movement took root and spread its branches around the world. Thanks to social media, we got to witness how the movement gave voice, support and strength to black people outside the United States as they sought to confront and dismantle white supremacy in all its various stifling forms.Similarly, as I’ve witnessed and participated in the hype ove...
Medium •

How I’m Seeing the World with Very Little and How You Can Too.

How I’m Seeing the World with Very Little and How You Can Too.When I was a kid well into my adulthood, my dad traveled a great deal as a global church leader . While I hated that my dad was always gone, I loved the treasures and stories dad brought back upon his return. When we developed the film from dad’s travel camera, I would gaze at each picture a bit longer than normal, letting my imagination take me where he’d been.My desire to travel peaked in college when opportunities to study abroad w...
Medium •

Motherhood: A Fresh Outlook on ‘Doing the Work’ for a Better World

Once upon a time, I was a frontline activist. If I wasn’t organizing a protest, I was planning to be at one. If I wasn’t using social media to express my frustration with the unjust systems that have kept underrepresented groups marginalized, I was strategizing with like minded change-makers to dismantle those systems. For much of my young adult life, frontline activism through the lens of faith defined me and was the only way I believed I could make a difference. However, my ideas about the par...
UMass Chan Medical School •

National experts in academic medicine discuss Diversity Engagement Survey created at UMass Chan with AAMC

The Diversity and Inclusion Office featured the second of a three-part speaker series on Tuesday, Oct. 25, about the Diversity Engagement Survey developed by UMass Chan Medical School in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges to measure academic medical center diversity engagement and inclusion. The event, “Conversations in Designing and Implementing Data Informed Strategic Plans and Accountability Measures,” included a panel of diversity and inclusion professionals from...
UMass Chan Medical School •

New assistant director for equity, inclusion and campus climate aims to nurture a culture of belonging

As the new assistant director for equity, inclusion and campus climate in the Diversity and Inclusion Office, Jeanna Lee, PhD, will use her experience in clinical psychology, cultural sensitivity and working with marginalized communities to work to improve equity and inclusion at UMass Chan Medical School.
“While teaching graduate learners in psychology and medicine here at UMass Chan, I brought a lens of cultural sensitivity to patient encounters, diagnostic formulation and treatment interventi...
Medium •

On the Terror Attack in Somalia and the West’s Selective Global Solidarity .

On October 15th, Al-Shabaab, a militant group carried out a deadly terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia where approximately 358 lives were lost and the death toll is likely to rise when the severely injured are not able to recover from their injuries.In the hours and days following the attack, I saw an absence of collective global solidarity in the form of Facebook banners, tweets about thoughts and prayers going to the victims. There were hardly any breaking news coverage and certainly no pre...
Medium •

‘Platanos and Collard Greens’ and other Hispanic and Black Combos.

When the news of the Trump administration’s cruel family separation policy became national news; as one always ready to advocate for a just world for marginal people, I took to social media to see how activists, particularly Black activists were talking about and responding so that I could find ways to plug in. To my delight, I found many Black activists speaking truth to power using various platforms. In fact, as I worked on this piece, a Black woman, Bree Newsome, was being asked to come down...
Medium •

Reflections on Afro-Asian Encounters

I count it a blessing to have grown up with 1st generation Asian-American women who are practically like sisters to me. Particularly from Vietnam and Cambodia, my friends were very American and yet very Asian. When I went to their homes, I left my shoes at the door, and we spent many weekends together having noodle soup, fried rice, making and consuming fresh spring rolls, all while having typical teenage talk about who liked whom in high school.Outside of those personal relationships, I interac...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Samara Vilca receives NIH D-SPAN award to further independent neuroscience research

Postdoctoral fellow Samara Vilca, PhD, has been awarded the second phase of the National Institutes of Health Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award.
Dr. Vilca is studying molecular rhythms in microglia in substance use disorders in the lab of Ryan Logan, PhD, professor of psychiatry and neurobiology.
The D-SPAN Award supports a defined pathway across career stages for outstanding graduate students from diverse...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Speakers explain impact of U.S. Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in admissions

During a May 17 Centering the Margins event organized by the Diversity and Inclusion Office, Renée M. Landers, JD, professor of law and faculty director, Suffolk University Law School, explained the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC cases, which ruled that the use of race in admissions was not consistent with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment.
“In the decision, Chief Justice Roberts famously intoned that eliminatin...
Medium •

Surrendering to Grief : My Journey to Motherhood

Surrendering to Grief : My Journey to MotherhoodTwo months into the pandemic lockdown, we bought a house. Soon after, we found out we were expecting. My husband, trying to navigate his life in a new country and I, still fairly new at my job and trying to establish myself, were not ready. After pondering our new reality, I looked at my husband and said “Well, we have room.” “We do”, he replied. With physical room in our new home and room in our hearts to love, I welcomed the miracle taking place...
United Women in Faith •

Third Sunday of Advent | United Women in Faith

by Janjay Innis



The Lord, your God, is in your midst,    a warrior who gives victory;he will rejoice over you with gladness;    he will renew you in his love;he will exult over you with loud singing    as on a day of festival.
—Zephaniah 3:17–18a


I am bicultural. I was born and have spent more than half of my life in the United States, but my ethnicity is Liberian, West African, and I had the privilege of spending my early formative childhood years there. One thing I love about my Liberia...
theorymeetspractice •

Together, we will get there (…and this is not a personal thing)

Lately, as I’ve been spending time on social media spreading information about the ways people can assist in eradicating the Ebola Virus that has wreaked havoc on four West African countries, I’ve felt equally responsible to share information on systemic racism and white privilege which has always been the leading factor in the death of black people at the hands of white law enforcers —as is evident the case of the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager by officer Darren Wilson-and...
UMass Chan Medical School •

UMass Medical School holds first Learners of Color Orientation

The Diversity and Inclusion Office, with support from UMass Medical School student leaders, hosted the first Learners of Color Orientation on Friday, Aug. 27, and Saturday, Aug. 28. Students from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Graduate School of Nursing and School of Medicine attended the event, which included a mixer Friday night at Mezcal Cantina in Worcester for students to get to know one another and a series of workshops on Saturday.
“It was so wonderful to see that there was a...
theorymeetspractice •

Understanding “Both And” Activism and Finding your Place in it.

A Local Photographer and her Daughter at “The Art of Justice” and evening of art and organizing.
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The death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both black men whose lives were claimed by white police officers, sparked a national social movement to bring attention to the ever pervasive problem of racism in America that is currently nurtured by systemic policies. The movement which became popular due to the power of social media lay bare before...
UMass Chan Medical School •

Understanding the need for equity and inclusion in medicine for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities

In 1979, Congress declared Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Week in May and 11 years later expanded it to a month-long celebration. Like other months that uplift ethnic groups and their rich cultural heritage, this month celebrates the ways Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have enriched the fabric of the United States.   

Celebrations, however, are incomplete without reflection and as we embark onthis year’s celebration, we should acknowledge negative stereotypes and misconcept...
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