The UCSF Department of Psychiatry Diversity Committee assists and informs department leadership in the recruitment and retention of students and faculty from underrepresented populations to better serve our diverse patient populations, with a member of the diversity committee serving on each search committee. 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 of Psychiatry 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.
Vice Chair for Diversity and Health Equity Christina Mangurian, MD, MAS, has chaired the committee since 2015, when it was combined with the then-San Francisco General Hospital Cultural Humility Task Force. Former chairs of the committee include Westley Clark, MD, JD, MPH; Patrick Reilly, PhD; and Patricia Areán, PhD.
Committee membership and task forces
The committee has diverse representation in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, campus location, and area of expertise (education, research, and clinical care). Its members work with the vice chair to implement the department's diversity action plan through task forces in the following areas:
- Recruitment and Retention - facilitates and supports the successful hiring of individuals from diverse backgrounds into positions at all levels of the department
- Education - facilitates, sponsors, and promotes diversity related programming to increase awareness of diversity among faculty, residents, interns, and staff in the department
- Research - encourages diversity among department researchers, as well as research to address important topics relating to the diversity of individuals in human populations
- Communication - disseminates information about department and university diversity efforts, news, and resources to department members
Interested in joining the Diversity Committee? Please contact Edwin Flores.
