We are committed to:

• Fostering an inclusive departmental climate and community that prioritizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across all dimensions of diversity
• Teaching a curriculum that devotes attention to issues of social justice and health equity, and holds health as a human right
• Upholding the engagement of diverse communities as partners in research.

As a department we aspire to meet these commitments through:

• Intentionally building a diverse community of faculty, staff, trainees, and students
• Providing person-centered mentoring of students, faculty, and trainees 
• Providing equitable and transparent processes for promoting faculty and evaluating their contributions
• Encouraging direct, compassionate, and inclusive speech
• Providing opportunities for active discussion of implicit biases and microaggressions
• Continuously evaluating our courses and departmental seminars to ensure seminal and evolving content around anti-Black racism, structural racism, health equity, and community engagement
• Supporting research that explicitly addresses the impact of racism, sexism, ableism, and other systems of oppression and inequality in society and health.

The Department regularly evaluates our progress towards meeting these commitments and maintains systems for holding ourselves accountable for failures to do so. These include regular climate assessments and listening sessions, conducted by our BSS Department Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (D-DIAP) Committee. Any BSS student or faculty member can raise issues or provide feedback to the BSS D-DIAP using this anonymous form: https://forms.gle/73VxXTJWpP4sifZu7. BSS department administrative staff (i.e., Linda Angela) is monitoring activity in this form and regularly reports any new entries to the D-DIAP chairs.

Learn more about DEI at Brown SPH