Commitment to Diversity and Health Equity

Twelve people placing their hands together in the center of a circle

The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Diversity Committee assists department leadership in identifying areas of opportunity to promote diversity and health equity across all Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences sites. The committee sponsors and selects the recipient of the annual Evelyn Lee Visiting Scholar Lectureship in Cultural Competence and Diversity, and also holds a department-wide Diversity Celebration each summer.

The committee began its work in 1991, when the department formed the Committee on Ethnic, Cultural and Gender Diversity (renaming it as the Diversity Committee in 1994) with the goal of furthering the culture of diversity, equity and inclusion within the psychiatry. Specifically, the committee was charged with the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff, and trainees, as well as furthering education to understand the impact culture has on psychiatric presentation. In 2015, it was merged with the then-San Francisco General Hospital Cultural Humility Task Force to form a single department-wide body focused on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Vice Chair for Diversity and Health Equity Will Martinez, PhD, has chaired the committee since July 2024. Former chairs of the committee include Michelle Porche, EdDChristina Mangurian, MD, MASWestley Clark, MD, JD, MPH; Patrick Reilly, PhD; and Patricia Areán, PhD.

Further information about the committee's work is available to department faculty, staff, and trainees on the DPBS Intranet site.