Building a More Inclusive Community

Standing in front of the Allan Rosenfield Building on November 12, this prayer by Unitarian Universalist Minister Audette Fulbright Fulson was read aloud: “I know you wish the work were done and you with everyone you have ever loved were on a distant shore safe, and unafraid. But remember this, tired as you are: you are not alone…Together, we will break through and bend the arc of justice all the way down into our lives.”

Hearing these words were about 100 members of the Mailman School community, who braved rainy weather to show solidarity with students facing discrimination and racism at University of Missouri, Yale, and elsewhere. Together, they shared how they felt, offered advice and encouragement, and held a moment of silence for peers on campuses around the country.

December 4 marks the one-year anniversary of the student-led Emergency Open Forum to explore the Mailman School’s role in addressing institutional racism and violence with the knowledge and passion of public health. Sparked by nationwide protests in the wake of the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others at the hands of police, many in our community found themselves asking: where does public health belong in the conversation? A very honest discussion followed, sparking a year in which everyone from students to Dean Fried considered how to answer the question, organizing dialogues and debates, faculty trainings, and finally a new office to lead on the School’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

“A Watershed Moment”

For many faculty, including Amy Fairchild, professor of Sociomedical Sciences the forum was “a watershed moment.” As students shared experiences of micro-aggressions and spoke of the wish for an open dialogue in class to move beyond data and discuss the context, history, and systems behind health disparities, faculty members recognized the need for in-depth training to equip themselves with the skills to engage in difficult conversations inside and outside the classroom.

After the Forum, Dean Linda P. Fried met with the student organizers of the event, a group known as CAS*, to frame the role of public health in the national conversation. Over winter break, Dean Fried invited these students to conduct a literature review of public health research and fieldwork that addressed race-related violence and police brutality. In their research, CAS* found disappointingly few results, illustrating a need for the discipline to step up and do more.

Self-Awareness Begins at Orientation

Talking about privilege, power, and identity starts at Orientation with the Self, Social, and Global Awareness (SSGA) training. Launched in 2012, SSGA is designed to encourage Mailman students to consider and discuss these and related issues, contemplate strategies to increase inclusiveness, and emerge with a heightened sense of cultural awareness and humility. The program’s co-leaders, Linda Cushman, associate dean for Field Practice and professor of Population and Family Health, and Marlyn Delva, associate dean of Student Affairs, together with members of their departments, had the tough job of building a training series for students with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences—some had never been exposed to these issues, others had led their own race and identity workshops. 

Over the last four years, SSGA has responded to student feedback by adapting exercises, agendas, follow-up activities, and more. At the same time, it became increasingly clear that SSGA needed to grow into something more holistic.

“We heard year in, year out, that a school that would invest in exposing students to something like SSGA during the second day of orientation speaks to a commitment on these issues,” says Delva. “But it can’t be the end of the conversation. It has to be tied to all the other learning that’s happening throughout the program, throughout the curriculum.”

Last year, the tragic events in Ferguson, Staten Island, and elsewhere served as a catalyst—inspiring action, driving new conversations, and renewing attention in existing programs like SSGA. “SSGA took on new life, gained new importance, got new attention,” says Cushman. “We were all thinking about how SSGA could be strengthened and expanded, include more student input, be more related to what’s happening in the world, and have more relevance beyond orientation.”

SSGA Expands and Inspires

The SSGA program has now expanded beyond MPH students: MS and doctoral students now go through the training as well. Faculty members, recognizing the uniquely powerful and privileged position they hold in the classroom, are also being introduced to SSGA, fulfilling a mandate from Dean Fried to train every Mailman School professor by 2017.

With fellow Integration of Science and Practice faculty members, Fairchild recently participated in micro-aggression awareness training organized by Lisa Bates, assistant professor of Epidemiology, including a role-playing exercise where professors and students reenacted real-life classroom situations—for instance, scenarios where students felt uncomfortable or offended by statements made by a student or faculty member, or part of a presentation.

“Our first instinct is to intellectualize a situation, [while] the point of the trainings is to open ourselves up to stepping in, instead of stepping around, difficult conversations,” says Fairchild. “Role-playing helped put us in the moment, to react in the moment, and to understand how it feels to feel uncomfortable in the classroom, so we have the capacity to handle it and engage [in conversations] in the future.”

As SSGA expands and additional in-depth trainings are organized for more departments and more faculty members, students like Aswini Periyasamy, MPH ’16, are starting to see change in their classrooms.  

“In my current class with Professor Bates, I definitely have seen a new opening for engaging with these topics and with others, such as micro-aggressions, respectfully and honestly,” says Periyasamy. “Other faculty like Professors Fairchild and [Merlin] Chowkwanyun have made their interactions with students like me feel really open and respectful.” And the Epidemiology department’s new micro-aggression training, she adds, has made her Social Epidemiology class “a really engaging and safe space.”

An Odyssey Toward Change

For some, progress has been harder to see. As Anjoli Anand, MPH ’16, points out, there isn’t “a dedicated space or forum for students to come together and plan a response [to national events and issues faced on campus] or share experiences.” On this, Linda Cushman says, students, faculty, and Dean Fried are all in agreement: “We need an office in this School whose sole mission is to work on issues of diversity, inclusiveness, and cultural humility and awareness.” This mission will be the charge of a brand new office at the school: the Office of Diversity, Culture, and Inclusion.

Referred to as ODCI—an acronym pronounced “odyssey”—the office will organize trainings and forums, find ways to engage with the broader community, and aim to be a space for individuals to go when they need to talk to someone or with each other. Right now, staff and faculty members are working diligently to get ODCI off the ground—starting with finding the right people to lead its work. As of publishing, ODCI job descriptions have been written and a task force is now looking for dedicated leadership.

“It’s very unusual for something like ODCI to be attempted by a school of public health,” says Roger Vaughan, vice dean for Academic Advancement and professor of Biostatistics, who is leading the initial planning. “The irony is that our field holds diversity, culture, and inclusion as important values, but rarely puts an institutional frame around them. I’m excited by the prospects of doing so at Mailman, where the potential is limitless.”

Change takes time, commitment, open minds, and lots and lots of practice. As faculty and staff adapt existing programs and create new initiatives, student leaders are playing a vital role in driving progress and holding their peers, professors, and the administration accountable. Minister Fulson’s words ring true here at Mailman: tired as we are, we are not alone—people across the community are working together to help make the School a more inclusive, better place for everyone.